Lance Henriksen's weathered face and gravelly voice make authority easy to believe. We rate him for the care he brings to genre parts, with Bishop in Aliens giving that formidable appearance an unexpectedly gentle purpose.
Fi1m perspective
Lance Henriksen's weathered face and gravelly voice suggest someone whose instructions ought to be followed. As Bishop, the android in James Cameron's Aliens (1986), he puts that authority to kindly use. We found him unexpectedly reassuring because his wish to help feels believable, even in a film built to keep us anxious. It is the clearest example of why we rate Henriksen: he takes a genre part seriously enough to make us care about it.
Cameron had already cast him as Detective Hal Vukovich in The Terminator (1984), before Aliens gave him one of his most recognised roles. Science fiction, horror and action occupied much of his work through the 1980s and 1990s, including Jesse Hooker in the vampire film Near Dark (1987). That concentration can make it easy to remember the threatening face and overlook Bishop's helpfulness. Sigourney Weaver remains the human centre of Aliens, and some of the marines are thinly drawn, but Henriksen gives us another reason to care about those around her.
In Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (1995), his Cole Wilson belongs to a hostile Western frontier that suits that weathered appearance. We like the casting, though our affection for the film rests chiefly with Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer, whose warmth makes its fragile accountant worth following. The humour and unease work; the long pauses sometimes do not. Henriksen's presence is a pleasure, but this is a film to choose for Jarmusch's peculiar pace, not in the expectation that a familiar supporting actor will hurry it along.
Television gave him the lead as profiler Frank Black in Chris Carter's Millennium (1996–99); he later played the dramatic lead of Willis in Falling (2020). He has described accepting villainous parts to keep working, then trying to give those characters some legitimacy. That seriousness is worth having, though we would like more directors to offer him leading parts. There is nothing wrong with casting him to look dangerous, provided the character gets something to do. Start with Aliens if danger is all you associate with him.
Biography
Lance Henriksen is an American actor. He was born on 5 May 1940 in Manhattan, New York City.
He trained at the Actors Studio and began his career in off-Broadway theatre. His early film roles include appearances in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and The Right Stuff (1983). He is known for his work in science fiction and horror films, including Vukovich in The Terminator (1984), Bishop in Aliens (1986) and Alien³ (1992), and Charles Bishop Weyland in AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004). He played Cole Wilson in Dead Man (1995).
Henriksen portrayed Frank Black in the television series Millennium (1996–99). He has also worked as a voice actor, including as Kerchak in Tarzan (1999). He received Golden Globe nominations for Millennium and a Saturn Award for Hard Target (1993).
