Lance Henriksen

Biography

Lance Henriksen (born May 5, 1940, in New York) is an American actor best known for playing the android Bishop in the Alien films and Frank Black in the television series Millennium. Working across action, science fiction and low-budget horror, he has built a long career in genre cinema, with a filmography of close to two hundred titles.

The son of a Norwegian father who worked as a sailor and boxer and a mother who took jobs as a model, waitress and dance teacher, Henriksen had an unsettled childhood after his parents separated when he was very young. He has spoken openly about his schooling, saying he was unable to read properly until well into adulthood and learned largely by recording and memorising scripts. Before acting he worked as a muralist and on ships, and his entry into theatre came through set design. He trained at the Actors Studio and began his stage career in New York.

His early film work came in the 1970s, beginning with Dog Day Afternoon, directed by Sidney Lumet, with whom he worked again on Network. He then appeared in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and in The Right Stuff, where he played astronaut Walter Schirra. James Cameron cast him in Piranha II: The Spawning, his first feature as director, and Henriksen went on to appear in The Terminator and Aliens, where he played the android Bishop, a role he reprised in Alien 3. Over the following years he became a familiar presence in genre films, including Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark and Walter Hill's Johnny Handsome.

In the 1990s he made Hard Target under John Woo, a film he counts among his favourites and for which he won a Saturn Award for best supporting actor. He then appeared in Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead and Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. In 1996 he starred in Millennium, created by Chris Carter, and the role earned him three consecutive Golden Globe nominations. The series was cancelled after three seasons, a decision Henriksen has repeatedly questioned in favour of the show.

He has also become a much sought-after voice actor, lending his voice to animated work such as Kerchak in Disney's Tarzan and to video games including Mass Effect, where he voiced Admiral Hackett, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Outside acting he is known as a painter and ceramicist. More recent credits include Falling, directed by Viggo Mortensen, released in 2020. His career has earned him a durable place among the performers of American genre cinema.

Key films

• Dog Day Afternoon (1975): an early and memorable supporting role under Sidney Lumet.
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): a supporting part in Steven Spielberg's science fiction classic.
• Aliens (1986): plays the android Bishop, one of his most celebrated roles.
• Hard Target (1993): an action role under John Woo, which he considers one of his favourites.
• The Quick and the Dead (1995): a Western directed by Sam Raimi, with Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman.
• Alien vs. Predator (2004): returns as Bishop in the franchise crossover.