Underappreciated Actors: Lance Henriksen
Filed Under (Movies) by admin on 04-05-2009
Tagged Under : James Cameron, Lance Henriksen, Underappreciated Actors
One of the attributes that makes the great directors great (or the great movie stars), is that they know when they have something good and they take advantage of it. In Oliver Stone’s case, he always finds a way to use John C. McGinley in his films if the role fits. Sylvester Stallone knew he could rely on Frank McRae and Joe Spinell for supporting roles. Charles Bronson films aren’t complete without Ed Lauter, nor is an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie right without Sven Thorsen.
And for James Cameron, there was always Lance Henriksen. After the two worked together on the unknown 1981 film Piranha 2, Cameron knew he had something good in Henriksen and brought him back for major roles in both Aliens and The Terminator, two of the most successful and revered action films of all time.
Henriksen would follow up his work as Bishop in Aliens by reprising his role (or playing related ones) in Alien 3 and Alien vs. Predator.
He cut his teeth with a small role opposite Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, and other early film appearances included Network, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Damien: Omen II, The Right Stuff, Jagged Edge and Johnny Handsome. Over these films, he began to show his chameleon-like ability to take on any role.
He would guest star on several major television shows on his way up, from The A-Team and Cagney and Lacey to Beauty and the Beast, before ultimately landing his own series-lead in the cult favorite Millennium. Following the end of the show, he would reprise his Millennium role with a guest appearance on The X-Files.
The list of significant film roles is long and varied, from a Wild West villain in The Quick and the Dead to salt-of-the-earth cops in Jennifer 8 and Powder to the sadistic patriarch of a violent motorcycle gang in Stone Cold. He plays a different kind of patriarch, a reformed felon bringing peace to an abandoned penal colony in No Escape and, along with Sven Thorsen, takes his best shot at killing Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target.
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