Lance Henriksen Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Profession Actor
Birth name Lance James Henriksen
Nationality American
Birth May 5, 1940 (New York, New York – United States)

BIOGRAPHY
Son of a sailor, Lance Henriksen spent his childhood in Borneo, Fiji and Malaysia. This adventurous youth quickly made the constraints of traditional schooling intolerable. Expelled from several high schools, he took to the road at the age of twelve and, after an eventful adolescence, joined the Actor’s Studio. He landed his first role in the off-Broadway revival of Three Plays of the Sea by Eugene O’Neill and in the mid-1970s made two appearances under the direction of Sidney Lumet in A Dog Afternoon (1975) and Network (1976). A third followed in 1981 with The Prince of New York .

CIA agent in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), officer in The Curse II (1978), astronaut in The Stuff of Heroes (1983), police inspector in Terminator (1984)… his weathered face no longer passes unnoticed. In 1986, for Aliens Return , James Cameron gave him the role of the android Bishop, a character who would return in Alien 3 (1992) and Alien vs. Predator (2004) in derivative form.

Accustomed to the fantastic and horrific register, he participated in the vampire film At the Borders of Dawn (1987), in The Horror show (1989), Absolom 2022 (1994), Powder (1995) and even Scream 3 (2000). From 1996 to 1999, he starred in the series Millennium , which earned him three consecutive Golden Globe nominations. In this dark and violent program, created by Chris Carter , the father of X-Files , he is a former FBI agent capable of reading the minds of criminals.

Comfortable in bad guy performances , he attacks Mickey Rourke in Johnny Belle Mouth (1989) and Jean-Claude Van Damme in Manhunt (1993) by John Woo . Also a painter and potter of recognized talent, Lance Henriksen attempts to broaden his repertoire by playing Andy Garcia ‘s faithful friend in the thriller Jennifer 8 (1992), one of the patients of psychiatrist Bruce Willis in the thriller Color of Night ( 1994), a triggerman in the western Dead or Alive (1995) and by lending his voice to the character of Kerchak in the cartoonTarzan (1999).

If his career is still as prolific since the beginning of the 2000s, the productions in which he works are nevertheless minor: he appears in a number of broke films intended to supply the video and DVD market. At the same time, he is asked for numerous video games ( Mass Effect, Detroit: Become Human ) and lends his voice to several animated series, such as The Legend of Korra and Tron: Revolt .

After a few television appearances ( DC’s Legends of Tomorrow , Into the Badlands , Blacklist ), he returned to the forefront in 2021 with Falling , where he was directed by Viggo Mortensen , who also starred in him. This drama about filial love, selected at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, offers Henriksen the opportunity to shine in a more intimate and dramatic register, by playing a violent patriarch in declining health.