Lance Henriksen actor, artist and writer.

Myself and Lance Henriksen years ago at Monstermania.

Tomorrow’s the birthday of one of my favorite actors, the always intriguing to watch Lance Henriksen.

I first recall taking note of him as a police officer who met an unfortunate demise in James Cameron’s action packed sci-fi thriller The Terminator.  Interestingly Cameron’s initial casting idea in that film for Henriksen would have had the actor PLAYING the unstoppable terminator machine instead of being slain by it.  The original idea was that the terminator would blend in easily among his human prey.

Cameron would yet cast Henriksen as a cyborg.  That role would be of Bishop in the spectacular outer space thriller Aliens.  Bishop was a charming, cool headed center of the mayhem unleashed.  Henriksen would turn up in later editions of the Alien film franchise as Bishop’s human creator.

Henriksen has appeared in a lot of films.  His starring roles mainly have been in horror/scifi genre films.  However he has had small roles in many prestigious pics including Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Network.  His journey into the acting world overcoming many obstacles including an inability to read until late in life makes for fascinating reading.  I bought his autobiography at a horror con, Monstermania, years ago and found the book humorous as well as highly insightful to the human condition from an artist whose been through a lot.  There was no reason to be surprised at the charm of the book.  I found Henriksen very friendly and happy interacting with fans.

I think Henriksen’s finest role is that of Frank Black in Millennium, a dark suspense series airing on FOX in the 90’s.  Frank Black was a retired profiler who just wanted to find a peaceful place for his family to flourish but found himself called back into action by a mysterious group called Millennium due to a special sense he had in dealing with murderers and other menaces.  And deal with them he did, for three seasons.  Stories dealt with murderous maniacs, supernatural threats and prophesies dealing with the new millennium.  Henriksen is exceedingly good at presenting a blend of weariness and determination in Frank Black.  Its also fun to see pre-Lost Terry O’Quinn as Black’s mysterious contact to the Millennium group.  The show was from Chris Carter and failed to find the massive audience of The X Files.  Yet with its moody sensibility it remains one of my favorite series, not just from the 90’s but from all time.

Lance Henriksen as Frank Black in FOX’s Millennium.