Michael Dorn

Michael Dorn
at the Galileo 7.9 Convention in 2005 in Neuss, Germany
Born	(1952-12-09) December 9, 1952 Luling, Texas, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, Voice actor

Michael Dorn (born December 9, 1952) is an American actor, and voice artist who is best known for his role as the Klingon Worf from the Star Trek franchise.

Early life and career

Dorn was born in Luling, Texas, the son of Allie Lee (née Nauls) and Fentress Dorn, Jr. He grew up in Pasadena, California. He studied radio and television production at the Pasadena City College. From there he pursued a career in music as a performer with several different rock music bands, travelling to San Francisco and then back to Los Angeles.

The first movie Dorn had a role in was Rocky (1976) as Apollo Creed's bodyguard, though he was not credited. He first appeared as a guest on the television show W.E.B. in 1978. The producer was impressed with his work, so he introduced Michael to an agent who introduced him to acting teacher Charles Conrad to study acting for six months. He then landed a regular role on the television series CHiPs.

Star Trek

Dorn's most famous role to date is that of the Klingon Starfleet officer Lieutenant J.G. (later Lieutenant and then Lt. Commander) Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He said he got the role by showing up at the interview with several people. He did not smile or speak or sit, but stood in a corner in rigid attention posture, like the stereotypical Klingon warrior. When called, he marched into the room, scowled, and shook the interviewer's hand sharply. After reading, he gruffly thanked the director, and walked out. He attributes this reading in character as a Klingon warrior to getting the part.

Dorn has appeared on-screen in more Star Trek episodes and movies as the same character than anyone else: he appeared in 175 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, missing three: "Code of Honor", "Haven" and "Shades of Gray," 102 episodes of Deep Space Nine, missing four during his time on the show: "Rocks and Shoals", "The Magnificent Ferengi", "Chrysalis" and "Prodigal Daughter" and he also appeared in five Star Trek movies, bringing his total to 281 appearances as Worf. Colm Meaney is the only other person who has made over 200 appearances on Star Trek with 216 episodes; Majel Barrett had 233 "appearances" but many of these were voice only.

Dorn's appearance in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was as Colonel Worf, representing Captain James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy at their trial on Qo'noS and also unmasked the real assassin: Colonel West. Although never confirmed on screen, the character of Colonel Worf was intended to be the grandfather of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Worf.

Dorn is also one of six actors (the other actors being Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, George Takei, Avery Brooks and Majel Barrett) to lend his voice to Star Trek: Captain's Chair, reprising his role of Lieutenant Commander Worf.

Dorn's voice deepened from his years of playing Worf. His two favorite episodes of The Next Generation are "The Offspring" and "The Drumhead".

Other work

Dorn has also appeared in various video games, including Emperor: Battle for Dune, a game loosely based on Frank Herbert's Dune novels, as the Duke of House Atreides, Dr. John in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Special Agent Frank Horrigan and Marcus the Mutant Sheriff in Fallout 2, as Maero in Saints Row 2, the critically acclaimed Mission Critical as Commander Dana, captain of the spaceship, and Gatatog Uvenk the minor antagonist in Mass Effect 2. Dorn later reprised his role as Marcus in Fallout: New Vegas. He is the voice of the narrator in the 1996 DOS game, Vikings, Strategy of Ultimate Conquest!.

Dorn has been the spokesman for Neutrogena T-Gel Shampoo, and has appeared in a car commercial. Dorn has appeared on Webster and Family Guy as Worf; the latter along with fellow Star Trek: The Next Generation stars in the episodes "Peter's Got Woods" and "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven". One of his most known works in television was to voice I.M. Weasel, protagonist of the animated series I Am Weasel. Dorn also supplied the voice of the Martian Centurion Robots in cartoon Duck Dodgers. He provided the voice of Kraven the Hunter in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series and appeared on Martial Law. He voiced several NPCs in World of Warcraft, Gorgon in Fantastic Four and King Beardbottom in "Here Thar Be Dwarves", the 30th episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Dorn also reappeared in the DC animated universe as Kalibak, in episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. He appeared in the Ben 10 episode "The Return" and Be Afraid Of The Dark as Doctor Vicktor and BenVicktor. Dorn appeared as the President of the United States on Volume 4 of Heroes. Dorn also appeared again with Sylvester Stallone in Shade as a high stakes poker player. Michael Dorn has also appeared in SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron as Mutilor the alien antagonist. He was also the voice of Rufus 3000 in the Kim Possible movie A Sitch in Time. He also appeared on Without a Trace on November 15, 2007. He voiced the former Great Spirit Mata Nui in the recent film, BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn. Months later, LEGO hired him to return to the voice of Mata Nui in "Mata Nui Saga", a illustrated blog in BIONICLE.com. In 2010 he voiced Tassadar in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

More recently, he voiced the immortal supervillain Kru'll the Eternal in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and, fittingly, Guardship Commander Dorn in Strange Frame: Love & Sax as well as Gork and several minor characters in Adventure Time. He currently has a recurring role on the television series Castle, playing the therapist of NYPD police detective Kate Beckett.

Directorial Credits

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "In the Cards"
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "Inquisition"
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "When It Rains..."
• Star Trek: Enterprise: "Two Days and Two Nights"

Personal life

Dorn enjoys flying, something he was not permitted to do while in The Next Generation but was able to do after joining the cast of Deep Space Nine. He has flown with the Blue Angels as well as the Thunderbirds. Dorn has owned several aircraft, including a T-33 Shooting Star, an F-86 Sabre, and currently owns a North American Sabreliner. The T-33 was often referred to as "his starship." Michael Dorn also serves on several organizations, one of which is the Air Force Heritage Foundation where he is on the advisory board. Dorn has also done interviews for the "Private Jets" episode of Modern Marvels on The History Channel. He is also a fan of Comedy Central's South Park and admitted in an interview that he wished they had asked him to guest voice himself in his appearance in the episode "Fun with Veal". He is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).

He is a vegan.

Filmography

Feature films

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1976	Rocky	Apollo Creed's bodyguard (uncredited)	Dorn's film debut.
1977	Demon Seed	bit part (uncredited)
1985	Jagged Edge	Dan Hislan
1991	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	Klingon Defence Attorney (Colonel Worf)
1994	Star Trek Generations	Lieutenant Commander Worf
1995	Amanda and the Alien	Lieutenant Vint	Made-for-TV film
1995	Timemaster	Chairman
1996	Star Trek: First Contact	Lieutenant Commander Worf	Commander, USS Defiant
1997	Menno's Mind	Simon, Menno's Friend
1998	Star Trek: Insurrection	Lieutenant Commander Worf
2000	Shadow Hours	Detective Thomas Greenwood
2000	The Prophet's Game	Bob Bowman
2001	The Gristle	Tar
2001	Mach 2	Rogers
2001	Ali	Black pilot
2002	Face Value	Hitman
2002	Through The Fire	Michael Collins	Made-for-TV film
2002	Star Trek: Nemesis	Lieutenant Commander Worf
2002	The Santa Clause 2	The Sandman
2003	Shade	Jack Thornhill
2003	Lessons For an Assassin	Quinn
2003	The Interplanetary Surplus Male and Amazon Women of Outer Space	Sam the Bartender	Straight-to-DVD film
2003	Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time	Rufus 3000 (voice)	Made-for-TV film
2005	Heart of the Beholder	Lieutenant Larson
2005	Descent	General Fielding	Made-for-TV film
2005	Through the Mobieus Strip	King Tor (voice)
2006	All You've Got	Fire Captain Diaz	Made-for-TV film
2006	A.I. Assault	General Buskirk	Made-for-TV film
2006	The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause	The Sandman
2006	Fallen Angels	Taylor	Made-for-TV film
2007	Fist of the Warrior	Arnold Denton
2007	Night Skies	Kyle
2007	The Deep Below	Carl Bennett
2009	Bionicle: The Legend Reborn	Mata Nui (voice)	Straight-to-DVD film
2010	It's A Trap!	Lieutenant Worf (voice)	Straight-to-DVD film

Years	Television show	Role	Notes
1979–1982	CHiPs	Officer Jebediah Turner (31 episodes)
1979–1982	CHiPs	Officer Jebediah Turner (31 episodes)
1986–1987	Days of our Lives	Jimmy
1987–1994	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Lieutenant Worf
1991–1994	Dinosaurs	Elders
1994–1997	Gargoyles	Coldstone
1995–1999	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Lieutenant Commander Worf
1995–2000	The Outer Limits	Pete Claridge
1996	Adventures from the Book of Virtues	Apollo (one episode)	voice
1996–2000	Superman: The Animated Series	Kalibak and John Henry Irons (a.k.a. Steel)
1997–1999	I Am Weasel	I.M. Weasel
2004–2005	Megas XLR	R.E.G.I.S. Mark V and Number 14
2004–2007	Danny Phantom	Fright Knight
2011–	Castle	Dr. Carver Burke
2012–	Transformers: Prime	TBA

References

Notes

External links

• Michael Dorn at IMDb
• Michael Dorn at AllMovie
• Michael Dorn at Memory Alpha
• Serves on the Air Force Aviation Heritage Foundation as an advisory board member