John de Lancie
John Sherwood de Lancie Jr. is an American actor, director, producer, and writer, best known for his role as Q in ' and the voice of in '.
He has been featured in several recurring roles on television series, including Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1 and Donald Margolis in Breaking Bad.
Early life
De Lancie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948, one of two children born to Andrea de Lancie and John Sherwood de Lancie Sr., principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1954-77. He has a sister, Christina.Being dyslexic, he struggled with reading difficulties throughout his school years. One of his teachers recommended to his parents to encourage him to consider a career as an actor. After graduating from Kent State University in 1971, he ended up winning a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York.
Career
Acting
''Star Trek''
De Lancie portrayed Q, a recurring character in several of the Star Trek franchise series. He is one of the few characters appearing in multiple series of the franchise: eight episodes of ', one episode of ', and three episodes of . De Lancie's son Keegan de Lancie appeared with his father as Q's son in one episode of Star Trek: Voyager.De Lancie was initially too busy to audition for the part of "Q" but Gene Roddenberry, whom he did not know, arranged a second opportunity. De Lancie recognizes that even though Star Trek was only a small part of his career, it opened doors for him.
Other television roles
In addition to his role in Star Trek, de Lancie has appeared in many other television series. He most notably plays the voice of, a recurring character in '. Discord was inspired by de Lancie's "Q", as an omnipotent being who embodies chaos but is occasionally helpful to the heroes of the show. He was a popular actor on Days of Our Lives as Eugene Bradford. He also co-starred in Michael Piller's creation, Legend and had recurring roles in Stargate SG-1 as an NID agent.He has also guest-starred in multiple television series, including Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Charmed, Andromeda, The Unit, MacGyver, ', ', Touched by an Angel, Time Trax, the 1980s revival of ', and Special Unit 2, along with animated series, including The Angry Beavers, Extreme Ghostbusters, Invader Zim, Duck Dodgers, Max Steel, Duckman, Young Justice, and DC Super Hero Girls as Mr. Freeze.
Film
De Lancie's film credits include The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Get Smart, Again!, The Fisher King, Bad Influence, The Onion Field, Taking Care of Business, Fearless, Arcade, Multiplicity, Woman on Top, Good Advice, Pathology, Evolver, Reign Over Me, My Apocalypse, , and You Lucky Dog.Stage
De Lancie has been a member of the American Shakespeare Festival, the Seattle Repertory Company, South Coast Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Old Globe.He has performed and directed for Los Angeles Theater Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio, where the series The Play's the Thing originates.
De Lancie appeared in , a touring company, with Robert Picardo. De Lancie and Picardo narrate around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek. He performed Pierre Curie in Alan Alda's play, Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie in 2001 at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles.
Video games
De Lancie voiced the characters of Antonio Malochio in Interstate '76, Trias in ', and Dr. Death in Outlaws, William Miles in ' and Assassin's Creed III, Fitz Quadwrangle in Quantum Conundrum, and Q in both the and the mobile game Star Trek Timelines, and portrayed Q in '. He further voiced human emperor in '. He also voiced Alarak in and reprised the role for Heroes of the Storm. More recently he voiced Geist, the leader of the Templars in the XCOM 2 expansion,.Writing
De Lancie co-wrote the Star Trek novel I, Q with Peter David, as well as co-writing the novel Soldier of Light. He wrote the DC comic book story The Gift. With Leonard Nimoy, de Lancie recorded several audio dramas based on classic science-fiction tales, under the label "Alien Voices".Music
De Lancie has performed as narrator with a number of major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia. He provided the narration for the world premiere of Lorenzo Palomo's The Sneetches and Other Stories with the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra. He has written and directed ten symphonic plays which were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras.De Lancie was the writer, director and host of First Nights, an adult concert series at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, based loosely on the book of the same name by Thomas Forrest Kelly, which explored the life and music of Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Prokofiev. In 2006, de Lancie made his opera directorial debut with the Atlanta Opera performing Puccini's "Tosca" from May 18–21.
In September 2019, De Lancie narrated as "Forever of the Stars" in the first ever live performances of Ayreon's Sci-Fi concept album Into the Electric Castle.
Documentary
While on stage at the 2012 Ottawa ComicCon, de Lancie announced that he had made plans to co-produce a documentary about "bronies". De Lancie stated he was taken aback by how disrespectfully national news media portrayed the brony fandom.He began a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the documentary, now titled . The Kickstarter campaign began on May 13, 2012, and by June 10, 2012, had reached a total of $322,022, becoming Kickstarter's second-highest funded film project of all time.
Beliefs and activism
Raised by secular parents, de Lancie is an advocate for atheism and humanism. Of his education in a religious school in Philadelphia, he remembers associating religion with manipulation. Rather than developing a religious outlook, de Lancie became fascinated by an ever-changing world: "I’m wondering if one of the things at the core of believing in God, or not, has to do with change. I have grown to embrace change. Personally, I love reading the science section in the paper every morning. I’m in awe of humankind’s boundless curiosity."On June 4, 2016, he addressed the participants at the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. Speaking in reference to his Star Trek character Q, he said:
On July 14, 2017, he attended the unveiling of a statue of Clarence Darrow at the Rhea County Courthouse, Dayton, Tennessee, the site of the Scopes Trial in 1925, where Darrow had argued in favor of the teaching of evolution and secular education.
In October 2019, de Lancie was a featured speaker at the annual conference of the Center for Inquiry, CSICon. At the conference de Lanciehe announced two new projects. The first, an animated series, titled God's Goofs, is meant to point out that intelligent design is absurd. The second project is a play based on the 2005 intelligent design trial in Dover, Pennsylvania.
Personal life
De Lancie is married to actress Marnie Mosiman, who guest-starred as Harmony/Wisdom/Balance in "Loud as a Whisper", an episode of . The couple have two sons: Keegan and Owen.De Lancie is an experienced sailor who spends a lot of his time on the Pacific Ocean, which "sometimes involves very terrifying experiences."