In 1992, two months after his 22nd birthday, Cordell was en route to his first professional audition when an accident changed his life forever. Only a mile and a half away from home, his Jeep was t-boned and flipped, and Cordell was ejected from his vehicle, hitting a telephone pole that crushed his spinal cord. The accident left him paralyzed from his mid-chest down. At 42, Cordell focused on a different kind of role. He set out to roll across the United States in a standard, manual wheelchair.