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Terry O'Quinn

 
Actor: Terry O'Quinn
 
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  • Born: Jul 15, 1952 in Newberry, Michigan
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Action
  • Career Highlights: The Stepfather, The Good Fight, The Cutting Edge
  • First Major Screen Credit: Silver Bullet (1985)

Biography

Character actor Terry O'Quinn's film career began (and almost ended!) with a role as Captain Minardi in the notorious Michael Cimino failure Heaven's Gate (1980). O'Quinn rose to prominence in Joseph Ruben's 1987 sleeper The Stepfather, as the ostensibly mild-mannered title character (of multiple names), who has this irksome habit of going psychopathic and slaying families who don't meet his exacting standards. Though O'Quinn went on to play leads in other films, he quickly became a television circuit staple (and an instantly recognizable face), in regular series and made-for-TV movies. His weight was more effectively felt in showy supporting roles like Howard Hughes in Disney's The Rocketeer (1991). On TV, O'Quinn became a regular on the daytimer The Doctors and the prime-timer Jag (1995). O'Quinn struck gold in 2004 as a member of the ensemble cast in the hit prime-time adventure drama Lost, on ABC. As Locke, an enigmatic character with a hidden personal attachment to the Pacific Island on which his plane crashes, O'Quinn managed to convey an ambiguous and understated sense of menace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Terry O'Quinn
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Terry O'Quinn

O'Quinn in 2008
Born Terrance Quinn
July 15, 1952 (1952-07-15) (age 56)
Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, USA
Occupation Television, Stage and Film actor
Years active 1980-present
Spouse(s) Lori O'Quinn (1979-present) 2 children

Terrance "Terry" O'Quinn (born July 15, 1952), née Quinn, is an Emmy Award-winning American actor. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year, since then O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and tv movies such as All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet, Places in the Heart and Between Two Women. O'Quinn has had guest roles on tv shows such as Miami Vice, The Twilight Zone, Tales of the Unexpected, The West Wing and Remington Steele.

O'Quinn became famous for playing the title role in The Stepfather and The Stepfather II, and in 1996 O'Quinn was cast as Peter Watts in Millennium, which ran for three seasons (1996-1999). In recent years, O'Quinn has been portraying John Locke on the ABC TV series Lost, for which he won an Emmy Award in 2007 and had previously been nominated in 2005.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Born Terrance Quinn at War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, O'Quinn grew up in nearby Newberry, Michigan, one of 11 siblings. He attended Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. He changed his surname from Quinn to O'Quinn as another registered actor already had the name Terrance Quinn.[1]

Career

O'Quinn began acting in the 1970s during his time at Central Michigan University. He not only was an outstanding actor but also playwright/director. He wrote and directed the musical Orchestrina. This musical featured five main characters: The Man (played by Jeff Daniels), The Boy (Harold Downs), The Woman (Ann O'Donnell), The Girl (Debbie Penwarden), and The Drunk (James Hilliker), plus a female and a male chorus (including Gary E. Mitchell, an actor now in Grand Rapids, Michigan). Starting in 1980, O'Quinn has appeared in various films such as Silver Bullet, Tombstone, Heaven's Gate, Young Guns, and as Howard Hughes in The Rocketeer.

His early television roles include guest appearances on Miami Vice (episode "Give a Little, Take a Little"), Earth 2, Moonlighting, Star Trek: The Next Generation (episode "The Pegasus"), The New Twilight Zone (episode "Chameleon"), Homicide: Life on the Street (episode "Hate Crimes"), and a recurring role as Rear Admiral Thomas Boone on JAG.

O'Quinn made his breakthrough by appearing as the deranged serial killing title character in The Stepfather. His acting performance was praised by film critic Roger Ebert, from the Chicago Sun Times, who commented: "The Stepfather" has one wonderful element: Terry O'Quinn's performance".[2] O'Quinn gained a Saturn Award and an Independent Spirit Award for his performance. A sequel was released, two years after the first movie, but it wasn't as much as a success as the first movie. It grossed almost a million dollars less at the box office.[3][4]It was never explained why O'Quinn wasn't in the third installment of the series, in which the stepfather character was portrayed by Robert Wightman.

In 1996 O'Quinn started acting in a tv show called Millennium, which was produced by Chris Carter. O'Quinn held this role for all three seasons of the series. Around 1995, O'Quinn made guest appearances in The X-Files and Harsh Realm, also produced by Chris Carter, who also cast him in the film The X-Files: Fight The Future. O'Quinn holds the distinction of having played four different characters within the extended X-Files/Millennium continuum (the two shows being classed together since both Lance Henriksen's character of Frank Black and Charles Nelson Reilly's character of Jose Chung have appeared in both shows).

Lost

Further information: John Locke (Lost) and Lost (TV series)

After a string of recurring appearances on Alias (2002–2003), as the FBI Director Kendall, O'Quinn became a favorite of television producer J.J. Abrams. Following a seven-episode guest run on The West Wing in 2003–2004, O'Quinn received a call from Abrams indicating that the producer wanted to cast him in his new television drama Lost without any audition. In 2005 and 2007, O'Quinn received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his work as John Locke on Lost. O'Quinn admitted on the TV Guide Channel that he did not have much faith in the series Lost at first, calling it "The Mysterious Gilligan's Island of Dr. Moreau".[5] On September 16, 2007, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series for his role in Lost. In a Tv.com interview O'Quinn commented that the reason he felt comfortable playing this character is because he's a bit like him.[6]

Personal life

O'Quinn has been married to his wife, Lori, for 30 years. Most of that time they lived in Reisterstown, Maryland, but after Lost began airing, the couple decided to follow the example of O'Quinn's co-stars and move to Hawaii, where the series is shot. The couple own a home in Hawaii and one in Maryland. They have two sons, Oliver and Hunter. Also, O'Quinn has one granddaughter.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Hatch, Rachel (2008-03-04). "TV Actor Terry O’Quinn Visits With Illinois Wesleyan Theatre Students". Illinois Wesleyan Theatre. http://www2.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases08/news_ActorVisitsIWU_308.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-08-06. 
  2. ^ Ebert, Roger (1987-03-02). "The Stepfather". Chicago Sun Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19870302/REVIEWS/703020302/1023. Retrieved on 2008-07-30. 
  3. ^ "The Stepfather". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=stepfather.htm. Retrieved on 2008-08-06. 
  4. ^ "The Stepfather 2". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=stepfather2.htm. Retrieved on 2008-08-06. 
  5. ^ "Terry O'Quinn". Flixster. http://www.flixster.com/actor/terry-oquinn. Retrieved on 2008-08-06. 
  6. ^ {{{last}}}, Tiffany. Interview with Terry O'Quinn, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim and Jack Bender. Jack Bender, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim & Terry O'Quinn (Exclusive Interview). TV.com. 2006-10-05. Retrieved on 2008-08-06.

External links

Lost portal
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
James Marsters
for Angel / Buffy the Vampire Slayer		 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television
2004
for Lost		 Succeeded by
James Callis
for Battlestar Galactica
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor - Drama Series

Bradley Whitford (2001) · John Spencer (2002) · Joe Pantoliano (2003) · Michael Imperioli (2004) · William Shatner (2005) · Alan Alda (2006) · Terry O'Quinn (2007) · Željko Ivanek (2008)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Terry O'Quinn".  Read more

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