Not the Only Actor on This Island). When he first appeared in the series, he was a teenager, but by Season 4, he became a grownup teenager with a beard. The actor who played the younger version is John Brotherton, Jr., son of actors John and Patricia Brotherton. He will have a role in a movie titled The Good Listener.
Terry O'Quinn (Benjamen Linus) and Robert Knepper (Billy Grimm) appeared together in the TV series Heroes, which ran from 2006 to 2010. O'Quinn played Samuel Campbell, the head of the conspiracy that gave birth to the show's vigilante heroes, and Knepper was Joshua Cassidy, a detective who hunted down the evil characters and their masters.
The character of Daniel Faraday, played by David Krumholtz, was very similar to the one that O'Quinn played in Heroes: a high school teacher whose life was hijacked by an alien force. This alien force was the same as the one in Altered States, and he played the alien's son on that TV series, too. The alien and his son did not know they were part of a plot to destroy the world; they just wanted to save it. And the son had psychic powers, just like this actor did. "David is an incredible talent, and with every role he gives depth to the character that we're seeing," the film's director, Peter Hyams, said.
And then there's Robert Knepper's co-star, Robert Forster, who played the antagonist in a number of TV shows and movies. One of his former roles was Walter Vale in the 2006 sci-fi comedy Zoom. In that movie, Knepper played a scientist who was trying to develop technology that would link the brain to a computer network. That is exactly what happened in Altered States. The scientist is one of the lead characters in this movie.
Another former co-star of Robert Knepper's was David Morse, who played the malevolent alien in the first film. He appeared in a 1987 TV movie called The Unseen, in which Knepper played a young man who sees horrible things. It's the same role played by Krumholtz in the first Altered States, when the alien attacked him in the back of a taxi cab.
And then there was the TV show Charmed, in which Knepper played a demon. He was not the only one to make a second appearance in Altered States. The character played by Charmed's Holly Marie Combs was a scientist who was trying to help the U.S. Government stop the main character, played by Jeff Goldblum. The second movie, like this one, was written by Peter Hyams.
While Knepper has been quite busy as a TV and movie actor, his TV guest appearances often include shows that were created by Peter Hyams. The first one was the short-lived action TV series The 4400, where Knepper appeared in a one-episode arc called "The Gospel of Mark," which was written by Hyams. He was in The Cape (2005-2008) and The Event (2012), also created by Hyams. The last two show on that list are the same as this one: Lost and Necessary Roughness. He also appeared in some episodes of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and, as mentioned earlier, he appears in a number of episodes of Lost.
Robert Knepper and his co-star, Amanda Schull, who played the female lead, were both in Altered States when it was released on DVD in 2006. Both actors were in the movie, but they didn't share scenes. Instead, they appeared in different stories. Knepper played the man who was experimenting on himself to try and duplicate some of the abilities that the alien visitors gave to the main character, while Schull was the woman who went insane and killed her husband. Knepper made his cameo in the scene where the main character's girlfriend is killed, and Schull took over her scene with the scientist's wife.
In addition to being a TV actor, Knepper has been a regular on Broadway, especially during the '80s and '90s. He did not appear in either of Peter Hyams' earlier films, but he did have a small part in the 1986 film version of Arthur Miller's The Price. He also appeared in a 1989 version of Our Town, a short-lived Broadway play version of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. Knepper was also in The Magic Show (1985), which won a Tony Award for Best Musical. He played the role of the magician, and he was only 16 when he did it.
Altered States opens with a scene of Robert Knepper and Amanda Schull kissing. That was in 1998, when Knepper and Schull played a young couple in The Merchant of Venice at the American Shakespeare Theatre. That production won a number of Tony Awards, including Best Revival. The couple played Antonio and Shylock's daughter Jessica, which is a love triangle with the characters of Portia (Jill Paice) and her father Bassanio (Patrick Stewart).
The director of Altered States, Peter Hyams, has been very active as an actor as well as a director. He has acted in the TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Seinfeld, and he directed episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. And he was one of the creative forces behind the TV series Stargate SG-1.
One of his co-stars in the movie was the late, great character actor Dan Butler. He played the older man who was living with the main character's mother in the film, and he also played her other relatives. Butler was in a movie called The Last Man on Earth as well as a TV movie called The Last Precinct, which both starred Tom Noonan. Noonan also played Oskar in Altered States.
Altered States begins with a young actress in bed, screaming in the middle of the night. And it ends with another young woman screaming in the night. That was when Schull and Knepper were in the same Broadway production of Our Town.
This is the first feature film that Peter Hyams has directed since the 1992 psychological thriller Wolf. It is also the first movie he has directed since 2000, when he directed two episodes of Alias. He wrote the screenplay for this movie, which is a combination of science fiction and horror. He describes the movie as a "fusion between Jaws and The Thing." He also wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film Predators, starring Adrien Brody and Topher Grace. He also directed that movie. In 2009, he directed the first episode of the TV show In Plain Sight, which starred Mary McCormack.
After Our Town closed on Broadway, there was a long gap in Knepper's film career. He came back when he was offered the role of the main character's mother, which he played in a short movie called A House Is Not a Home. The movie got into Sundance's Dramatic Competition, and it starred Patricia Clarkson, who also appeared in that other classic science fiction movie that featured a family being attacked by a creature: Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Knepper has been married since 2010, and his wife's name is Kate McGregor. His wife has acted in several TV shows, including Without a Trace and Numb3rs, and in 2010 she was nominated for a Tony Award for her work on Broadway in the play That Championship Season.
"It felt like a whole new world," said Knepper about the cast of Altered States. "I'd never had that feeling before, working with so many great actors."
This is another rare film by producer Dean Devlin. He has been a producer on all of the films that he has written.
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5 comments:
Excellent article, but I think Knepper does his best work on the television series Necessary Roughness, where he is amazing in the part of an arrogant and narcissistic surgeon. As for his future in movies it might be a while before he can match his work as a series regular in Lost.
Agree about the Lost thing. One episode he is absolutely amazing (the one that takes place in the past). One episode he makes zero sense in (the one that takes place in the future). I think he is still very good and talented and might break through and become the next Jeff Goldblum. The only movie I didn't like him in was Predators, where he's just another soldier. One of the best horror movies of the last 10 years. I will add a few other comments.
He was also great in "The Event" and he has a very good role in "The 4400".
Altered States wasn't a great movie, but it is the same premise as the original with the only difference being a twist to the story. It is one of the "greats" when you consider that the budget was only $4 million which made it possible for them to include scenes of him experimenting on himself. You will find him in a scene where his tongue wraps around his ears. He lost a bunch of weight for the role and they probably didn't even film him and shot photos of him. I was at school
