- Born
- Birth nameLance James Henriksen
- Height5′ 10¼″ (1.79 m)
- An intense, versatile actor as adept at playing clean-cut FBI agents as
he is psychotic motorcycle-gang leaders, who can go from portraying
soulless, murderous vampires to burned-out, world-weary homicide
detectives, Lance Henriksen has starred in a variety of films that have
allowed him to stretch his talents just about as far as an actor could
possibly hope. He played "Awful Knoffel" in the TNT original movie
Evel Knievel (2004),
directed by John Badham and executive
produced by Mel Gibson. Henriksen
portrayed "Awful Knoffel" in this project based on the life of the
famed daredevil, played by George Eads.
Henriksen starred for three seasons (1996-1999) on
Millennium (1996), Fox-TV's
critically acclaimed series created by
Chris Carter
(The X-Files (1993)). His
performance as Frank Black, a retired FBI agent who has the ability to
get inside the minds of killers, landed him three consecutive Golden
Globe nominations for "Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Drama
Series" and a People's Choice Award nomination for "Favorite New TV
Male Star".
Henriksen was born in New York City. His mother, Margueritte, was a
waitress, dance instructor, and model. His father, James Marin
Henriksen, who was from Tønsberg, Norway, was a boxer and merchant
sailor. Henriksen studied at the Actors Studio and began his career
off-Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's
"Three Plays of the Sea." One of his first film appearances was as an
FBI agent in Sidney Lumet's
Dog Day Afternoon (1975),
followed by parts in Lumet's
Network (1976) and
Prince of the City (1981). He
then appeared in Steven Spielberg's
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
with Richard Dreyfuss and
François Truffaut,
Damien: Omen II (1978) and in
Philip Kaufman's
The Right Stuff (1983), in which
he played Mercury astronaut Capt.
Wally Schirra.
James Cameron cast Henriksen in
his first directorial effort,
Piranha II: The Spawning (1982),
then used him again in
The Terminator (1984) and as the
android Bishop in the sci-fi classic
Aliens (1986).
Sam Raimi cast Henriksen as an outrageously
garbed gunfighter in his quirky western
The Quick and the Dead (1995).
Henriksen has also appeared in what has developed into a cult classic:
Kathryn Bigelow's
Near Dark (1987), in which he plays the
head of a clan of murderous redneck vampires. He was nominated for a
Golden Satellite Award for his portrayal of
Abraham Lincoln in the TNT
original film
The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998).
In addition to his abilities as an actor, Henriksen is an accomplished
painter and potter. His talent as a ceramist has enabled him to create
some of the most unusual ceramic artworks available on the art market
today. He resides in Southern California with his wife Jane and their
five-year-old daughter Sage.- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- SpousesJane Pollack(April 22, 1995 - May 16, 2006) (divorced, 1 child)Mary Jane Evans(February 10, 1985 - 1988) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenSage Ariel HenriksenAlcamy Henriksen
- ParentsMargueritte HenriksenJames Marin Henriksen
- RelativesSibling(Sibling)
- Gravelly deep yet commanding voice
- Intense understated performances
- Was illiterate until the age of thirty, when he learned to read by studying
movie scripts. - He and Bill Paxton are the only two actors to face off against a
Terminator, an Alien and a Predator. - He was James Cameron's original choice for the title role in The Terminator (1984) when the
concept was for a machine that could blend into a crowd. Cameron had
even made concept drawings of Henriksen as the Terminator. When the
concept was changed, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast, Henriksen was re-cast as
Det. Vukovich. When Cameron made Aliens (1986), he cast Henriksen as Bishop,
an android. - He is the only actor besides Sigourney Weaver to appear in more than one
"Alien" movie. - By the time he was 8 years old, he had spent time in two orphanages, a boarding school and a foster home.
- 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. - You can't do every movie--although I do a lot of them--and the thing
I'm longing to do is . . . it's not that I think I'm funny . . . but I long
to do a situation comedy. - The challenge for me in a part is if it's something I haven't done.
- If I'm going to have a rough time doing it, then that's what I'll do.
If I'm in the comfort zone, I can't. I have to get off-balance enough
to be alive. - I'm pretty slapstick in my life but nobody sees that. You get typecast.
I'm from New York and I have a shit-detector that's outspoken. I'm very
streetwise and the producers detect that. So they get me on a movie and
kill me. I go into their offices and I'm sure when I leave they say,
"You know, he'd be great to kill". I've been killed every way you can
imagine.
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