16/06/2026
The actor Lance Henriksen!
A personal favourite actor of mine, always in a good film or TV show and now 86, and he treated Ann Evans Books and myself very well.
It was 2005 that we first met Lance Hendriksen and were fortunate enough to have quite a lengthy interview with him. If you're a film goer, you'll recognise him from the classic Aliens and Alien vs Predator films. However his list of films reaches to almost 100 movies, including The Terminator, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Damien, Omen II. Hellraiser, Pumpkinhead – the list goes on.
When we chatted to him back in 2005, there was one thing he really wanted to do. “The thing I am longing to do is sit com not because I think I'm funny, but I long to do a situation comedy. The challenge for me with a part is doing something I haven't done before.”
Our interview took place on a balcony at a Memorabilia Show, and he was enjoying the atmosphere of the event. “It's the first time I've done anything like this and it's great fun meeting fans and talking to them.”
We asked how he first got into films. He answered, “I always wanted to be an actor, even when I was a little kid. When I used to run away from home I'd go to the movies and sit all night watching Kirk Douglas. When I was 16 I tried getting into the Actors' Studio and they told me to 'get lost!' I said: 'I'll come back when I'm a man.' I came back when I was 30. I went to sea, I travelled the world… I was waiting!”
Lance talked about the making of Alien vs Predator. “It was made in Prague, in five months,” he said. “But it was five winter months and very cold. So really, what you saw in the film was real, It was very cold. Non of the sets were heated and they were huge sets. But it was the most wonderful ensemble. Everybody connected and we would all go out to dinner together. Director, Paul Anderson is a lovely guy, a bright, enthusiastic man. I made some good friends, who I still keep in touch with.”
There's no denying that some of the characters played by Lance have come to some sticky ends. Laughingly, he agreed: “Everything has happened to me in the Alien films. I've been ripped in half in the first one, chopped up in another. They get me on a movie and kill me. I go into their office and I'm sure when I leave they say, 'You know, he'd be great to kill.' I have been killed off in every way you can imagine. They keep bringing me back to life and killing me off again!”
