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Lance Henriksen (born May 5, 1940 in New York City) is an American actor, painter, and potter. A versatile and prolific performer, his trademarks as an actor are his deep, gravelly voice, piercing stare and chiseled, weathered features.

Early life

Henriksen was born in Manhattan into a poor family. His father was a Norwegian merchant sailor nicknamed "Icewater" who spent most of his life at sea. Henriksen’s mother struggled to find work as a dance instructor, waitress and model. His parents divorced when he was two and he was raised by his mother from then on. As he grew up, Henriksen found himself in trouble at various schools and even saw the inside of a children's home. He eventually dropped out of school and spent much of his spare time learning how to paint. Henriksen ran away from home when he was 12 and spent most of his adolescence as a street urchin in New York. Riding on freight trains across the country, he would also do time in jail for petty crimes like vagrancy.

Career

Henriksen finally found good use for his talent as a painter with his first job, designing theater sets. The first play he acted in he did because he had built the set. In his early 30s, Henriksen graduated from the prestigious Actors Studio and began acting in New York City's Off-Broadway theater circuit.

In film, he first appeared in It Ain't Easy in 1972, and made his first major appearance in Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975) opposite Al Pacino. 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 actor Charles Bronson in the 1991 TV-movie Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story.

When James Cameron was writing the movie The Terminator (1984), he had originally envisioned Henriksen playing the title role. Cameron went so far as to paint a picture of the Terminator using Henriksen's face, and he had the actor dress-up as the character and attend an Orion Pictures production meeting in character. Regardless, the famous 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) and Alien³ (1992). He would go on to play Charles Bishop Weyland, the man Bishop's appearance was based on, in Alien vs. Predator (2004).

In 1996, Henriksen starred in the TV 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. He later moved to the state of Hawaii.

On television, Henriksen most recently appeared in the ensemble of Into the West (2005), a miniseries executive-produced by Steven Spielberg.

In recent years Henriksen has also been active as a 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 prequel 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). 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), and the canceled title Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2004).

Selected filmography

• It Ain't Easy (1972)
• Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Damien: Omen II (1978)
• Ryan's Hope (1980)
• Piranha II: The Spawning (1981)
• Prince of the City (1981)
• Nightmares (1983)
• The Right Stuff (1983)
• The Terminator (1984)
• Jagged Edge (1985)
• Savage Dawn (1985)
• Aliens (1986)
• Choke Canyon (1986)
• Near Dark (1987)
• Pumpkinhead (1989)
• The Pit and the Pendulum (1990)
• Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (1991)
• Stone Cold (1991)
• Jennifer Eight (1992)
• Alien³ (1992)
• Super Mario Bros. (1993)
• Man's Best Friend (1993)
• Hard Target (1993)
• No Escape (1994)
• Color of Night (1994)
• Spitfire (1994)
• Aurora: Operation Intercept (1995)
• The Quick and the Dead (1995)
• Dead Man (1995)
• Powder (1995)
• Millennium (1996)
• Profile For Murder (1997)
• The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998)
• Tarzan (1999)
• Scream 3 (2000)
• Red Faction II video game (2002)
• Mimic: Sentinel (2003)
• Madhouse (2004)
• Alien vs. Predator (2004)
• Starkweather (2004)
• Paranoia 1.0 (2004) (a.k.a. One Point O)
• Into the West (2005)
• Tarzan II (2005)
• Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)
• Immortal Grand Prix (2005)
• Supernova (2005)
• Abominable (2006)
• When a Stranger Calls (2006)
• Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006)
• Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes (2006)
• Pumpkinhead: Love Hurts (2007)

Quotes

"Lance is a brilliant performer who goes way beyond acting. He becomes his character completely, leaving no trace of his former self and making something of every moment on screen." —Sam Raimi on Henriksen's talent

"I always wanted to be an actor, even when I was a little kid. When I used to run away from home, I'd go to movies and sit all night watching Kirk Douglas. When I was 16, I tried getting into the Actors Studio and they told me to get lost. I said 'I'll come back when I'm a man,' and I came back when I was 30. I went to sea, I traveled the world ... I was waiting." —Lance Henriksen on acting

"I won't do slasher movies, and I won't play child molesters or men who beat women. I can't rationalize Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th films because they're too one-note. And besides, I've been killed in so many movies in so many ways over the years that to be dealing out that kind of death would be terrible. I'll play a bad guy, but he has to be a character with a purpose." —Lance Henriksen on horror roles

Trivia

• Henriksen left home and dropped out of school at the age of 12. He was illiterate until the age of 30, when he taught himself to read by studying film scripts.
• 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 titular 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.
• Henriksen's daughter, Alcamy, appears uncredited in an episode of Millennium.
• Like Bill Paxton, Henriksen has claimed the honor of being killed on screen by an Alien, a Predator and a Terminator. In Aliens, his character, the android Bishop, is severely damaged by an Alien and "dies" in the following film. He was killed by a Terminator in the first Terminator film, and then killed by a Predator in Alien Vs. Predator.
• During the filming of Aliens, Henriksen and Bill Paxton famously arm wrestled each other but the match resulted in a draw. Henriksen was reportedly heard to say, "Bill is the toughest son of a bitch I've ever met aside from 'ol Mike Ironside."
• Henriksen is the voice behind the PlayStation 3 internet promotional videos.
• The 1993 John Woo film Hard Target contains a scene that depicts Henriksen wearing a burning trench coat following a scripted explosion. The fire was real and accidental. With the situation at hand, Henriksen continued acting and blended the circumstances into the story. The incident also explains why the other actors, who played the henchmen, were so surprised at what had happened to Henriksen. The look on their faces is genuine surprise.

References

External links

• All Movie Guide entry for Lance Henriksen

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