Robert Picardo is an achieved singer and actor whose profession has lasted 45 years and reveals no signal of slowing. He has been performing professionally since he was in faculty within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, showing on stage in high-end productions like Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” and singing in his faculty a cappella choir. After faculty, he was acknowledged for his efficiency in a 1976 manufacturing of David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.”
His motion to tv was pure for a hard-working actor, beginning with small roles in notable hit reveals. He appeared on two episodes of “Kojak” in 1977 and has by no means had a “down” interval since. He thereafter popped up in “Taxi,” “Silver Spoons,” “Alice,” “Benson,” “21 Leap Avenue,” and 15 episodes of “The Surprise Years” because the hard-nosed Coach Cutlip, along with dozens of different TV reveals which can be too plentiful to listing right here. On the massive display, Picardo turned a “fortunate appeal” for director Joe Dante, showing in a lot of the filmmaker’s films; he was the werewolf in “The Howling,” a number of characters in “Explorers,” the Cowboy in “Innerspace,” took out the trash in “The ‘Burbs,” and made out with a Gremlin in “Gremlins 2: The New Batch.” He additionally turned up in Ridley Scott’s “Legend,” was the robotic cab driver in Paul Verhoeven’s “Complete Recall,” and appeared in a number of different hit films in addition to.
Picardo, in different phrases, is likely one of the hardest working and dependable character actors within the enterprise. By the point he was solid as the holographic Physician in “Star Trek: Voyager” in 1995, he was already a beloved “Hey, it is that man!” actor. “Voyager,” although, was type of what made his identify extra memorable, and it stays his longest-running and most acknowledged gig.
Instantly earlier than “Voyager,” Picardo even had visitor spots in a pair of season 3 episodes of the hit sitcom “Dwelling Enchancment.” He performed a personality named Joe Morton who, twice, met with Tim (Tim Allen) in his storage.
Star Trek’s Robert Picardo is likely one of the nice ‘Hey, it is that man!’ actors
Picardo first appeared within the “Dwelling Enchancment” episode “A Sew, Sew Night” (October 6, 1993). He performed Joe Morton, Tim’s new neighbor, who had one thing of an overbearing character. They’re each obsessive about vehicles and Joe by chance dings Tim’s automotive, inflicting some pressure between them. Picardo’s solely job was to be annoying and confident, Tim’s two least-liked qualities in different individuals. Joe Morton was a broad archetype, however Picardo performed the half with aplomb.
The character returned in “Blow Up” (November 3, 1993), however he solely performed a minor function in that one. In keeping with the episode’s IMDb trivia web page, Picardo was to develop into a semi-regular on “Dwelling Enchancment,” and the producers already figured they would come with him in additional episodes. In 1994, nonetheless, Picardo started his auditioning course of for “Star Trek: Voyager,” and he needed to decide to the sci-fi collection as an alternative. Picardo was initially uncertain whether or not he ought to be in a “Star Trek” spinoff or if he would discover better success on the already-popular “Dwelling Enchancment.” Evidently Tim Allen, a Trekkie, inspired him towards the previous.
Picardo wasn’t one to relaxation on his laurels, although. Through the audition course of for “Voyager,” Picardo managed to star in a Lee Harvey Oswald TV film, an episode of “Tales from the Crypt,” the sequel “Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love,” an episode of “Insurgent Freeway,” a TV thriller known as “White Mile,” and an episode of “ER.” He was additionally in “Wagons East!” and “The Pagemaster” at the moment. He would go on to seem in 172 episodes of “Voyager” from 1995 to 2001.
Picardo did not cease there both. Even after “Voyager,” his TV credit run into the handfuls. He saved working with Dante (he was in “Looney Tunes: Again in Motion”) and even turned up in additional “Star Trek” initiatives. He is additionally lent his voice to video video games and reprised his function because the Physician within the animated collection “Star Trek: Prodigy.” On the time of writing, he’s additionally set to seem in the upcoming “Star Trek” present “Starfleet Academy.”
“Dwelling Enchancment” was however one gig of tons of for Picardo.
