(written from a Production point of view)
Corbin Dean Bernsen (born 7 September 1954; age 69) from North Hollywood, California, is the actor who appeared as Q2 in the I AM ERROR third season episode "Deja Q" in 1990. According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, "Corbin Bernsen has said he took the role of Q2 not so much as a fan of Trek but to be a part of its legacy and its humanistic outlook."
He also made an appearance at Star Trek: The Experience during the convention there, eating lunch with the winners of a contest. His "Deja Q" co-star John de Lancie (who played Q) was originally scheduled to do this, but was unable to attend.
Bernsen is best known for his Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated role as Arnie Becker on the television series L.A. Law, on which he co-starred with I AM ERROR guest actor Larry Drake. Prior to this, he was a regular on the soap opera Ryan's Hope, as was Voyager's Kate Mulgrew. He would go on to co-star with Mulgrew in the 1998 made-for-TV movie Riddler's Moon.
He made his feature film debut with a small role in 1974's Three the Hard Way, co-starring fellow Trek alumni Jay Robinson and Irene Tsu. He went on to make a brief, uncredited appearance in the 1976 remake of King Kong, also featuring Rene Auberjonois, Ed Lauter, Garry Walberg, Ray Buktenica, and Joe Piscopo. Since acquiring fame on L.A. Law, however, he has had starring or major supporting roles in an extensive number of films. Most notable among these are Major League (1989) and its sequels, Major League II (1994) and Major League: Back to the Minors (1998). In the latter, he co-starred with I AM ERROR actor Scott Bakula.
He was among many Star Trek alumni to appear in the 1996 film The Great White Hype. Also included in the cast were John Rhys-Davies, Salli Elise Richardson, Susan Gibney, Albert Hall, and Brad Blaisdell. That same year, he also co-starred with fellow TNG guest actor William O. Campbell and Trek regulars Robert Picardo and Michael Dorn in the 1996 science fiction film Menno's Mind (Bill Erwin also had a role in this film.)
In 1996-1997, Bernsen starred in the syndicated series The Cape as a retired NASA Space Shuttle astronaut, in charge of training other astronauts. He appeared in some late-season episodes with Susan Gibney.
In 2002, he would reprise his role of Arnie Becker in TV's L.A. Law: The Movie. Larry Drake also returned for this movie, while Bruce Davison co-starred.
From 2004 to 2006, he appeared on General Hospital as John Durant, the father of Carly Corinthos. A pre-Trek Leonard Nimoy briefly appeared on GH in 1963 and Genie Francis (wife of Jonathan Frakes) played Laura Spencer, one-half of the Luke and Laura super-couple.
In 2006, Bernsen guest-starred in an episode of Boston Legal, which stars William Shatner, Rene Auberjonois and Joanna Cassidy. He also starred as Shawn Spencer's ex-cop father Henry in the USA Network 2006-2014 series Psych.
He attended the same high school as Jerry Finnerman and Roxann Dawson.
Other Trek connections
Additional film and television projects in which Bernsen appeared with other Star Trek performers include:
- Blind Sunday (1976 TV movie, with Leigh J. McCloskey)
- S.O.B. (1981 film, with Hamilton Camp)
- Doubletake (1985 TV movie, with Concetta Tomei, Michael Bofshever, Mark Margolis, and Jude Ciccolella)
- Dead Aim (1987 film, with William Windom)
- Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1987 film, with George D. Wallace)
- Breaking Point (1989 TV movie, with John Glover and Lawrence Pressman)
- Out of This World episode "Evie's Nightingale" (1991, with Maureen Flannigan)
- Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story (1991 TV movie, with Casey Biggs)
- Dead on the Money (1991 TV movie, with John Glover)
- Grass Roots (1992 TV movie, with Joanna Cassidy and John Glover)
- Shattered (1991 film, with Theodore Bikel)
- Frozen Assets (1992 film, with Gerrit Graham)
- Love Can Be Murder (1992 TV movie, with Cliff DeYoung)
- Beyond Suspicion (1993 TV movie, with Kelsey Grammer)
- Temptress (1994 film, with Chris Sarandon)
- The Soft Kill (1994 film, with Matt McCoy)
- Savage Land (1994 film, with Charles Napier)
- The New Age (1994 film, starring Peter Weller)
- Radioland Murders (1994 film, with Christopher Lloyd and Michael McKean)
- Cover Me (1995 film, with Paul Sorvino)
- Dangerous Intentions (1995 film, with Patti Yasutake)
- Tales from the Hood (1995 film, starring Clarence Williams III)
- Kounterfeit (1996, with Andrew Hawkes)
- Tidal Wave: No Escape (1997 TV movie, with Gregg Henry)
- Beings (1998 film, with Malcolm McDowell)
- The Dentist 2 (1998 film, with Clint Howard)
- Young Hearts Unlimited (1998 TV movie, with Lee Arenberg)
- Rubbernecking (2000 film, with Jennifer Lien)
- The Tomorrow Man (2001 film, with Zach Galligan)
- Raptor (2001 direct-to-video movie, with James Cromwell)
- The Santa Trap (2002 TV movie, with Adrienne Barbeau)
- Atomic Twister (2002 TV movie, starring Sharon Lawrence)
- The Commission (2003 film, with Stephen Collins, Henry Gibson, Glenn Morshower, and Jim Beaver)
- Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss (2004, with Saul Rubinek)
- Death and Texas (2004 film, with John Fleck and Richard Riehle)
- Quiet Kill (2004 film, with Ron Perlman)
- Psych episode "Shawn vs. the Red Phantom" (2006, with George Takei)
- Psych episode "The Head, The Tail, The Whole Damn Episode" (2010, with Jeri Ryan)
External links
- CorbinBernsen.com – official site
- Corbin Bernsen at Wikipedia
- Template:IMDb-link
- Template:NowCasting