Peter Weller

From Wikipedia

Peter Frederick Weller (born June 24, 1947) is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.

He is best known for his roles as the title character in the first two RoboCop films and Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. He received an Academy Award nomination for his direction for the 1993 short Partners, in which he also acted. He also hosted the show Engineering an Empire on the History Channel. He played Stan Liddy in the 5th season of the Showtime original series Dexter.

Weller’s stage career began in the 1970s with appearances on Broadway in Full Circle, directed by Otto Preminger, and Summer Brave, William Inge‘s rewrite of his play Picnic. About this time, he became a member of the famed Actors Studio.^[4]

On the set of Firstborn, Corey Haim‘s first day of shooting was with Weller, and he went up to compliment the older actor on his performance. Weller collared Haim, throwing him up against a wall viciously warning him not to speak to him after a take, and it took three assistants to separate them. Haim later admitted that he was terrified by the experience.^[5]

He has appeared in more than 50 films and television series, including turns as the title characters in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and blockbuster hits RoboCop and RoboCop 2.^[6] He has also appeared in such critically acclaimed films as Woody Allen‘s Mighty Aphrodite, the Oliver Stone-produced The New Age and Naked Lunch. In a 1977 episode of the television series Lou Grant, he plays Oberster SA-Führer Donald Sterner/Stryker, a tragically disillusioned Jewish-American Neo-Nazi leader who later committed suicide off-screen with his Colt 45 near the end of the episode when his heritage was discovered.

In 1995, he appeared in Screamers, a science-fiction film based on the short story “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick and directed by Christian Duguay. Duguay would later direct Weller in the 2005–2007 television series Engineering an Empire for the History Channel, which Weller hosted.

On television, he played the shuttle captain in the short-lived series Odyssey 5 and made guest appearances as Terran supremacist John Frederick Paxton in the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes “Demons“, “Terra Prime” and in Fringe as the character Alistair Peck.

Weller has also directed various projects for television, including episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, Monk and three episodes of the aforementioned Odyssey 5. He directed a 1997 adaptation of Elmore Leonard‘s Gold Coast starring David Caruso and Marg Helgenberger after previously starring in a version of Leonard’s thriller Cat Chaser. He directed Episode 3 of Season 4, titled “Dorylus” (air date 9/20/11), of the series Sons of Anarchy.

Weller is a contributor to the History Channel in several productions, credited as “Peter Weller, Syracuse University“, where he is an adjunct faculty member. He is a graduate student in art history at UCLA, focusing on the Italian Renaissance. Weller also hosts the series Engineering an Empire for the network.

In 2005, Weller co-starred as the Captain in a made-for-television remake of The Poseidon Adventure.

In 2006, Weller joined the cast of 24 as terrorist collaborator Christopher Henderson.^[7] Weller received a “cheer” in TV Guide‘s “Cheers & Jeers” section for his performance. In December 2006, Weller starred as architect Frank Lloyd Wright at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in Frank’s Home, a new play by Richard Nelson.

On January 15, 2010, Weller was seen in a teaser trailer for the companion documentary God of War: Unearthing the Legend that was featured in the game God of War III which Weller also hosted.^[8]

On April 15, 2010, Weller guest-starred in an episode of the science fiction drama Fringe. Weller stars in a guest role on the Showtime original series Dexter.^[9] Weller also had a guest appearance in the December 22, 2010 episode of Psych; where he played villain “Yin”^[10]

Peter Weller IMDB Page