Len Cariou

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Len Cariou

Len Cariou (born 30 September 1939; age 84) is the Canadian actor who played an alien taking the appearance of Vice Admiral Janeway, father of Captain Kathryn Janeway, in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Coda". He is known for his extensive work on Broadway, most notably his Tony Award-winning portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He is also known for his supporting roles in numerous feature films. He currently plays Henry Reagan on the CBS police drama series Blue Bloods.

Stage work

Early stage career

Cariou made his stage debut as part of the chorus in a Canadian production of Damn Yankees in 1959. From 1962 through 1964, he performed in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, acting in such plays as The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, and The Tempest.

In 1966, he joined the Guthrie Theatre acting company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His fellow Voyager guest performer Ron Glass and Star Trek: The Next Generation guest stars Fran Bennett, Robin Gammell, and Ellen Geer were also members of the Guthrie company at that time. Cariou and Geer acted together in productions of As You Like It and The Skin of Our Teeth, while Cariou worked with Bennett, Gammell, and Glass in The House of Atreus. This production transferred to the Billy Rose Theatre in 1968, marking Cariou's first performance on Broadway.

In 1969, Cariou briefly joined the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, performing in productions of Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Three Sisters. His production of Henry V, which also featured Robert Foxworth, ultimately transferred to Broadway, where it ran for sixteen performances. Cariou received his first Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Musical in 1970 for his portrayal of Bill Sampson in Applause, which co-starred Robert Mandan. Cariou also won Theatre World Awards for his performances in both Henry V and Applause.

1971–1979

Cariou returned to the Guthrie Theatre in 1971, and continued performing there through 1974. Among the plays he acted in during this time were Cyrano de Bergerac, The Taming of the Shrew, Oedipus the King, and King Lear. He also directed productions of Of Mice and Men, The Petrified Forest, and The Crucible, the latter of which featured the aforementioned Fran Bennett in the cast.

Cariou continued performing on Broadway throughout the 1970s, as well. In 1972, he acted alongside Keene Curtis in Night Watch. The following year, he starred in the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, for which he received his second Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Musical.

In 1979, Cariou originated the role of Sweeney Todd for the Stephen Sondheim musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. For his performance in this production, Cariou won the 1979 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, in addition to the 1979 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. One of his co-stars in Sweeney Todd was Victor Garber, who played the role of Anthony Hope, a sailor who saves befriends Todd and falls in love with his daughter, Johanna. TNG guest star George Hearn replaced Cariou in the role of Todd later in the year.

Later stage career

Cariou returned to Broadway in 1983 to star in the one-night performance of the Alan Jay Lerner musical Dance a Little Closer. Later that year, he performed off-Broadway in Up from Paradise at the Jewish Repertory Theatre. He then returned to Stratford, Ontorio, to perform in the 1984-1985 season of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He then starred in Traveler in the Dark at the Mark Taper Theatre in Los Angeles, California, in which he acted alongside Deborah May (who played his character's wife) and Scott Grimes (who played his son).

From November 1987 through January 1988, Cariou starred as Teddy Roosevelt in the Broadway play Teddy & Alice. In 1989, he appeared at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, an off-Broadway venue, in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, which also featured Paul S. Eckstein. In 1991, Cariou reappeared on Broadway, starring in The Speed of Darkness. He later starred as writer Ernest Hemingway in the one-man play Papa: The Legendary Lives of Ernest Hemingway, first in Florida and then off-Broadway.

Cariou has since performed on Broadway in the role of Andre in Neil Simon's The Dinner Party and as Robert in David Auburn's Proof. He also toured various US cities in a production of Copenhagen with Mariette Hartley in 2001. His other recent stage credits include The Persians in New York City and Kismet in Los Angeles.

Film and television work

Films

Cariou made his film debut in the 1977 Canadian drama One Man, for which he won the penultimate Canadian Film Award for Best Performance by a Lead Actor. He made his US film debut later that year in the motion picture adaptation of A Little Night Music, reprising his role from the Broadway play of the same name.

In 1981, Cariou had a supporting role in Alan Alda's comic drama The Four Seasons. This was followed with supporting roles in Lady in White (1988), Getting In (1994), and Never Talk to Strangers (1995). The latter film also featured veteran Star Trek guest star Tim Kelleher, who worked with Cariou in his next two feature films.

In 1996, Cariou played the Secretary of Defense in the action thriller Executive Decision. This film was directed by Stuart Baird, who later directed Star Trek Nemesis. Baird also co-edited the film with Nemesis editor Dallas Puett, while Jerry Goldsmith was the film's composer. Other Star Trek performers to appear in Executive Decision with Cariou include Paul Collins, Ken Jenkins, Andreas Katsulas, the aforementioned Tim Kelleher, Warren Munson, Richard Riehle, Eugene Roche, and Dey Young.

Cariou later portrayed real-life Secretary of State Dean Acheson in the 2000 drama Thirteen Days, which depicted the decision-making process which took place in the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The role of Cariou's character was to advise President John F. Kennedy, who in the film was played by Star Trek actor Bruce Greenwood. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was played by Star Trek: Enterprise actor Steven Culp, while Jack Blessing, Kevin Conway, Charles Esten, Tim Kelleher, Boris Lee Krutonog, Ed Lauter, Dakin Matthews, and Bill Smitrovich also had supporting roles.

Cariou's next film was the acclaimed 2002 comic drama About Schmidt, in which he played Warren Schmidt's best friend who had an affair with Schmidt's wife twenty-five years earlier. Enterprise performers Harry Groener and Matt Winston also had roles in this film. Cariou next played the sheriff in the 2004 thriller Secret Window, starring Johnny Depp. He then had a role in Disney's 2005 historical sports drama, The Greatest Game Ever Played, which also featured Marnie McPhail from Star Trek: First Contact. That same year, Cariou co-starred with Sally Kellerman and Michael Nouri in The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club.

Cariou appeared in the 2006 war epic Flags of Our Fathers, as did Gordon Clapp, David Clennon, Michael Cumpsty, Neal McDonough, Harve Presnell, and the aforementioned George Hearn, who replaced Cariou in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street twenty-seven years earlier. Cariou then played John Cusack's father in the 2007 horror thriller 1408. The following year, he was seen in the direct-to-video comedy The Onion Movie, which was actually filmed in 2003. Others who appeared in this film include Daniel Dae Kim, Richard Fancy, Scott Klace, Randy Oglesby, and Tom Wright.

Most recently, Cariou was seen in the acclaimed 2013 drama Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. The two supervising sound editors of this film, Bub Asman and Alan Robert Murray, had previously supervised the sound editing on Star Trek Nemesis.

Television

Episodic

Between 1985 and 1992, Cariou played the recurring role of Michael Hagerty on the mystery series Murder, She Wrote, which starred his Sweeney Todd co-star Angela Lansbury. He appeared in seven episodes of the series, including an episode that also guest-starred Theodore Bikel and Mitchell Ryan, both of whom also played the fathers of regular Star Trek characters. Other performers Cariou worked with on this series include Richard Beymer, Louis Giambalvo, John Glover, Lenore Kasdorf, Brian McNamara, John Rhys-Davies, and Joseph Ruskin. Two of Cariou's episodes were directed by Vincent McEveety.

Cariou was nominated for a Gemini Award for his performance in Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House. He has also guest-starred on such series as Gabriel's Fire (on which Madge Sinclair was a regular), The Practice (in an episode with Joseph Campanella, John Cothran, Jr., and Jeff Yagher), The Outer Limits (two episodes, one with Chris Sarandon and another with Mitchell Ryan), and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (with Wallace Langham and Liz Vassey). In a 2000 episode of The West Wing, Cariou and Michael Cavanaugh played a pair of pharmaceutical executives. In addition, Cariou appeared in three episodes of Law & Order between 1993 and 2008, the first of which featured George Coe and Josh Pais.

Besides his guest appearances, Cariou was also a regular on the short-lived UPN series Swift Justice. He also played the role of Alan in the original pilot for the CBS drama series Numb3rs, but the pilot was reshot with Judd Hirsch in the role. The new pilot was picked up as a series, which is currently in its sixth season; the original pilot with Cariou was never aired. From 2006 through 2007, Cariou had a recurring role as Judd Fitzgerald on the Showtime Network series Brotherhood, on which Fionnula Flanagan was a regular. Scottie Thompson had a recurring role on this series, as well.

In early 2010 Cariou appeared as scammer Louis Tobin on the FX drama series Damages. Among those he worked with on this series were Mädchen Amick, Keith Carradine, Michael Nouri, and Timothy Olyphant. Currently, Cariou is a regular on the CBS drama series Blue Bloods, on which he plays retired police commissioner Henry Reagan.

TV movies and mini-series

Over the years, Cariou has acted in numerous made-for-TV movies, the first of which was the CBS drama Who'll Save Our Children? in 1978. In 1981, he was seen in the NBC movie Madame X, which co-starred Robert Hooks, Tony Plana, and Granville Van Dusen.

In the 1985 movie Surviving, Cariou portrayed the father of a 17-year-old boy played by fellow Voyager guest star Zach Galligan. This movie also featured Paddi Edwards, Paul Sorvino, and William Windom. The following year, Cariou appeared in the NBC thriller Killer in the Mirror, along with Parley Baer, Jeff O'Haco, and Bill Zuckert.

Throughout the 1990s, Cariou's TV movie credits included Miracle on Interstate 880 (directed by Robert Iscove and co-starring Roger R. Cross and John Pyper-Ferguson), The Sea Wolf (with Clive Revill), Border Line (with John de Lancie, Mikael Salazar, Christopher Michael, Michelle Bonilla and Josh Cruze), and In the Company of Spies (with Clancy Brown and Alice Krige). In 2000, he appeared in the mini-series Nuremberg, along with Christopher Plummer and Robert Joy. Cariou again worked with Robert Joy in the 2004 TV movie Sex Traffic.

In 2009, Cariou was nominated for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance in the TV movie Into the Storm as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

External links

• Len Cariou at Wikipedia
• Template:IMDb-link
• Len Cariou at the Internet Broadway Database
• Len Cariou at the Notable Names Database
• Len Cariou Downstage Center XM radio interview by the American Theatre Wing, February 2007