HG Spotlight on
Lance Henriksen
| Lance was born in New York City, in 1940. His father was a seaman, aspiring writer and welterweight boxer, his mother a model and dance instructor. Because they both led busy lives, Lance was raised for the first couple of years of his life by his grandmother, who was a former Harvey Girl. |
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Various accounts of his life include stints in a number of schools, including military school which didn't agree with him, so he hit the open road on his own at about age twelve. The law wasn't too kind to him. He's done enough twenty-day stretches in the slammer to make up about a year's worth of his life. He was in the County Jail in Yuma, Arizona when he became an extra in a Lee Marvin film. He was sixteen and he earned five dollars for the gig. It was his first acting job. More usual jobs included shrimp fisherman and fruit picker.. |
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| Not long after that he met Rex Rossi, one of film's great stunt doubles. Rex taught Lance how to ride a horse and fly a plane, and told him that he should become an actor. Lance took the advice and returned to New York, but found he was too young to study at the Actor's Studio. Never one to sit still, he signed on as a crew member of a Swedish freighter. Then he joined the crew of a windjammer in the Bahamas and spent what he calls "the happiest time of my life" aboard her. |  |
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| Starlog magazine ran an article in January 1984 which had the following to say about the years before he began acting: "In the interim, Henriksen served a three-year hitch in the Navy, rising to Petty Officer Third Class, and spent another two years in the Merchant Marine. Returning to New York, he became a creator of ceramic murals: his creations still grace various hotels and the New York World's Fair site." |  |
| He did a stint as a mime at the Boston Opera in Schoenberg's first U. S. production of Moses and Aaron, then did an "off-off Broadway" production of Eugene O'Neill's Three Plays of the Sea for which he was originally hired as a stagehand. He did a number of other theatre roles, and in between them, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Prince of the City. Roles in both theatre and film seemed to come along pretty steadily.Not all of them were good, but he's been working regularly for the past twenty years. |  |
| He was married in the mid-eighties and in 1987, he and his wife had a daughter named "Alcamy." The marriage didn't last. His parents fared better, and in 1982, they remarried. He remarried in 1997. He still does ceramic work, he paints, and he writes. |  |
| Professionally, it's clear that he's the sort of actor who doesn't just get into his roles, his roles get into him. Nice for us, problematic for him and his family and friends. Unfortunately, depending on the role, this approach could play merry hell with his costars, too. Kathy Baker loved working with him in Jennifer 8 but the gal who played Maria in The Pit and the Pendulum might not harbor such good memories. He went out of his way to make her uncomfortable so their scenes together would have more tension. There's a rather funny story in Starlog, August 1987 about how, while preparing to play Jesse Hooker (in Pumkinhead) , he went out driving and picked up hitchhikers, and tried to frighten them. Since nobody murdered him, I guess it worked. |  |
Filmography
It Ain't Easy (1972)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Network (1976)
The Next Man (1976)
Return to Earth (1976) 
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Mansion of the Doomed (1977)
Damien: Omen II (1978)
The Visitor (1979)
"B.A.D. Cats" (1980)
The Dark End of the Street (1981)
Piranha II: The Spawning (1981)
Prince of the City (1981)
A Question of Honor (1982)
Blood Feud (1983)
The Right Stuff (1983)
The Terminator (1984)
Jagged Edge (1985)
Savage Dawn (1985)
Streets of Justice (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Choke Canyon (1986)
Near Dark (1987)
Deadly Intent (1988)
Hit List (1988)
Paul Reiser Out on a Whim (1988)
The Horror Show (1989)
Johnny Handsome (1989)
Survival Quest (1989)
The Last Samurai (1990)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1990)
Comrades in Arms (1991)
Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (1991)
Stone Cold (1991)
Delta Heat (1992)
Excessive Force (1992)
Jennifer Eight (1992)
Hard Target (1993)
Knights (1993)
The Outfit (1993)
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Boulevard (1994)
Color of Night (1994)
No Escape (1994)
Spitfire (1994)
Aurora: Operation Intercept (1995)
Baja (1995)
Dead Man (1995)
Felony (1995)
Gunfighter's Moon (1995)
Nature of the Beast (1995)
Outpost, The (1995)
Powder (1995)
Criminal Mind, The (1996)
Dusting Cliff 7 (1996)
"Millennium" (1996)
Profile for Murder (1997)
No Contest II (1997)
The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998)
Tarzan (1999)
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Lance Trivia
Birth Name: Lance Henriksen Birthdate and Place: May 05, 1940; New York, New York A close friend of Director James Cameron He wasn't able to read or write, a legacy of his early rejection of the school system and a short attention span.
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