Michael John Anderson (born 31 October 1953; age 71) is the actor who played Rumpelstiltskin in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine first season episode "If Wishes Were Horses".
He has made his career playing short-statured characters, his most famous role probably being "Man From Another Place" in the famous backwards-talking dream sequences of Twin Peaks (1989-91), alongside Sheryl Lee, Mädchen Amick, Richard Beymer, Ray Wise, Wendy Robie, Miguel Ferrer, Kenneth Welsh, David Warner, Carel Struycken, and Arvo Katajisto. He also appeared in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, with Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee, Mädchen Amick, Miguel Ferrer, Victor Rivers, and James Parks).
Anderson is also known for his starring role as Samson in Carnivàle (2003-2005), where he appeared with Adrienne Barbeau, Clancy Brown, John Savage, Diane Salinger, Scott MacDonald, Robert Knepper, John Fleck, John Carroll Lynch, K Callan, Time Winters, Matt McCoy, Spencer Garrett, Deborah Strang, Ellen Geer, Jeff Austin, Dakin Matthews, Thomas Kopache, Van Epperson, Leonard Kelly-Young, and James Lashly. Tracy Tormé served as staff writer and consulting producer on this show.
Anderson also made guest appearances on series like Picket Fences (with Patti Yasutake), The X-Files (with Vincent Schiavelli, directed by Kim Manners), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (starring Barbara Alyn Woods and Thomas Dekker), Charmed (with Faran Tahir, Erin Cummings, and David Mattey, directed by Jonathan West), and Cold Case (with Dakin Matthews and Carel Struycken, directed by Chris Fisher). In 1999, Anderson had a recurring role in Port Charles, alongside Nolan North.
In 1997, he appeared in the family adventure film Warriors of Virtue, with Doug Jones, Tom Towles, and Lee Arenberg. A year later, he appeared with John Savage in the direct-to-video film Club Vampire. In 2001, Anderson worked with David Lynch again, appearing in Mulholland Drive , which also featured Melissa George, Geno Silva, Wayne Grace, and Blake Lindsley. The same year, he appeared in Snow White: The Fairest of Them All, with Clancy Brown and Vincent Schiavelli.
Prior to becoming an actor, Anderson worked on the space shuttle orbiter for NASA.