Lance Henriksen Biography

Lance James Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium. He is also a voice actor with his deep commanding voice.

Early life

Henriksen was born in New York City. His father, James Marin Henriksen (born in Tønsberg in 1910), was a Norwegian merchant sailor and boxer nicknamed "Icewater" who spent most of his life at sea. His mother, Margueritte Werner, struggled to find work as a dance instructor, waitress, and model. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and he was raised by his mother. As he grew up, Henriksen found himself in trouble at various schools and even saw the inside of a children's home. Henriksen left home and dropped out of school at the age of twelve; he would not learn to read until he was 30, when he taught himself by studying film scripts.

Career

Henriksen's first job in the theater world was as a designer of theatrical sets; in fact, he received his first role because he built the set for the production. In his early 30s, Henriksen graduated from the prestigious Actors Studio and began acting in New York City. In film, he first appeared in It Ain't Easy in 1972. Henriksen went on to portray a variety of supporting roles in noteworthy genre films such as Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Damien: Omen II (1978). He also portrayed astronaut Walter Schirra in The Right Stuff (1983) and actor Charles Bronson in the 1991 TV-movie Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (1991).

When James Cameron was writing the movie The Terminator (1984), he had originally envisioned Henriksen, whom he had worked with on Piranha II: The Spawning, playing the title role. Cameron went so far as to paint a picture of the Terminator using Henriksen's face. Regardless, the role ultimately went to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Henriksen did appear in the film, albeit in the minor role of Detective Hal Vukovich. Henriksen is perhaps best known for portraying the android Bishop, an artificial life-form, in Aliens (1986, another Cameron film) and Alien 3 (1992). He would go on to play Charles Bishop Weyland, the man Bishop's appearance was based on, in Alien vs. Predator (2004). After his appearance in AvP, Henriksen joined Bill Paxton as the only actor to be killed by an Alien, a Predator, and a Terminator.

Hard Target (1993) is one of Henriksen's favorite films. He especially enjoyed working with director John Woo, saying "He let me do some real work as an actor. 'No' never came out of his mouth: it was always 'What could this be?' He's one of the greatest directors ever: gentle, communicative and supportive. He caught everything that was important to me as an actor on film and oddly enough used the lot. The times I've seen my work and gone 'Jesus, they cut the behaviour, the motivation, the only reason I made the movie in the first place.' Not John. All my major scenes are intact." That film was also notable for a scene in which Henriksen was accidentally engulfed in flames, as a stunt double was not used. Although surprised, the film crew let the cameras keep rolling so that the incident became part of the final cut. Henriksen later commented, "My training makes me fight until the very last cell in my body collapses with exhaustion. I competed with Van Damme using tremendous will against his iron strength. I held my ground pretty well although I didn't really like him until we came to reshoot the ending to give it a higher octane finish." Reviewer Neil H. Jones stated that this film showed "Henriksen at his best. Henriksen's deep voice waxes eloquently to an unknowing [sic] victim of the hunt, Elijah Roper (Willie Carpenter): "Think of what this $10,000 can do for you (if you reach the river alive). You can have respect, you can restore yourself to dignity rather than the shadow of a man who used to be." Lance exudes confidence, intellect, and talent whether playing Beethoven on the piano or firing his Thompson-Contender handgun at Chance. His acting is so convincing, you would not want his steel-cold eyes to glance your way. If you like Lance, you'll love Hard Target." Henriksen portrayed Gunfighters in westerns Dead Man and The Quick And The Dead and appeared alongside British actor Bruce Payne in Aurora: Operation Intercept in 1995. He would appear alongside Payne again in Face the Evil in 1997 and the dystopian classic Paranoia 1.0 in 2004. That same year, he played the role of Sheriff Doug Barnum in the controversial film Powder.

In 1996, Henriksen starred in the television series Millennium, created and produced by Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files. Henriksen played Frank Black, a former FBI agent who possessed a unique ability to see into the minds of killers. Carter created the role specifically for the actor. Henriksen's performances on Millennium earned him critical acclaim, a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite New Male TV Star, and three consecutive Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series (1997"1999). The series was cancelled in 1999. Henriksen's daughter, Alcamy, appears uncredited in an episode of Millennium. He later moved to the state of Hawaii with his wife Jane Pollack and their daughter Sage Ariel.

No less than three prominent franchise roles have been written specifically for Henriksen, though he would only star in one of them. James Cameron wrote The Terminator (1984) hoping Henriksen would play the title character. Chris Carter created Millennium (1996) specifically for Henriksen, then convinced him to become hero Frank Black. Lastly, Victor Salva wrote Jeepers Creepers (2001) with Henriksen in mind for the role of the Creeper.

On television, Henriksen appeared in the ensemble of Into the West (2005), a miniseries executive-produced by Steven Spielberg. He has also recently appeared in a Brazilian soap opera, Caminhos do Coração (Ways of the Heart) from Rede Record. Henriksen guest-starred on a Season 6 episode of NCIS (2009) playing an Arizona sheriff.

In the years after Millennium, Henriksen has become an active voice actor, lending his distinctive voice to a number of animated features and video game titles. In Disney's Tarzan (1999) and its direct-to-video midquel Henriksen is Kerchak, the ape who serves as Tarzan's surrogate father. He provided the voice for the alien supervillain Brainiac in Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006). He voiced the character Mulciber in Godkiller for HALO 8 Entertainment in 2009. Henriksen is the voice of the character Molov in the video game Red Faction II (2002), which was developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ, and has also contributed to GUN (2005), Run Like Hell (2002), the canceled title Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2004), and BioWare's role-playing game Mass Effect (2007) as Admiral Hackett of the Human Systems Alliance. Henriksen was also the voice behind PlayStation 3's internet promotional videos. In 2005, Henriksen was the voice of Andrei Rublev in Cartoon Network's IGPX. Currently, the actor is lending his voice to the animated television series Transformers: Animated as the character Lockdown. In 2009, Henriksen voiced Lieutenant General Shepherd in the award-winning game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He would later voice Karl Bishop Weyland in Aliens vs. Predator; also, this character's appearance resembles Henriksen's. Henriksen voiced Master Gnost-Dural in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and he also reprised his role as Admiral Hackett in Mass Effect 3. He is also the narrator of the recent Verizon Droid commercials. Recently, Henriksen reprised his role as Bishop in Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Henriksen maintains a prominent role in live action television. He has starred in a 2003 series of Australian television commercials for Visa, titled Unexplained (about the raining of fish from the sky over Norfolk) and Big Cats (about the Beast of Bodmin Moor). In these commercials, Henriksen speaks as a Frank Black-type character about these phenomena as Mark Snow-inspired mysterious music plays in the background, as a link to Henriksen's former series, Millennium. Unexplained went on to a gold world medal at the 2004 New York Festivals.

In addition to his television and voice acting work, Henriksen continues to be active in film. He made a cameo appearance in the 2009 horror comedy Jennifer's Body, and starred in the After Dark Horrorfest film, Scream of the Banshee, released in 2011. He played Henry Gale in Leigh Scott's The Witches of Oz. It has been announced that Henriksen will star in Frost Road, the directorial debut of video game director Keith Arem.

Personal life

Henriksen married Mary Jane Evans in 1985, and they had one child, Alcamy Henriksen (born 1987). They divorced in 1989. Henriksen married Jane Pollack in 1995, with whom he had a child, Sage Ariel Henriksen (born 1999). They divorced in 2006.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1961	The Outsider	U.S. Marine	Uncredited
1975	Dog Day Afternoon	Murphy
1976	Network	Network lawyer at Khan's place
1976	The Next Man	Federal Security
1977	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Robert
1978	Damien: Omen II	Sergeant Neff
1979	The Visitor	Raymond Armstead
1981	Piranha II: The Spawning	Police Chief Steve Kimbrough
1981	Prince of the City	D.A. Burano
1983	Blood Feud	Mel Pierce	TV film
1983	Nightmares	MacLeod
1983	The Right Stuff	Wally Schirra
1984	The Terminator	Detective Hal Vukovich
1985	Jagged Edge	Frank Martin
1985	Savage Dawn	Stryker
1986	Aliens	Bishop
1986	Choke Canyon	Brook Alastair
1987	Near Dark	Jesse Hooker
1988	Pumpkinhead	Ed Harley
1989	House III: The Horror Show	Detective Lucas McCarthy
1989	Survival Quest	Hank
1989	Johnny Handsome	Rafe Garrett
1989	Hit List	Chris Caleek
1990	The Pit and the Pendulum	Torquemada
1991	Stone Cold	Chains Cooper
1992	Jennifer 8	Sgt. Freddy Ross
1992	Alien 3	Bishop/Bishop II
1992	Delta Heat	Jackson Rivers
1993	Excessive Force	Devlin
1993	Super Mario Bros.	The King	Cameo appearance
1993	Man's Best Friend	Dr. Jarret
1993	Hard Target	Emil Fouchon
1993	Knights	Job
1994	No Escape	The Father
1994	Color of Night	Buck
1994	Boulevard	McClaren
1994	Felony	Taft
1995	Aurora: Operation Intercept	William Stenghel
1995	The Quick and the Dead	Ace Hanlon
1995	Dead Man	Cole Wilson
1995	Powder	Sheriff Doug Barnum
1995	Mind Ripper	Stockton	a.k.a. The Outpost
1995	The Nature of the Beast	Jack Powell
1996	Dusting Cliff 7	Colonel Roger McBride	a.k.a. Last Assassins
1997	Gunfighter's Moon	Frank Morgan
1997	No Contest II	Eric Dane / Erich Dengler
1998	The Day Lincoln Was Shot	Abraham Lincoln	TV film
1999	Tarzan	Kerchak	Voice
2000	Scream 3	John Milton
2001	Lost Voyage	David Shaw	TV film
2001	The Mangler 2	Headmaster Bradeen
2002	The Untold	Harlan Knowles	a.k.a. Sasquatch
2003	Antibody	Dr. Richard Gaynes
2003	Mimic: Sentinel	Garbageman
2004	Modigliani	Foster Kane
2004	Madhouse	Dr. Franks
2004	Alien vs. Predator	Charles Bishop Weyland
2004	Starkweather	The Mentor
2004	Paranoia 1.0	Howard	a.k.a. One Point O
2005	Into the West	Daniel Wheeler	TV mini-series
2005	Tarzan II	Kerchak	Voice
2005	Supernova	Colonel Harlan Williams	TV film
2005	Hellraiser: Hellworld	The Host
2006	When a Stranger Calls	voice of the Stranger
2006	The Garden	Ben Zachary
2006	Abominable	Ziegler Dane
2006	Sasquatch Mountain	Chase Jackson
2006	The Da Vinci Treasure	Dr. John Coven
2006	Superman: Brainiac Attacks	Brainiac	Voice
2006	Pirates of Treasure Island	Long John Silver
2006	Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes	Ed Harley	TV film
2007	Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud	Ed Harley	TV film
2007	Bone Dry	Jimmy
2007	In the Spider's Web	Dr. Lecorpus	TV film
2007	The Chosen One	Cardinal Fred (voice)
2008	Deadwater	Col. John Willets	a.k.a. Black Ops
2008	Dying God	Chance
2008	Dark Reel	Connor Pritchett
2008	Appaloosa	Ring Shelton
2008	Necessary Evil	Dr. Fibrian
2008	Pistol Whipped	The Old Man	direct-to-video
2008	Prairie Fever	Monte James	direct-to-video
2008	Alone in the Dark II	Abner Lundbert	direct-to-video
2008	Ladies of the House	Frank	TV film
2009	Screamers: The Hunting	Orsow	direct-to-video
2009	The Slammin' Salmon	Dick Lobo
2009	The Seamstress	Sheriff Virgil Logan
2009	The Lost Tribe	Gallo
2009	Jennifer's Body	Passing Motorist
2010	Cyrus	Emmett
2010	The Genesis Code	Dr. Hoffer
2010	Godkiller	Mulciber	Voice
2010	Scream of the Banshee	Broderick Duncan
2010	Good Day for It	Lyle Tyrus
2010	The Witches of Oz	Henry Gale
2011	Beautiful Wave	Jimmy
2012	The Arcadian	Father Reed

Television

• B.A.D. Cats (1980) - Timothy
• Ryan's Hope (1980) - Preston Post
• Cagney & Lacey (1983) - Johnny 'Nose'
• Hardcastle and McCormick (1983) - Deseau
• The A-Team (1984) - Mack Dalton
• Riptide (1984) - John McMasters
• Legmen (1984) - Finch
• Cagney & Lacey (1984) - Sgt. King
• Hardcastle and McCormick (1984) - Josh Fulton
• Beauty and the Beast (1989) - Snow
• Tales from the Crypt (1990) - Reno Crevice
• Tales from the Crypt (1991) - Sergeant Ripper
• Millennium (1996"1999) - Frank Black
• The X-Files (1999) - Frank Black
• Harsh Realm (1999) - General
• The Legend of Tarzan (2001) - voice of Kerchack
• Static Shock (2004) - voice of Kobra Leader
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (2005) - voice of Mobius Quint
• IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix (2005) - voice of Andrei Rublev
• Caminhos do Coração (2007) - Dr. Walker
• DEA (2008) - Narrator
• Transformers: Animated (2008"2009) - voice of Lockdown
• NCIS (2009) - Sheriff Clay Boyd
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010) - voice of Grim Reaper
• Castle (2010) - Benny Stryker
• Memphis Beat (2011) - Tom Harrison
• Tron: Uprising (2012) - voice of Tesler
• The Legend of Korra (2012) - voice of The Lieutenant
• Hannibal (2013) - Lawrence Wells

Video games

• Run Like Hell (2002) - Nick Conner (voice)
• Red Faction II (2002) - Molov (voice)
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2002"2004) - Abaddon (voice)
• Gun (2005) - Thomas MacGruder (voice)
• Transformers Animated (2008) - Lockdown (voice)
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2009) - Max Dacher (voice)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) - General Shepherd (voice)
• Aliens vs. Predator (2010) - Karl Bishop Weyland (voice and likeness)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011) - Jedi Master Gnost-Dural (voice)
• Mass Effect (2007) - Admiral Steven Hackett (voice)
• Mass Effect 2: 'Arrival' (2011) - Admiral Steven Hackett (voice)
• Mass Effect 3 (2012) - Admiral Steven Hackett (voice)
• Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013) - Bishop/Michael Weyland (Younger likeness and voice)
• Metro: Last Light (2013) (Voice)

Promotional Videos

• To Hell You Ride (Motion-Comic Video from Dark Horse Comics) (2012) - Lance Henriksen and Joseph Maddrey (co-authors), Tom Mandrake (artist), Lance Henriksen (narrator), TKU: Tecamachalco Underground (Cesar Gallegos/Mateo Latosa) (musical score)

Books

Autobiography

• Not Bad for a Human - The Life and Films of Lance Henriksen - Lance Henriksen with co-author Joseph Maddrey, published in 2011 by Bloody Pulp Books, featuring art by Bill Sienkiewicz, Mike Mignola, Tom Mandrake, Tim Bradstreet, Eric Powell and Ashley Wood.

Comic Books

• To Hell You Ride (5-issue comic book from Dark Horse Comics) (2012) - Lance Henriksen and Joseph Maddrey (co-authors) with Tom Mandrake (artist)