Duncan Regehr

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Duncan Regehr as a retiarius gladiator in the 1984 BBC TV adaptation of The Last Days of Pompeii

Duncan Regehr (b. October 5, 1952 in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada) is a Canadian stage, film and television actor. Regehr was also a figure skater, an Olympic boxing contender and a classically trained Shakespearean stage actor in Canada before he got into film.

After numerous appearances in Canadian theatre and television, Regehr and his wife, Catherine, moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was quickly 'discovered' and hired to play the villain in the short-lived 1983 fantasy/comedy series Wizards and Warriors as Prince Dirk Blackpool. He went on to star in many more US television films, including the 1984 television mini-series "Last Days of Pompeii", as Lydon, the Gladiator; as Errol Flynn in the 1985 CBS film, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" based on the autobiography of Flynn; and on the science fiction series V as the Visitor military leader Charles. He also starred in the 1982 mini-series The Blue and the Gray as Captain Randolph. Regehr's best-known role to date was in 'New World Zorro' as Don Diego de La Vega and his alter ego, the swashbuckling hero Zorro. Regehr portrayed Zorro for 88 episodes on the US Family Channel from 1989 to 1994.

Other best known roles include numerous TV guest appearances. Regehr was guest actor on Cybill, "Murder, She Wrote", Hotel and the seventh-season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sub Rosa" as Ronin, a ghost who falls in love with Beverly Crusher. He also appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as First Minister Shakaar Edon, the leader of Bajor and Kira Nerys' lover.

Less known about Duncan Regehr is his life long career as a highly accomplished artist. (http://www.duncanregehr.com)

Regehr first exhibited in 1974 at The Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. Since then, numerous exhibitions in Canada, the USA, Britain and Europe have attracted the attention of museums, critics and the public. His work is found in important collections worldwide, including the Smithsonian Institute (USA), The Jilin Collection (China), The Kunsthallen (Copenhagen), Focus on the Masters Archives for the Getty Museum (USA), and the Syllavethy Collection of Scotland (GB).

In the year 2000, he was awarded the honourable lifetime appellation, Royal Canadian Artist, by the Queen’s Governor General and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, in recognition of his internationally renowned work and career. Also lauded as a distinguished author and poet, his critically acclaimed art book, “The Dragon’s Eye: An Artist’s View,” is an accomplished compendium of his paintings, poetry and insightful prose.

A strong draftsman, Regehr’s elegant lines delineate every component of his paintings with sensitivity and clarity. These delicately balanced compositions capture the presence and strength of the thoughts and acts of the subjects, while Regehr’s acute perceptions of the human experience, observations of life, culture and history manifest as richly resolved imagery. His figurative and representational works bend perspectives and stretch space in ways that evoke penetrating depths of meaning ~ Regehr reveals the exterior by painting the interior. His sensitive paintings and drawings are imbued with symbolism and mystery, inviting the viewer deep into his subjects’ thoughts and situations, forging a provocative relationship between the two. His paintings are unequivocal statements, made in a personal idiom, that resonate with universality.