Robert Picardo
 |
Robert Picardo | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Picardo at GalaxyCon San Jose in 2024 | |
| Born | Robert Alphonse Picardo October 27, 1953 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Education | Yale University (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1975–present |
| Spouse |
Linda Pawlik
(m. 1984; div. 2014) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www |
Robert Alphonse Picardo (born October 27, 1953) is an American actor. He is best known for playing The Doctor in the Star Trek franchise, starting on Star Trek: Voyager. He also appeared as Richard Woolsey in the Stargate franchise, the Cowboy in Innerspace, Coach Cutlip on The Wonder Years, and Captain Dick Richard on the ABC series China Beach. He is a frequent collaborator with Joe Dante and is a member of The Planetary Society's board of directors.
Early life
[edit]Picardo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Joe Picardo. Robert is of Italian heritage, with his father's family originating from Montecorvino Rovella, Salerno, and his mother's parents originally from Bomba in Abruzzo. He graduated from William Penn Charter School in 1971 and originally entered Yale University as a pre-medical student, but opted to act, instead. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Yale.
Picardo is an accomplished singer. While he was at Yale University, he was a member of the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, the second-longest running undergraduate a cappella group in the United States. Also, while at Yale, he had a major role in the 1973 European premiere production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass in Vienna, conducted by John Mauceri. The production was televised by ORF and broadcast on PBS during the 1970s. His singing was also incorporated into his role in Star Trek: Voyager.
After earning his degree, he enrolled at the Circle in the Square Professional Theater Workshop. He waited tables for a few years until his theatrical work started to take off around 1976. His first breaks were appearing in the David Mamet play Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and with Diane Keaton in The Primary English Class.[1]
Career
[edit]
In 1977, Picardo made his Broadway debut, appearing in Gemini (1977) and Tribute (1978).[2]
On television, Picardo appeared on Kojak in a 1977 episode and Taxi in a 1979 episode. He made his feature-film debut as Eddie Quist, the serial killer werewolf in the Joe Dante film The Howling (1981). He also had a recurring role in the sitcom Alice and played a doctor on an episode of The Golden Girls.
He played a number of roles in Dante's family science fiction film Explorers (1985), and later appeared in Dante's Innerspace (1987), The 'Burbs (1989), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Matinee (1993), Small Soldiers (1998), and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). Picardo often plays roles under layers of prosthetic latex, having also played the swamp-dwelling Meg Mucklebones in Ridley Scott's film Legend (1985). He also had a small role as a funeral director in John Landis's Amazon Women on the Moon (1987). Picardo also portrayed the voice and face of the robotic Johnny Cab in Total Recall (1990).
During the 1988–1991 television seasons, Picardo was simultaneously seen on the ABC Vietnam series China Beach in the role of Dr. Dick Richard, and the ABC series The Wonder Years in the role of Coach Cutlip. He is among a small group of television actors to achieve notice on two television series at the same time.
In 1993, Picardo had a brief role as Joe "the Meat Man" Morton, a butcher and neighbor to Tim Allen's character on the sitcom Home Improvement. He also appeared in one episode of ER in 1995 as Abraham Zimble (Season 2 - Episode 6, "Days Like This"). That same year, he voiced Pfish in two Pfish & Chip shorts as seen on Cartoon Network's What-A-Cartoon! Show.
Star Trek
[edit]From 1995 to 2001, he played the role of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) in the television series Star Trek: Voyager. Before being accepted for this role, Picardo initially auditioned for the role of Neelix. He later also directed two episodes. In the series, his character finally chose the name "Joe", after both the name of his wife's grandfather and Picardo's own father.
He played additional copies of the role of the EMH in the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact[3] and the 1997 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?". He also played Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, the creator of the EMH, in episodes of Deep Space Nine and Voyager.[4]
In 2002, Picardo authored The Hologram's Handbook, published by