A failed audition became a 20-year rain check that turned a theater lifer into the face of the biggest franchise villain in cinema.
At a glance
- Known for
- Colonel Quaritch in the Avatar franchise, The Blind Man in Don't Breathe
- Before fame
- Originated Colonel Jessep on Broadway in A Few Good Men before Jack Nicholson made it famous on film
- Off-screen
- Co-wrote and performed a one-man show about Medal of Honor recipients over 400 times at military bases worldwide
Rise to Fame
An audition for Corporal Hicks in Aliens didn't land the part, but it lodged in James Cameron's memory for roughly 20 years. In the meantime, he originated Colonel Jessep in A Few Good Men on Broadway, the role Jack Nicholson later turned into a catchphrase factory on film. The play ran 497 performances. He won a Helen Hayes Award for the role. Two years later, a Tony nomination came for The Speed of Darkness. None of it translated into movie stardom.
The callback came sideways. A casting director spotted a newspaper ad for his one-man show and suggested him to Cameron, who already had the audition filed away. He got the Avatar role before his plane landed back in New York. He packed on 35 pounds of muscle without steroids. The film made $2.9 billion.
In the Spotlight
Three Avatar films in, he's the franchise's most durable human presence, playing a villain who keeps getting resurrected in increasingly exotic bodies. The Way of Water grossed $2.3 billion. Fire and Ash added another $1.49 billion. His character's fate stays deliberately ambiguous, which is Cameron's way of keeping him on retainer.
Between sequels, he proved Quaritch wasn't a fluke. Don't Breathe turned a $9 million budget into $157 million worldwide, and he carried it on minimal dialogue and sheer physical menace. He reprised that role too. At 73, he's still doing action leads: Hellfire alongside Dolph Lundgren, Sisu: Road to Revenge as a war criminal. The guy who spent decades waiting for his shot doesn't seem interested in slowing down now that he has it.
Side Notes
His father, Eugene Lang, was a self-made millionaire who promised college tuition to an entire sixth-grade class at his old Harlem elementary school in 1981, founded the "I Have a Dream" Foundation, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Eugene chose not to leave his children an inheritance. The son of a philanthropist who gave everything away spent 30 years grinding for his own break.
The military connection isn't a hobby. He co-wrote Beyond Glory, a one-man show about Medal of Honor recipients, and performed it over 400 times on military bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. He gave a command performance on the floor of Congress. He's been lifting weights since 1969, which partly explains why TikTok treats a 73-year-old character actor like a fitness influencer.