Trace Beaulieu

Trace Beaulieu

Trace at Dragon*Con 2008
Born November 6, 1958
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Trace Beaulieu (/ˈtreɪs boʊlˈjuː/) born November 6, 1958, is an American puppeteer, writer, and actor. He is best known for his roles on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K)[1] as well as his work with MST3K's successor Cinematic Titanic with the original creators and cast of MST3K. In 2010 he published a book of poems entitled "Silly Rhymes For Belligerent Children" with illustrations by artist Len Peralta. He recently filmed a musical short film entitled "Frank" with the original MST3K cast, including Bill Corbett, who assumed the role of Crow after Beaulieu left MST3K. (Joel Hodgson appears in "Frank" only as a voice over while a standin wears Joel's trademark red jump suit.)[2] Beaulieu briefly attended the University of Minnesota.

Mystery Science Theater 3000

For the first eight seasons of MST3K (1 at KTMA and 7 on Comedy Channel/Central), Beaulieu wrote for the show, operated and voiced the Crow T. Robot puppet, and played the role of Dr. Clayton Forrester, the head mad scientist at Gizmonic Institute. After the season five departure of series creator Joel Hodgson, the name of Dr. Forrester's company was changed to Deep 13 because Hodgson held the copyright for the word "Gizmonic" and requested that the show refrain from using the word after his departure.[1] At the end of a truncated seventh season, Beaulieu left the series.[3] Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl) replaced him as the head mad scientist and Bill Corbett took over the voicing and operation of Crow.[1]

Work after MST3K

Beaulieu appeared as a semi-regular in Freaks and Geeks as the school's biology teacher, Mr. Lacovara. He also appeared in The West Wing episode "Bad Moon Rising". For the last few years, Beaulieu has been a writer for America's Funniest Home Videos.[2][3][4] In 2002, he was the head writer, producer, and host of the pilot episode of the Animal Planet show People Traps.[2] He has since starred in the 2010 computer game Darkstar: The Interactive Movie as first officer Ross Perryman.[5] In 2013, he reprised his role as Crow for a brief cameo appearance in two episodes of the fourth season of Arrested Development, along with Joel.[6]

Outside of acting, Beaulieu also wrote the script for the one-shot comic book Here Come the Big People, published by Event Comics. In 2010, Beaulieu completed work on a children's poetry book, Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children,[7] a dark, twisted, humorous collection illustrated by Len Peralta.

Cinematic Titanic

On October 30, 2007, Joel Hodgson announced he was starting a new series — distributed on DVD — with the same "riffing on bad movies" premise as MST3K. Called Cinematic Titanic, it features several former MST3K cast and crew members: Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl.[8]

Cinematic Titanic completed its final tour on December 30, 2013.[9]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "The (Nearly) Complete List of Credits", Ward E, The Satellite News
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Trace Beaulieu". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "West Brains: Trace", The Satellite News.
  4. ↑ "Brain Scan: Where Are They Now?", The Satellite News.
  5. ↑ DARKSTAR in Satellite News
  6. ↑ MST3K Pops Up in Arrested Development
  7. ↑ Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children
  8. ↑ Cinematic Titanic - Homepage of MST3K alumni Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff, Josh Weinstein, Trace Beaulieu and Mary Jo Pehl
  9. ↑ Biese, Alex. "Cinematic Titanic says goodbye at final show". Ashbury Park Press.

External links