Robert Picardo

Robert Picardo
Picardo at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2011.
Born	October 27, 1953 (1953-10-27) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	Linda Pawlik (1984-present)

Robert Picardo (born October 27, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayals of Dr. Dick Richards on ABC's China Beach, the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), also known as The Doctor, on UPN's Star Trek: Voyager, The Cowboy in Innerspace, Coach Cutlip on The Wonder Years (where he received an Emmy nomination), Ben Wheeler in Wagons East, and as Richard Woolsey in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe.

Early life

Picardo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Joe Picardo. Robert is of Italian heritage, with his father's family originating from Montecovino,Rovello Salerno[[1]] and his mother's parents originally from Bomba in Abruzzo. He graduated from William Penn Charter School in 1971 and originally entered Yale University as a pre-medical student, but opted to act instead. While he was at Yale University, he was a member of the Society of Orpheus & Bacchus, an undergraduate a cappella singing group. On Broadway he appeared in Gemini (1977) and Tribute (1978).

Career

Picardo made his feature film debut as Eddie Quist, the serial killer werewolf in the Joe Dante film The Howling (1981). He also had a recurring role in the sitcom Alice. He played a number of roles in Dante's 1985 children's science fiction film Explorers, and later appeared in Dante's The 'Burbs, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Matinee, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Small Soldiers, and Innerspace, as the Cowboy. Picardo often plays roles under layers of prosthetic latex, having also played the swamp dwelling Meg Mucklebones in Ridley Scott's film Legend. He also had a small role as a funeral director in John Landis's Amazon Women on the Moon. He voices Pfish in two Pfish & Chip shorts as seen on Cartoon Network's What-A-Cartoon! Show. Picardo also portrays the voice of the robotic Johnny Cab in Total Recall. He appeared in one episode of ER in 1995 as Abraham Zimble (Season 2 - Episode 6 "Days like this").

In the early 1990s, Picardo had a recurring role as Joe "The Meat Man" Morton, a butcher and neighbor to Tim Allen's character on the popular sitcom Home Improvement. From 1995 to 2001, he played the role of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) and Emergency Command Hologram (ECH) in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager. He also played additional versions of the role of the EMH in the 1996 Star Trek motion picture Star Trek: First Contact and the 1997 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir I Presume?". In 2001, he guest starred in 7 Days episode "Revelation", purporting to be a time traveler from 7 years in the future. In 2004, he began playing the recurring role of International Oversight Advisory (IOA) member Richard Woolsey in both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, where he became a regular in the fifth season. His first appearance in those series was in "Heroes (Part 2)".

In 2007, he played Principal White in Ben 10: Race Against Time. In 2007, he starred in the independent feature film by director Russ Emanuel, "P.J.", alongside John Heard and Vincent Pastore. He also more recently starred in Russ Emanuel's "Chasing the Green" (2008), alongside William Devane, Jeremy London, and Ryan Hurst. In 2007 and 2008, Star Trek: The Music was a multi-city tour with John de Lancie. Picardo and de Lancie narrated around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek.

Picardo has also appeared on Kojak in a 1977 episode, E-Ring as a media rep in The Pentagon, as an enraged father in Cold Case, and as a police officer in CSI: NY. He also appeared as a recurring guest star in two episodes of Season 7 of Smallville. Away from acting, Picardo is a member of the Board of Directors' Advisory Council of The Planetary Society, where he has served since the late 1990s. In 2002, Picardo authored the book The Hologram's Handbook, published by Pocket Books. Other career highlights include performing in Leonard Bernstein's Mass in D during its European debut tour, performing with the Yale University Society of Orpheus & Bacchus a cappella singing group as an undergraduate, and appearing in dozens of other television and film roles, including the film Our Last Days As Children. On February 5, 2008, it was announced that Picardo would be joining the regular cast of Stargate Atlantis full-time for the show's fifth and final season. He will be taking over the role of mission commander of the Atlantis Expedition. Recently, Picardo performed the voice of Loki in the Xbox 360 video game Too Human. In 2009, he also appeared in Pushing Daisies, Chuck and Castle. Also in 2009 he played the lead role in the independent psychological thriller film Sensored. In 2010, Picardo had a cameo in the final episode of Persons Unknown, as a member of "the program"'s governing board. Picardo also voices Robert McNamara in Call of Duty: Black Ops in campaign and in the 'Zombie mode' after completing campaign on the one map, "FIVE". In 2012, Picardo appeared in a season 4 episode of The Mentalist as Jason Cooper, a lieutenant of cult leader Bret Styles.

Picardo also appeared on a season 6 episode of Supernatural entitled "Clap Your Hands if You Believe" as a leprechaun.

Personal life

Picardo has been married to Linda Pawlik since 1984 and has two daughters, Gina and Nicky. Picardo is a member of The Planetary Society and has appeared in voice on Planetary Radio.

Filmography

Year	Work	Role	Notes
1977	Kojak	Thomas Rindone	Television
1981	The Howling	Eddie Quist
1981	Alice	Officer Maxwell	Television
1985	Legend	Meg Mucklebones
1985	Explorers	Starkiller / Wak / Wak and Neek's Father	Voice and Actor
1987	Amazon Women on the Moon	Rick Raddnitz
1987	Innerspace	The Cowboy
1988	The Wonder Years	Coach Cutlip	15 episodes, 1988-1991
1988	China Beach	Dr. Dick Richard	61 episodes, 1988-1991
1989	Loverboy	Reed Palmer
1990	Gremlins 2	Forster
1990	Total Recall	Johnnycab	Voice and image
1991	Motorama	Jerry The Policeman
1993	Home Improvement	Joe "The Meat Man" Morton
1993	The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.	Puel
1994	Wagons East	Ben Wheeler
1994	VR.5	VR Engineer
1995	Star Trek: Voyager	The Doctor	170 episodes, 1995-2001
1996	Star Trek: First Contact	Emergency Medical Hologram
1997	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Dr. Lewis Zimmerman	"Doctor Bashir, I Presume?"
2001	7 Days	Major Michael McGrath	Television
2002	Justice League	Amazo	6 episodes, 2002-2004
2003	The Lyon's Den	Detective Nick Traub	7 episodes, 2003–2004
2004	Stargate SG-1	Richard Woolsey	7 episodes, 2004-2007
2004	The West Wing	E. Bradford Shelton	Television
2005	E-Ring	Larry Kincaid	4 episodes, 2005-2006
2005	The 4400	Trent Appelbaum	Television
2006	Stargate Atlantis	Richard Woolsey	20 episodes, 2006-2009
2007	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	Singapore Townsfolk	Video game, Voice
2007	The Closer	Mr. Sheffield	Television
2007	Ben 10: Race Against Time	Principal White	TV movie
2007	CSI: NY	Sheriff Benson	Television
2008	Smallville	Edward Teague	2 episodes
2009	Castle	Dr. Clark Murray	2 episodes, 2009-2010
2010	Justified	Karl Hanselman	Television
2010	Supernatural	Wayne Whittaker/Leprachaun	Television
2010	Monsterwolf	Stark	TV movie
2010	Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus	Admiral Calvin
2010	Call of Duty: Black Ops	Robert McNamara (voice)	Video game
2011	Stargate Universe	Richard Woolsey	Television
2011	No Ordinary Family	vice-principal Nance	Television
2011	The Captains	Himself
2012	Body of Proof	Henry	1 episode, 2012
2012	The Mentalist	Jason Cooper	Episode: "His Thoughts Were Red Thoughts", 2012

External links

• Robert Picardo at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Picardo at AllRovi
• Robert Picardo at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• The Official Robert Picardo website
• The Planetary Society Home Page