Hailing from Long Beach, California, talented character actor Anthony
Zerbe has kept busy in Hollywood and on stage since the late 1960s,
often playing villainous or untrustworthy characters, with his narrow
gaze and unsettling smirk. Zerbe was born May 20, 1936 in Long Beach,
and served a stint in the United States Air Force before heading off to
New York to study drama under noted acting coach
Stella Adler. He made his screen debut as
Dutchie, one of Charlton Heston's fellow
cowhands in the western
Der Verwegene (1967), played a miner in
Verflucht bis zum jüngsten Tag (1970), was
a post-apocalyptic, lunatic messiah in
Der Omega-Mann (1971), hustled a
naive Paul Newman in
Das war Roy Bean (1972),
played a leper colony leader in
Papillon (1973) and a former lawman gone
bad in Mit Dynamit und frommen Sprüchen (1975).
Zerbe also starred alongside
David Janssen in the television
series Harry-O (1973) as the urbane,
nattily dressed Lieutenant K.C. Trench, Janssen's sometime nemesis, for
which he picked up an Emmy Award. Definitely in strong demand for
sinister roles, Zerbe played a crazed scientist in the corny
KISS in Attack of the Phantoms (1978),
was an arrogant father in
Dead Zone: Der Attentäter (1983), made a great
General Ulysses S. Grant in
Fackeln im Sturm II (1986),
starred in the military drama
H.A.R.T. - Spezialeinheit 500 (1986) and suffered
a grisly demise in an airlock full of money in the James Bond thriller
James Bond 007 - Lizenz zum Töten (1989). Most
recently, Zerbe has been seen as Councillor Hamann in
Matrix Reloaded (2003)
and
Matrix Revolutions (2003).
In addition to his extensive television and film appearances, Zerbe has
appeared in Broadway productions including "The Little Foxes", "Terra
Nova" and "Solomon's Child". He was in residence for five summer
seasons at The Old Globe Theatre playing several key Shakespearean
characters to strong critical acclaim. He has also held residencies at
the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, the Arena Stage in
Washington, D.C., and the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. In
2003, he toured across several states with
Roscoe Lee Browne in their production
of "Behind the Broken Words", a performance of 20th-century poetry,
comedy and drama.
