Underappreciated Actors: Michael Biehn
Filed Under (Movies) by admin on 27-04-2009
Tagged Under : Aliens, James Cameron, Michael Biehn, The Terminator, Underappreciated Actors
It’s a unique situation where you have starred in three of the definitive and highest-grossing action films of a decade – check that, of all time – and virtually nobody knows you by name.
Yes, it is true that Michael Biehn was the protagonist, villain or key player in The Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss, three of the key action films of modern times and also three of the hallmark pictures by writer-director James Cameron. The fact that Cameron kept turning to Biehn for a spectrum of roles from hero to villain also says something about his faith in this under-recognized actor.
In fact, the general public is far more likely to recognize and name…Lorenzo Lamas, Kevin Sorbo, Adrian Paul or all manner of straight-to-video or TV action stars. They’re more likely to recognize Ian Ziering, the sixth lead on 90210 than the star of The Terminator. Go figure. All the while, Biehn has racked up notable credits on both sides of the good-versus-evil spectrum, in some of the more notable big-screen films to emerge over the last three decades.
Biehn stood out particularly as Ringo, the villain cast across from Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell in the underappreciated-actor-filled western Tombstone. He parlayed this successful turn in westerns into a leading role in the short-lived TV series The Magnificent Seven, also starring Ron Perlman.
Biehn was one of a wide array of unsung silver screen heroes in the all-time toughest movie platoon in Aliens, sharing the screen with underappreciated comrades Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein and Mark Rolston. He also continued to display his mastery of the “elite military guy” typecast in The Rock, as the ill-fated SEAL commander who leads Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery into Alcatraz to battle Ed Harris (renewing the rivalry they had established in The Abyss several years earlier).
Biehn has also made big-screen contributions to other noteworthy films such as Grindhouse: Planet Terror, Art of War, Mojave Moon and Navy Seals. He also reprised his role as Kyle Reese in the special edition of Terminator 2 and any critical viewing of the film Highlander will reveal that Christopher Lambert’s hallmark role and most successful acting performance was based heavily on Biehn’s characterization of Reese in the original Terminator film.
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