Lance Henriksen

No doubt one of the most underrated actors of his time, Lance Henriksen has made a name for himself among Horror and SciFi lovers. He has graced the screen in over 150 movies and television shows since the 1960's. He's known to be an intense, versatile actor who can take any role and make it his own. From playing a clean-cut FBI guy to an alien fighting android he always gets the job done and convincingly at that.

There are so many things that make this man who he is and most of them you can read about on imdb.com or wikipedia.org. The man that I want to tell you about isn't an actor, he's just a regular guy that hangs out with you by the pool and tells stories of hitchhiking and compares scars and tattoos. The kind of man that probably meets thousands of people at a weekend signing and can still call you by your name when you sit down next to him.



We were fortunate enough to be able to attend this year's Texas Frightmare Weekend in Irving, Texas and Lance Henriksen was at the top of my "must see" list. I've been a fan of his for as long as I can remember and sure wasn't gonna let the day go by without meeting him.

What I didn't expect was to run into him (after the signing) and have him #1 remember my name and #2 sit down and talk to me as if we were best buds. He pointed to the tattoo on my hand and told me how he'd gotten the same one when he was younger but cut it out himself when he got tired of looking at it. He showed me scars on his hands and arms and explained where he'd gotten each and every one.

We talked about how he didn't go in the water for a long time after seeing 'Jaws' and laughed about my daughter being scared by the animatronic shark at Universal Studios.

He was eager to hear about where we were from and asked lots of questions about the economy here. "What's the main source of income in your town? What keeps it thriving?" Then listened intently as I explained about the various companies that keep our little town going.



We all usually form a preconceived idea about the people we see in movies and on TV. We sometimes idolize and put them on pedastals but seldom do they actually live up to those expectations. I have to say, meeting Lance Henriksen and having those "friendly" conversations only confirmed what I'd already had in my mind. Hell, he impressed me so much that I've been sitting here half a day trying to put it into words. Nothing more to say other than he is just a down to earth, nice guy and if you ever get the chance to meet him, I suggest you do that.