Early life

O'Quinn was born at War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, one of 11 siblings, and grew up in nearby Newberry, Michigan. He is of Irish descent, and was raised Roman Catholic. He attended Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He changed his surname from Quinn to O'Quinn as another registered actor already had the name Terrance Quinn.

In the 1970s he came to Baltimore to act in the Center Stage production of Tartuffe. He remained at Center Stage for some years and often appeared with the late Tana Hicken, most notably as Benedick to her Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. He was cast in his first movie role Heaven's Gate, but it required horse riding. O'Quinn took riding lessons from Lori Binkley at Wood Gait Farm in northwest Baltimore County. He took on the role of Captain Minardi in Heaven's Gate, a Western that starred a slew of big names like Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges and John Hurt. The movie failed, and is one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time: grossing $3 million on a $44 million budget. However out of the experience O'Quinn married Lori in 1979. They have sons Oliver and Hunter.

Terry and Lori legally separated in 2010, and they divorced shortly thereafter. He now resides in Virginia with his long-time girlfriend, Kate Baldwin.

Career

O'Quinn began acting in the 1970s during his time at Central Michigan University. He not only was an outstanding actor but also playwright/director. He wrote and directed the musical Orchestrina. This musical featured five main characters: The Man (played by Jeff Daniels), The Boy (Harold Downs), The Woman (Ann O'Donnell), The Girl (Debbie Penwarden), and The Drunk (James Hilliker), plus a female and a male chorus.

Starting in 1980, O'Quinn has appeared in various feature films such as Silver Bullet, Tombstone, Heaven's Gate, Young Guns, alongside Rutger Hauer in Blind Fury, and as Howard Hughes in The Rocketeer.

O'Quinn also appeared in the Canadian horror movie, Pin (1988) alongside British-born Canadian actor, David Hewlett.

His early television roles include guest appearances on Miami Vice (episode "Give a Little, Take a Little"), Moonlighting, Star Trek: The Next Generation (episode "The Pegasus"), The Twilight Zone (1985 revival; episode "Chameleon"), Homicide: Life on the Street (episode "Hate Crimes"), a recurring role on Earth 2, and a recurring role as Rear Admiral Thomas Boone on JAG as well as Colonel Will Ryan in episode 15 of season 1 on JAG's spin-off series, "NCIS (TV series)" (episode "Enigma").

O'Quinn made his breakthrough by appearing as the deranged serial-killing title character in The Stepfather. His acting performance was praised by film critic Roger Ebert, from the Chicago Sun Times, who commented: "'The Stepfather' has one wonderful element: Terry O'Quinn's performance". O'Quinn was nominated for both a Saturn Award and an Independent Spirit Award for his performance. A sequel was released, two years after the first movie, but it wasn't as much of a success as the first movie. It grossed almost a million dollars less at the box office. It was never explained why O'Quinn wasn't in the third installment of the series, in which the stepfather character was portrayed by Robert Wightman.

Around 1995, O'Quinn made guest appearances in The X-Files and Harsh Realm, produced by Chris Carter, who also cast him in the film The X-Files: Fight The Future and then once again in the final season. In 1996 O'Quinn started acting in the television series Millennium as Peter Watts, also produced by Chris Carter. O'Quinn held this role for all three seasons of the series. O'Quinn holds the distinction of having played four different characters within the extended X-Files/Millennium continuum (the two shows being classed together since both Lance Henriksen's character of Frank Black and Charles Nelson Reilly's character of Jose Chung have appeared in both shows).

The Stepfather films

Further information: The Stepfather (1987 film) and The Stepfather II

In 1987 and 1989, Terry played the main character and antagonist in the horror films The Stepfather and The Stepfather II. The franchise spawned a second sequel; however, Terry did not star in the third and final movie. In the first film, Terry plays the role of a deranged serial killer going by the name "Jerry Blake" (his character's real name and identity are never revealed to the audience), who is obsessed with having the ideal family. When the widowed mother and daughter do not comport with his expectations, he spirals into a spell of madness and attempts to brutally murder them. In the second, he escapes from the asylum in which he is placed and steals the identity of a man named Gene Clifford after reading his obituary in a local newspaper.

O'Quinn was approached by director of the 2009 reboot of The Stepfather, Nelson McCormick, to make a cameo appearance in the film, but according to the producers O'Quinn turned down the offer.

Lost

Further information: John Locke (Lost) and Lost (TV series)

After a string of recurring appearances on Alias (2002-2003), as the FBI Director Kendall, O'Quinn became a favorite of television producer J.J. Abrams. Following a seven-episode guest run on The West Wing in 2003-2004, O'Quinn received a call from Abrams indicating that the producer wanted to cast him in his new television drama Lost without any audition. In 2005 O'Quinn received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his work as John Locke on the series Lost. O'Quinn admitted on the TV Guide Channel that he did not have much faith in Lost at first, calling it "The Mysterious Gilligan's Island of Dr. Moreau". The show, however, became one of the most popular on television, and on September 16, 2007 he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series for his role, and was nominated again for an Emmy for the role in 2010, which he did not win. In a Tv.com interview O'Quinn commented that the reason he felt comfortable playing this character is because he's a bit like him.

2010-Current

From 2012-2013, O'Quinn starred in the short-lived series 666 Park Avenue as Gavin Doran. O'Quinn has done a number of appearances since Lost. In 2012, he appeared in the second season of Falling Skies.

In 2016, it was announced that O'Quinn would be joining the second season of Secret and Lies.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Heaven's Gate	Capt. Minardi
1981	The Doctors	Dr. Jerry Dancy
1983	All the Right Moves	Freeman Smith
1984	Places in the Heart	Buddy Kelsey
	Mrs. Soffel	Detective Buck McGovern
1985	Silver Bullet	Sheriff Joe Haller
	Mischief	Claude Harbrough
1986	Between Two Women	Dr. Wallace
	SpaceCamp	Launch Director
1987	The Stepfather	Jerry Blake	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
	Black Widow	Bruce
1988	Young Guns	Alex McSween
1989	Pin	Dr. Linden
	Blind Fury	Frank Deveraux
	Stepfather II	Dr. Gene Clifford
	The Forgotten One	Bob Anderson
1990	Blood Oath	Major Beckett
	Kaleidoscope	Henry
1991	Son of the Morning Star	General Alfred Terry
	The Rocketeer	Howard Hughes
	Company Business	Colonel Pierce Grissom
1992	The Cutting Edge	Jack Moseley
	My Samurai	James McCrea
1993	Tombstone	Mayor John Clum
	Born Too Soon	Dr. Friedman
	Visions of Murder	Admiral Truman Hager	Television movie
1996	Ghosts of Mississippi	Judge Hilburn
	Primal Fear	Bud Yancy
1997	My Stepson, My Lover	Richard Cory
	Breast Men	Hersch Lawyer
	Shadow Conspiracy	Frank Ridell
1998	The X-Files: Fight the Future	Darius Michaud
2000	Rated X	J.R. Mitchell
2001	American Outlaws	Rollin H. Parker
2002	Hometown Legend	Buster Shuler
	The Locket	Casey Keddington
2003	Old School	Goldberg	Uncredited
	Phenomenon II	Military officer Jack Hatch	Television movie
2011	Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story	Mark Miller	Television movie

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Miami Vice	Richard Cain	Episode: "Give a Little, Take a Little"
1985	The Twilight Zone	Dr. Curt Lockridge	Episode: "Chameleon"
	Remington Steele	Chuck McBride	Episode: "Coffee, Tea or Steele"
1987	Moonlighting	Bryant Wilbourne	Episode: "Take a Left At the Altar"
1990	Jake and the Fatman	Vincent Novak	Episode: "You're Driving Me Crazy"
1992	L.A. Law	Nick Moats	Episode: "Beauty and the Breast"
1993	Tales from the Crypt	Inspector Martin Zeller	Episode: "The Bribe"
1994	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Admiral Eric Pressman	Episode: "The Pegasus"
	Earth 2	Reilly	6 episodes
1995	The X-Files	Lt. Brian Tillman	Episode: "Aubrey"
1995-2002	JAG	Capt./RAdm. Thomas Boone, "CAG"	10 episodes
1996	Diagnosis: Murder	Dr. Ronald Trent	Episode: "The Murder Trade"
1996-1999	Millennium	Peter Watts	41 episodes
1999-2000	Harsh Realm	General Omar Santiago	9 episodes
2001	Roswell	Carl	Episode: "Michael, the Guys, and the Great Snapple Caper"
2002	The X-Files	Shadow Man	Episode: "Trust No 1"
2002-2004	Alias	FBI Asst. Director Kendall	18 episodes
2003-2004	The West Wing	General Nicholas Alexander	7 episodes
2004	NCIS	Col. Will Ryan	Episode: "Enigma"
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Gordon Buchanan	Episode: "Mis-Labeled"
2004-2010	Lost	John Locke/The Man in Black	95 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated—Golden Nymph Award for Outstanding Actor - Drama Series Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice TV: Villain
2011-2013, 2015	Hawaii Five-0	Commander Joe White	13 episodes
2012-2013	Falling Skies	Arthur Manchester	3 episodes Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television
2012	666 Park Avenue	Gavin Doran	13 episodes
2014	Gang Related	Sam Chapel	12 episodes
	Phineas and Ferb	Professor Mystery (voice)	Episode: "Lost in Danville"
2015	Full Circle	Jimmy Parerra	6 episodes
2015	Patriot	Tom Tavner	Pilot
2016	Secret and Lies	John Warner

[ Source: Wikipedia ]