Lance Henriksen

 ( 1940 Births ) 

Henriksen's first film appearance was in The Outsider in 1961, as an uncredited extra. He received his first credit in his second film, 1972's It Ain't Easy. He auditioned for the role of Elizabeth Eden in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), but received the smaller part of an FBI agent that kills John Cazale's character. He would appear in two more films directed by Sidney Lumet: Network (1976) and Prince of the City (1981). In a 2009 interview, Henriksen called Lumet "the kind of guy that loves New York actors, because that's where he works and that's what he knows....He would give you the job that was maybe only meant for four days, and he'd give you the run of the show because he wanted to help support young actors in New York."

Henriksen had supporting roles in a variety of films, including the science-fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and the horror film Damien - Omen II (1978). He also had a co-starring role in the low-budget horror film Mansion of the Doomed (1976). He played Police Chief Steve Kimbrough in (1982), the astronaut Walter Schirra in The Right Stuff (1983), actor Charles Bronson in the television film Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (1991), and a cameo appearance as The King in Super Mario Bros. (1993).

When James Cameron was writing The Terminator (1984), he originally envisioned Henriksen, with whom he had worked on Piranha II, as playing the title role, a cyborg. The role ultimately went to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Henriksen does appear in the film as Hal Vukovich, a Detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. Henriksen played the android Bishop in Cameron's film Aliens (1986), and as Bishop's designer Michael Weyland in Alien 3 (1992). He also played Charles Bishop Weyland, the man upon whom Bishop was based, in Alien vs. Predator (2004). Bill Paxton and Henriksen are the only actors whose characters were killed by the Terminator, the Xenomorph, and the Predator. He played the vampire leader Jesse Hooker in Kathryn Bigelow's cult film Near Dark.

He portrayed gunfighters in the Westerns Dead Man and The Quick and the Dead, and appeared with British actor Bruce Payne in in 1995. That year, he also played Sheriff Doug Barnum in the film Powder. He appeared with Payne again in Face the Evil (1997), and the dystopian classic Paranoia 1.0 (2004).

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. His 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 canceled in 1999. On television, Henriksen appeared in the ensemble of Into the West (2005), a miniseries executive-produced by Steven Spielberg. He appeared in a Brazilian soap opera, Caminhos do Coração ( Ways of the Heart) from Rede Record, aired in 2007–2008. Henriksen guest-starred on a Season 6 episode of NCIS (2009) playing an Arizona sheriff, and appeared in a recurring role as The Major on NBC's The Blacklist. 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 followup, he is Kerchak, the ape who serves as Tarzan's surrogate father. He provided the voice for the alien supervillain Brainiac in (2006) and for the character Mulciber in Godkiller (2009). Henriksen is the voice of the character Molov in the video game Red Faction II (2002) and has also contributed to GUN (2005), Run Like Hell (2002), the canceled title Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2004), and the 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. The actor lent his voice to the animated television series as the character Lockdown. In 2009, Henriksen voiced Lieutenant General Shepherd in the award-winning game . 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 , and he also reprised his role as Admiral Hackett in Mass Effect 3. Henriksen reprised his role as Bishop in .

He 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 TV series Millennium. Unexplained went on to a gold world medal at the 2004 New York Festivals.

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.

In January 2015, he was signed for the lead in the Independent film Monday at 11:01 am In 2016, he starred in the feature film Deserted, a psychological thriller. Henriksen played the role of Hopper.

In 2018, Henriksen performed motion capture and vocal performance for the character of Carl Manfred in the video game . The game's plot involves androids gaining sentience and free will, topics explored briefly with Henriksen's Bishop character in Aliens.

In October 2018, Henriksen was signed for one of the two leads in Falling, the directorial debut of actor Viggo Mortensen, who also wrote, produced and co-starred.McNary, Dave (October 15, 2018). "Viggo Mortensen to Star, Make Directorial Debut in Family Drama 'Falling'". Variety. Retrieved February 7, 2019. Reviewing the film's 2020 premiere, The Hollywood Reporters John DeFore noted not only the quality of Henriksen's performance, but the opportunity Mortensen's script presented: "Few moviegoers who've enjoyed him over the years will be surprised, but many will resent that we, and he, have waited so long for a role like this."Defore, John (January 24, 2020). "'Falling': Film Review | Sundance 2020". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 5, 2020.

He received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actor at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, for his performance in Falling.Brent Furdyk, "Canadian Screen Awards Announces 2021 Film Nominations" . ET Canada, March 30, 2021.

In 2022, Henriksen was cast in the upcoming American horror film, Awaken the Reaper. The film is currently shooting in New York and slated for a 2024 release date. It is directed by Justin Paul and Dave Campfield and produced by Fourth Horizon Cinema, Impact Media Studios and Design Weapons.

Henriksen has one child from each marriage.

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 (five-issue comic book from Dark Horse Comics) (2012) – Lance Henriksen and Joseph Maddrey (co-authors) with Tom Mandrake (artist); a motion-comic video was also made by 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)

• Films in Review interview