Neal McDonough

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Neal McDonough

Neal McDonough (born 13 February 1966; age 58) is the actor who played Lieutenant Hawk, the USS Enterprise-E helmsman, in Star Trek: First Contact. McDonough is a huge Star Trek fan and playing Hawk allowed him to fulfill a lifelong dream. [1]

Outside of Star Trek, McDonough is known for his roles in the 2001 mini-series Band of Brothers and in the television series Desperate Housewives. He is also widely recognized for his performances in such films as Minority Report (2002), Walking Tall (2004), and Flags of Our Fathers (2006).

Early life

McDonough was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the son of Irish immigrants. He grew up in Cape Cod along with his sister and four brothers. He performed in his first play as a freshman in high school, portraying Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, for which he received a standing ovation. He graduated from Syracuse University York with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988. He then briefly trained at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts and Sciences before embarking on a career in Hollywood.

Early career

1990–1995

He made his film debut in the 1990 action thriller Darkman, which also featured fellow Star Trek performers Larry Drake and Aaron Lustig. The following year, he made his first appearance on television, guest-starring in an episode of the war drama series China Beach. Regulars on this series included Robert Picardo, Megan Gallagher, Jeff Kober, and Concetta Tomei, all of whom later performed on Star Trek: Voyager (and, in most cases, other Star Trek series). McDonough again worked with Tomei, as well as Gail Strickland, in the 1992 TV movie The Burden of Proof. He also worked with Kober again in the 1995 film One Tough Bastard.

Early in his career, McDonough worked on several science fiction television projects – each time portraying a drunk with father issues. The first was a 1991 episode of Quantum Leap, the popular series which starred Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell (later of Star Trek: Enterprise). This was followed in 1995 by an episode of VR.5 and then by the TV movie White Dwarf. McDonough's co-stars in the latter project included Katy Boyer, Roy Brocksmith, Michael McGrady, Paul Winfield, and Time Winters.

In 1993, McDonough co-starred with Voyager regular Jeri Ryan in the TV movie Ambush in Waco: In the Line of Duty. Gordon Clapp, Richard McGonagle, Glenn Morshower, and Susanna Thompson also appeared in this movie. The following year, he played the supporting role of baseball player Whitt Bass in Walt Disney's hit remake of Angels in the Outfield, in which he co-starred with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock actor Christopher Lloyd. In 1995, he guest-starred on the CBS comedy series Cybill (along with David Clennon and Ken Jenkins) and the NBC drama series JAG (working with Roger Aaron Brown, Spencer Garrett, and Gregg Henry).

1996–1998

In 1996, McDonough had a recurring role on the legal drama series Murder One, working alongside Cecily Adams, Jeff Allin, David Andrews, Jim Beaver, Barbara Bosson, Ron Canada, Michael Ensign, John Fleck, Gregory Itzin, Jack Kehler, Don McManus, Glenn Morshower, Clayton Rohner, Margot Rose, Kenneth Tigar, Titus Welliver, and Rick Worthy. McDonough appeared on several other series in 1996, including Murphy Brown (with John Hostetter) and NYPD Blue (with Gordon Clapp, Sharon Lawrence, Leland Orser, Sierra Pecheur, and Michael Buchman Silver).

McDonough supplied the voice for Dr. Bruce Banner, the Hulk's alter-ego, in the 1996-97 animated series The Incredible Hulk, based on the Marvel Comics superhero. Other voice actors from the series included Matt Frewer, Clancy Brown, Michael Bell, John Rhys-Davies, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jim Cummings and Jennifer Hale. McDonough voiced Banner again for the 2005 video game The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, which also featured the voices of Ron Perlman, Daniel Riordan, and Nicholas Guest.

McDonough worked with other Trek veterans in the 1997 TV movies Murder Live! and Invasion. The former project co-starred Caitlin Brown, Teri Garr, and Don Stark; the latter co-starred Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country performers Kim Cattrall and Rosana DeSoto. The following year he appeared with Susan Gibney in a two-part episode of Diagnosis Murder and starred in the independent drama Circles with Scott Thomson.

Recognition and recent career

1999–2005

McDonough won the Jury Award from the Atlantic City Film Festival for his performance in the 1999 independent drama film A Perfect Little Man. That same year, he was seen in a supporting role in the film Ravenous and appeared on the series Profiler with Jeremy Roberts. In 2000 McDonough had a recurring role on Martial Law, which included one episode with Jeffrey Combs and T.J. Storm.

McDonough played 1st Lt. Lynn 'Buck' Compton in HBO's acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning 2001 mini-series Band of Brothers. His co-stars on this project included David Andrews, Scott Grimes, Tom Hardy, and Simon Pegg. Band of Brothers executive producer Steven Spielberg subsequently hired McDonough for the major supporting role of Pre-Crime officer Fletcher in the hit 2002 science fiction film Minority Report. In this film, McDonough worked alongside Patrick Kilpatrick, who played a fellow Pre-Crime cop.

In 2002, prior to the release of Minority Report, McDonough appeared in two episodes of the popular science fiction series The X-Files: one with Alan Dale and James Parks and directed by Kim Manners and the other with Dale, Kerrie Keane, and Brian Morri. Later that year, McDonough became a series regular on the NBC drama Boomtown. Although this series was canceled after only one season, McDonough won a Golden Satellite Award and was nominated for a Television Critics Association Award for his performance.

In 2003, McDonough appeared in Paramount Pictures' 2003 science fiction adventure film Timeline, which also featured Stephen Liska. McDonough then co-starred with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the 2004 remake of the semi-biographical film Walking Tall. During the 2004-2005 television season, McDonough starred in another drama series for NBC, Medical Investigation. Like Boomtown, however, this series was pulled after just one season.

2006–present

Over the last several years, McDonough has acted in the such major feature films as The Guardian (2006, co-starring Clancy Brown), Flags of Our Fathers (2006, with Michael Canavan, Len Cariou, Gordon Clapp, David Clennon, Mark Colson, Christopher Curry, Ron Fassler, George Hearn, James Horan, and Harve Presnell), I Know Who Killed Me (2007, with Spencer Garrett, Gregory Itzin, and Brian McNamara), and 88 Minutes (2008, with Kaj-Erik Eriksen and editing by Peter E. Berger). In the 2008 sports film Forever Strong, McDonough and TNG guest star Julie Warner played husband and wife. McDonough's most recent film role was that of General Bison in the 2009 action film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, based on the hit video game series.

In 2007, McDonough was a regular on the short-lived drama series Traveler, as were Steven Culp and William Sadler. Later that year, McDonough starred as Wyatt Cain in the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series Tin Man, working with Gwynyth Walsh. From 2008 through 2009, McDonough portrayed Dave Williams in the fifth season of Desperate Housewives, starring Teri Hatcher and narrated by Brenda Strong. On this series, McDonough's character went insane trying to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter in a car accident which involved Hatcher's character.

In 2011, McDonough played "Dum Dum" Dugan in Captain America: The First Avenger, a film based on one of Marvel Comics' best-known characters.

External links

• Neal McDonough at Wikipedia
• Template:IMDb-link