Carel Struycken

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carel Struycken

Carel Struycken in 2009.
Born (1948-07-30) July 30, 1948
The Hague, Netherlands Netherlands
Occupation Actor
Height 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Website
carelstruycken.com

Carel Struycken (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkaːrəɫ ˈstrœy̆kə(n)]; born July 30, 1948) is a Dutch film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for playing the Giant in Twin Peaks, Mr. Homn in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Lurch in the films The Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Addams Family Reunion. 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.

Early life

Carel 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. Struycken's height is due to acromegaly.[citation needed]

Career

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]

In 1978 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.

Struycken played the antagonist Terak in the 1985 TV movie Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, a spinoff of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Struycken co-starred as Fidel in the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick. That same year, he appeared as Mr. Homn in "Haven", an episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role he would reprise in four more episodes until 1992.

In 1991 he starred as Lurch in the feature film The Addams Family. He reprised the role in the 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values.

Personal life

Carel 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.[citation needed]

Struycken is also an avid photographer. He maintains a website devoted to his spherical panoramas[3] and shares a photography blog with Josh Korwin.[4]

Struycken is a vegetarian on ethical grounds.[citation needed]

Filmography

Television series

Music videos

References

  1. ↑ http://www.population1movie.com/
  2. ↑ Carel Struycken tells the anecdote about his discovery as an actor in an interview on the daily Dutch TV show De Wereld Draait Door, October 2, 2006 (at 41:08 min.)
  3. ↑ Struycken, Carel.Spherical Panomramas. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  4. ↑ Picture Bubbles Blog. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  5. ↑ Source for filmography: Carel Struycken, accessed on October 3, 2006

Further reading

  • Carel Struycken: Leaning Toward the Paleolithic, by Christopher Nyerges, The Backwoodsman Magazine, July/August 2013, Vol.34 No. 4, published by Backwoodsman Magazine, Fulton, Texas. Pages 26-27

External links

Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.