O'Quinn began acting in the 1970s during his time at
Central Michigan University. He not only was an actor but also playwright/director. He wrote and directed the musical
Orchestrina. This musical featured five main characters: The Man (played by
Jeff Daniels), The Boy (Harold Downs), The Woman (Ann O'Donnell), The Girl (Debbie Penwarden), and The Drunk (James Hilliker), plus a female and a male chorus. He was roommates at CMU with actor
Brad Slaight. Starting in 1980, O'Quinn has appeared in various feature films such as
Silver Bullet,
Tombstone, ''
Heaven's Gate, Young Guns, Ghosts of Mississippi, with Rutger Hauer in Blind Fury, and as Howard Hughes in The Rocketeer''. O'Quinn also appeared in the
Canadian horror movie,
Pin (1988) alongside
British-born Canadian actor,
David Hewlett. His early
television roles include guest appearances on
Tales of the Unexpected (episode "In the Bag"),
Miami Vice (episode "Give a Little, Take a Little"),
Moonlighting,
Star Trek: The Next Generation (episode "
The Pegasus"),
The Twilight Zone (1985 revival; episode "Chameleon"),
Homicide: Life on the Street (episode "Hate Crimes"), a recurring role on
Earth 2, another recurring role as Captain (later Rear Admiral)
Thomas Boone on
JAG, as well as Colonel Will Ryan in episode 15 of season 1 on the
JAG spin-off series
NCIS (episode "Enigma"). Around 1995, O'Quinn made guest appearances in
The X-Files and
Harsh Realm, produced by Chris Carter, who also cast him in the film
The X-Files: Fight the Future and then once again in the final season. In 1996, O'Quinn started acting as Peter Watts in the television series
Millennium, also produced by
Chris Carter. O'Quinn held this role for all three seasons of the series. O'Quinn holds the distinction of having played four different characters within the extended
X-Files/
Millennium continuum (the two shows being classed together since both
Lance Henriksen's character of
Frank Black and
Charles Nelson Reilly's character of Jose Chung have appeared in both shows).
The Stepfather films O'Quinn made his breakthrough by starring as the title character in
The Stepfather, a deranged serial killer going by the name "Jerry Blake" (his character's real name and identity are never revealed), who is obsessed with having an ideal family. When a widowed mother and daughter do not comply with his expectations, he spirals into a spell of madness and attempts to murder them. O'Quinn was praised by critics, including
Roger Ebert in the
Chicago Sun-Times, who commented, "
The Stepfather has one wonderful element: Terry O'Quinn's performance." Ebert wrote, "He is a journeyman actor from TV and many movies, usually in supporting roles and you may or may not recognize him. What's clear at once is that he is a strong actor and given this leading role he brings all kinds of creepy dimensions to it. He has the thankless assignment of showing us a completely hateful, repellent character – and he approaches the task as an exercise in cloying middle-class good manners." Not impressed with the second movie, O'Quinn declined to appear in its third installment, in which the stepfather character was portrayed by
Robert Wightman. O'Quinn was approached by the director of the
2009 reboot of
The Stepfather,
Nelson McCormick, to make a cameo appearance in the film but according to the producers O'Quinn turned down the offer.
Lost After a string of recurring appearances on
Alias (2002–2003), as the
FBI Director
Kendall, O'Quinn became a favorite of television producer
J. J. Abrams. Following a seven-episode guest run on
The West Wing in 2003–2004, O'Quinn received a call from Abrams indicating that the producer wanted to cast him in his new television drama
Lost without any audition. In 2005, O'Quinn received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his work as John Locke on the series
Lost. O'Quinn admitted on the
TV Guide Channel that he did not have much faith in
Lost at first, calling it "
The Mysterious Gilligan's Island of
Dr. Moreau". The show, however, became one of the most popular on television, and on September 16, 2007, he won an
Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role, and was nominated again for an Emmy for the role in 2010, which he did not win. In a
TV.com interview O'Quinn commented that the reason he felt comfortable playing this character is because he's a bit like him.
2010–present O'Quinn has made a number of television appearances since
Lost. From 2012 to 2013, O'Quinn starred in the short-lived series
666 Park Avenue as Gavin Doran. In 2012, he appeared in the second season of
Falling Skies. Additionally, O’Quinn starred for two seasons in Amazon Studios'
Patriot. In 2016, it was announced that O'Quinn would be joining the second season of ''
Secrets and Lies''. In 2019, O'Quinn starred in the only season of
Perpetual Grace, LTD on Epix. In February 2021, it was announced that O'Quinn was cast as Martin Queller in the
Netflix thriller series
Pieces of Her, which is adapted from the
Karin Slaughter novel of the same name. In October 2023, during New York Comic Con, it was announced that he would play the antagonist Major General Beale in
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, created by
Scott M. Gimple. Terry joined the
Cameo platform shortly after its launch in 2017. He has since been creating videos for fans and donating all of the proceeds to the Virginia Beach SPCA. Terry has raised thousands of dollars on Cameo, and continues to create videos weekly. ==Filmography==