Robert Picardo

Robert Picardo
Picardo at Gatecon, June 2005
Born	Robert Picardo October 27, 1953 (1953-10-27) (age 56) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)	Linda Pawlik (1984-present)

Robert Picardo (born October 27, 1953) is an American actor. He may be best known for his portrayals of Dr. Dick Richards on ABC's China Beach, the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), also known as The Doctor, on UPN's Star Trek: Voyager, The Cowboy in Innerspace, Joe "The Meat Man" Morton on Home Improvement, Coach Cutlip on The Wonder Years and Richard Woolsey in Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.

Biography

Early life

Picardo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Joe Picardo. He is Italian American, with his father's family originating from Naples and his mother's from Bomba in Abruzzo.^[1] He graduated from William Penn Charter School in 1971 and originally entered Yale University as a pre-med student, but opted to act instead. While he was at Yale University, he was a member of the Society of Orpheus & Bacchus, an undergraduate a cappella singing group. On Broadway he appeared in Gemini (1977) and Tribute (1978).

Career

Picardo made his feature film debut as Eddie Quist, the serial killer werewolf in the Joe Dante film The Howling (1981). He also had a recurring role in the sitcom Alice. He played a number of roles in Dante's 1985 children's sci-fi film Explorers, and later appeared in Dante's The 'Burbs, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Small Soldiers, where he had a minor role as Ralph, the scientist responsible for the creation of the X-1000 series munitions microprocessor that was central to the story, and Innerspace, as the Cowboy. Picardo often plays roles under layers of prosthetic latex, having also played the swamp dwelling Meg Mucklebones in Ridley Scott's film Legend. He also had a small role as a funeral director in John Landis's Amazon Women on the Moon. He voices Pfish in two Pfish & Chip shorts as seen on Cartoon Network's What-A-Cartoon! Show. Picardo also portrays the voice of the robotic Johnny Cab in Total Recall. He appeared in one episode of ER in 1995 as Abraham Zimble (Season 2 - Episode 6 "Days like this").

In the early 90s, Picardo had a recurring role as Joe "The Meat Man" Morton, a butcher and neighbor to Tim Allen's character on the popular sitcom Home Improvement. From 1995 to 2001, he played the role of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) and Emergency Command Hologram (ECH) in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager. In 2001, he guest starred in 7 Days episode "Revelation", purporting to be a time traveler from 7 years in the future. In 2004, he began playing the recurring role of International Oversight Advisory (IOA) member Richard Woolsey in both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, where he became a regular in the fifth season. His first appearance in those series was in "Heroes (Part 2)".

In 2007 he played a teacher in Ben 10: Race Against Time. In 2007, he starred in the independent feature film by director Russ Emanuel, "P.J.", alongside John Heard and Vincent Pastore.^[2] He also more recently starred in Russ Emanuel's "Chasing the Green" (2008), alongside William Devane, Jeremy London, and Ryan Hurst. In 2007 and 2008, Star Trek: The Music was a multi-city tour with John de Lancie. Picardo and de Lancie narrated around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek.

Picardo has also appeared on E-Ring as a media rep in The Pentagon, as an enraged father in Cold Case, and as a police officer in CSI: NY. He also appeared as a recurring guest star in two episodes of Season 7 of Smallville. Away from acting, Picardo is a member of the Board of Directors' Advisory Council of The Planetary Society, where he has served since the late 1990s. In 2002, Picardo authored the book The Hologram's Handbook, published by Pocket Books. Other career highlights include performing in Leonard Bernstein's Mass in D during its European debut tour, performing with the Yale University Society of Orpheus & Bacchus a cappella singing group as an undergraduate, and appearing in dozens of other television and film roles, including the film Our Last Days As Children. H On February 5, 2008, it was announced that Picardo would be joining the regular cast of Stargate Atlantis full-time for the show's fifth and final season. He will be taking over the role of mission commander of the Atlantis Expedition.^[3] Recently, Picardo performed the voice of Loki in the Xbox 360 video game Too Human. In 2009 he has also appeared in Pushing Daisies, Chuck and Castle (TV series).

Personal life

Picardo has been married to Linda Pawlik since 1984 and has two daughters, Gina and Nikky.

Picardo is a member of The Planetary Society, with his current prerecorded voice appearing on Planetary Radio.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Picardo

• Robert Picardo at the Internet Movie Database
• The Official Robert Picardo website
• Robert Picardo at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• The Planetary Society Home Page