Mark Moses is good at playing men whose authority exceeds their ability. His charm makes their weakness more uncomfortable, and his supporting work gives us a reason to pay attention to the people around the lead.
Fi1m perspective
As Lieutenant Wolfe in Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), Mark Moses plays a hapless officer whose rank offers little reassurance. That is a good early indication of his usefulness on screen: he can make a man’s authority seem worryingly undeserved. We found Platoon frightening because the combat is immediate and the soldiers feel like people with lives beyond their uniforms. Stone makes the moral struggle between the sergeants too tidy, but the ensemble keeps the men distinct. Wolfe’s inadequacy has a place in that company.
Moses spent close to two decades in supporting film and television parts before Paul Young in Desperate Housewives (2004) gave him a breakthrough. A regular role central to the initial mystery gave his mixture of charm and menace room to develop. Marc Cherry’s series depends on the anger behind polite smiles, and Moses is well suited to a neighbourhood where being courteous is no guarantee of being decent. The plotting grows overexcited, though, and the women sometimes deserve more than another scandal. Keeping a character interesting through all that is a particular kind of supporting work, and one we value.
Duck Phillips in Mad Men (2007) brought further recognition through a recurring role. Moses continued working in television ensembles, including as Dennis Boyd in Homeland (2011). His blend of charm and pathos is useful in such company, where a supporting character needs to register without bringing the surrounding drama to a halt. He can make us feel sorry for a man we have good reason to dislike.
There is a risk in this recognisable line of work: the casting can tell us too much before the character has had a chance to act. Moses is most rewarding when the writing allows him to be weak without making him merely ridiculous, or menacing without making every encounter a warning. Start with Desperate Housewives for the sustained part, provided a suburban soap with more scandals than it needs sounds like an acceptable evening.
Biography
Mark Moses is an American actor. He played Lieutenant Wolfe in Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986).
Moses was born in New York City and trained at New York University. He began his career on stage, appearing in the Broadway production of The Slab Boys Trilogy (1983). He later worked in film and television, with recurring roles as Paul Young in Desperate Housewives (2004–2011) and Herman "Duck" Phillips in Mad Men (2007–2015).
He has appeared in other Oliver Stone films including Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and The Doors (1991), and in series such as Homeland and The Last Ship. His brother Burke Moses is also an actor.
