Matt Frewer (born 4 January 1958; age 66) is an actor from Washington, DC and raised in Canada who played the role of Berlinghoff Rasmussen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation fifth season episode "A Matter Of Time". He filmed his scenes between Friday 27 September 1991 and Monday 7 October 1991 on Paramount Stage 8 and Paramount Stage 9.
Famous roles
He is most popularly known for portraying the artificial intelligence character of Max Headroom in the 1980s, starring in a science fiction television series of the same name (1985) followed by The Original Max Talking Headroom Show (1987) and the more popular Max Headroom (1987-88). His co-stars in the latter series included George Coe, W. Morgan Sheppard, Concetta Tomei, and Charles Rocket. Guest stars on the program included Rosalind Chao, Gregory Itzin, Andreas Katsulas, and Robert O'Reilly. The character was also referenced in an okudagram in the Next Generation episode "Conspiracy" as Vice Admiral Maxwell Headroom of Starfleet Mission Operations.
Frewer is also well-known for his starring role as Dr. Mike Stratford in CBS' Doctor Doctor (1989-91). Fellow Next Generation guest star Anne Elizabeth Ramsay was a regular on this series, as well; Dakin Matthews had a recurring role.
Other film and television projects
Frewer is also recognized for his roles in such films as The Fourth Protocol (1987, starring Pierce Brosnan, with Joanna Cassidy), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989, with Amy O'Neill, Carl Steven, and Mark L. Taylor), National Lampoon's Senior Trip (1995, with Nicole de Boer), and Dawn of the Dead (2004, with Lindy Booth). He was also among the many Trek performers to star in Breast Men (1997, with Terry O'Quinn, Louise Fletcher, Raphael Sbarge, Frank Novak, and Heidi Swedberg).
His television projects include In Search of Dr. Seuss (co-starring Patrick Stewart, Christopher Lloyd, Graham Jarvis, David Paymer and Andrea Martin) and The Stand (1994, co-starring Ray Walston, Miguel Ferrer, Patrick Kilpatrick, Ken Jenkins, and Sherman Howard), both of which aired in 1994. He also starred in the 1995 TV movie Kissinger and Nixon (along with George Takei) and had a role in Taken (2002, with Eric Close, Brian Markinson, Roger Cross, Gwynyth Walsh and Emily Bergl).
Frewer was nominated for two Gemini Awards in 2000, one for a guest appearance on Da Vinci's Inquest (starring Gwynyth Walsh) and another for his work on Mentors. He won the latter award.
Frewer was a regular on the Sci-Fi Channel's Eureka during the show's first two seasons, playing eccentric animal expert Jim Taggart. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star Salli Elise Richardson had been a regular on this series since its premiere. Around this same time, Frewer also starred in Intelligence, which consisted of a pilot movie and 25 one-hour episodes airing between November 2006 and December 2007.
Frewer reunited with Dawn of the Dead director Zack Snyder for Watchmen (2009). In the film, Frewer plays former villain Moloch the Mystic, opposite Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played his arch-enemy, The Comedian. Stephen McHattie also appears in the film; William Hoy was the film's editor.
In 2013 and 2014, Frewer had a recurring role on Space/BBC America's Orphan Black, featuring appearances from Michelle Forbes, James Frain and Stephen McHattie. In 2018, he played Carnage in Netflix' Altered Carbon.
Voice work
Frewer has also become distinguished as a voice-over actor on several animated projects. Notable among these are Batman: The Animated Series (1993, with Robert Costanzo and Robert Picardo) and The Incredible Hulk (1996-97). He was also one of many Star Trek alumni to do voice-over work for Gargoyles. Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, LeVar Burton, Colm Meaney, David Warner, and Paul Winfield have also voiced characters on the series.
Frewer is the only person to lend his voice to the Pink Panther, in the short-lived 1990s Saturday morning cartoon. This is the only show in which the Panther has a full speaking role. Most notably, however, Frewer was the voice of "Panic" in Disney's 1997 version of Hercules and its subsequent spin-off TV series, which ran from 1998 through 1999. Fellow Next Generation guest star Samantha Eggar also lent her voice to these projects. Frewer continues to voice the character of Panic in various shows and video games from Disney.
In 2017 and 2018, Frewer voiced "The Bishop", a primary antagonist of Netflix' Castlevania, with Tony Amendola.
Other Trek connections
Additional projects in which Frewer appeared with other Star Trek performers include:
- The Lords of Discipline (1983 film, with Barbara Babcock)
- Spies Like Us (1985, with Bruce Davison and Bernie Casey)
- Ishtar (1987, with Carol Kane and Cristine Rose)
- Far from Home (1989, with Dick Miller and Anthony Rapp)
- Short Time (1990 film, with Terri Garr)
- The Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1993, with Kevin Conway)
- Twenty Bucks (1993 film, with Christopher Lloyd and Frewer's Max Headroom co-star Concetta Tomei)
- Long Shadows (1994, with Kimberly Cullum, Henry Hayashi, and Paul Collins)
- Quicksilver Highway (1997 TV movie, with Christopher Lloyd, Raphael Sbarge, and Bill Bolender)
- Supernatural (TV series), with Jim Beaver and Mark A. Sheppard
- Alice (2009, with Colm Meaney)