| Carel Struycken | |
|---|---|
Carel Struycken in 2009. |
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| Born | July 30, 1948 The Hague, Netherlands |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Height | 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) |
| Website | |
| carelstruycken.com | |
Carel Struycken (born July 30, 1948) is a Dutch film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for playing Mr. Homn on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Lurch in the films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. He is an exceptionally tall man at 2.13 metres (7 feet) and thus is often called upon to play character or comedic roles in which height plays a major part.
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Struycken was born in The Hague, Netherlands. When he was 4 years old his family moved to Curaçao, an island in the Caribbean. At age 15, while living on the island of Curaçao, he composed several Caribbean waltzes. At 16 he returned to his home country, where he finished secondary school. He graduated from the directing program at the film school in Amsterdam. Following that, he spent a year at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. In 1978 he was "discovered" as an actor.
Struycken is considered a giant as the result of acromegaly.
Struycken is married to an American woman and has two children. He lives in the Los Angeles area. His brother Peter Struycken is a noted Dutch artist.
Struycken is a vegetarian on ethical grounds.
Struycken collaborated on a number of projects with writer/director Rene Daalder, including the 1986 punk rock musical Population: 1, which featured Tomata du Plenty of The Screamers and which was released on DVD in October 2008.[1] Struycken was "discovered" as an actor at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles by a lady who had abandoned her car in the middle of the street, calling after him: "We need you for a movie!".[2] The movie was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The turning point in his acting career however was playing the antagonist Terak in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, based on the Ewok creatures from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Notably Struycken was featured as Mr. Homn on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also co-starred as Fidel in the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick and as Lurch in the The Addams Family films (see Filmography).
For his other exploits see the Filmography and Television series.
Struycken is interested in making projects that are a combination of media, like using the non-linear character of Internet with video and graphical elements. These are usually low budget productions. Struycken is also a keen and active photographer. A combination of these techniques can be seen here and here (in collaboration with Josh Korwin). Struycken has also helped in hardware and software development of virtual reality systems.[3]