Marshall Colt

Marshall Colt, PhD
Marshall Colt, PhD
Born	26 October; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Alma mater	Tulane University; Pepperdine University; Fielding Graduate University
Occupation(s)	Psychologist since 1994; Actor, 1976-1995; Naval officer, 1970-2000

Marshall Colt is an American management consultant and combat-decorated, former Captain in the United States Navy in Orange County, California,^[1] who was an actor in film and television^[2] from 1976 to 1995.

He co-starred in the films Jagged Edge and North Dallas Forty, and in the James Arness crime series McClain's Law, which aired on NBC in the 1981-1982 season.^[3]

Acting career

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Colt graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. In 1976, he made his acting debut as Nick in the Berkeley Stage Theatre production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and as Inspector William Holmer in the episode "Castle of Fear" of ABC's police drama The Streets of San Francisco, starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas.

In 1978, Colt appeared as Sam Pray in "Great Expectations," the fourth episode of the short-lived CBS legal drama The Paper Chase, starring John Houseman.^[4] In 1979, he appeared on the ABC drama Family and in two episodes of Buddy Ebsen's CBS crime drama Barnaby Jones. He also played the role of Art Hartman in the Nick Nolte film North Dallas Forty.

On the hour-long series McClain's Law, Colt played young detective Harry Gates of the San Pedro, California, Police Department, whose use of modern criminology methods placed him in contrast to his older partner, Jim McClain, played by James Arness, who employed the more traditional approach. McClain's Law premiered some six years after the ending of Arness's former Gunsmoke western series.^[3]

In 1988, Colt was cast as Jack Wheeler, the chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, in the television film To Heal a Nation,^[5] based on the establishment of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. The roles of Jan Scruggs and his wife, Becky, were played by Eric Roberts, brother of Julia Roberts, and Glynnis O'Connor.

Other roles in television films were as Steven Beck in Beverly Hills Madam, as Charles McLean in Maggie, as Kelly Hancock in Mercy or Murder?, as Andrew Winkler in Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story, and as Douglas Erickson in Deceptions.

Colt was cast as Bobby Slade in Jagged Edge (1985), as Christopher Dollanganger in Flowers in the Attic (1987), and as Donald Cleary in Illegally Yours (1988).

His last roles in series television were in 1991 as Ross Corman in the episode "Tainted Lady" of Angela Lansbury's CBS drama, Murder, She Wrote^[5] and in 1995 in Chuck Norris's Walker, Texas Ranger, in the role of Lieutenant Lee Corbin in the episode "Whitewater, Part I."

Psychology career

Colt obtained his Master of Science in clinical psychology, with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy, from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He also holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, with a concentration in health psychology, accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. After an APA-accredited, adult neuropsychology internship at the VA Hospital, Denver, he served a six-month post-doctoral residency in pediatric neuropsychology in Salt Lake City. Colt has been in private practice since 1994.^[1]

Colt was formerly based in Denver, Colorado, where he frequently appeared on radio and television as an expert on psychological topics, including PTSD. He also wrote the syndicated "Ethics" column for the Denver Business Journal. He subsequently relocated to San Diego, and then Orange County, California, where he operates Corporate Psychological Management, a consultancy he founded in 1996.^[1]