Biography
Although best known as a prolific supporting player, Matt Craven also enjoyed leading man status in "K2" (1991) and recurring roles in "High Incident" (ABC, 1996-97), "NCIS" (CBS, 2003-) and "Resurrection" (ABC, 2014-15). Born in Port Colborne, Ontario in 1956, Craven lost his father aged just six weeks old and was subsequently forced to leave high school in his teens and take various dead-end jobs to help support his family. Craven got the acting bug aged 20 after performing in a local production of "Dracula," and after making his screen debut in a "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975-) sketch, was cast as trainee counselor Hardware in "Meatballs" (1979). Craven then starred in Oscar-nominated short "Bravery in the Field" (1979), appeared in a series of low-budget horrors, and landed the recurring parts of Richie Messina and Bobby Kratz on short-lived sitcoms "Tough Cookies" (CBS, 1986) and "Harry" (ABC, 1987), respectively. Following supporting roles in "Palais Royale" (1988), "Chattahoochee" (1989) and "Blue Steel" (1990), Craven played the mysterious chemist in "Jacob's Ladder" (1990), shared top billing as mountain climber Harold in "K2" (1991) and portrayed Lt. Dave Spradling in "A Few Good Men" (1992). After adding "Indian Summer" (1993), "Killer" (1994), "Kansas" (1995) and "Double Cross" (1995) to his resume, Craven earned critical acclaim for his performance of civic leader Seymour Weiss in "Kingfish" (1995), appeared as Lt. Roy Zimmer in "Crimson Tide" (1995) and played Officer Lenny Gayer in 32 episodes of police drama "High Incident" (ABC, 1996-97). Craven's prolific period continued with supporting big-screen parts in "The Juror" (1996), "The Final Cut" (1996), "Never Too Late" (1996), "Masterminds" (1997) and "Paulie" (1998), and the regular role of Dr. Tim Lonner in "L.A. Doctors" (CBS, 1998-99). Craven remained just as busy throughout the following decade, with notable roles including conman Beamish in "Varian's War" (2001), gambler Greg in "Bleacher Bums" (2001) and murder suspect Dusty Wright in "The Life of David Gale" (2003). He also enjoyed a three-episode stint as Gordon Price on "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009), appeared in "Dragonfly" (2002), "Timeline" (2003) and "The Statement" (2003), and was cast as lawyer George Riley in "The Lyon's Den" (NBC, 2003). Craven then played authority figures in "The Clearing" (2004), "Assault on Precinct 13" (2005) "Deja vu" (2006) and "Raines" (NBC, 2007), portrayed war criminal Hans Frank in "Karol: A Man Who Became Pope" (2005), and added "Disturbia" (2007), "Public Enemies" (2009) and "Devil" (2010) to his list of box-office hits. Craven then bagged three of his biggest roles in quick succession, Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis in "NCIS" (CBS, 2003-), Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Dan Grant in "Justified" (FX, 2010-15) and Sheriff Fred Langston in "Resurrection" (ABC, 2014-15). He also showed up in "X-Men: First Class" (2011), "The Good Lie" (2012), "White House Down" (2013) and "Stonewall" (2015), as well as indie movies "Unless" (2016) and "Awakening the Zodiac" (2017), before being cast as small-town police officer Vickery in Gillian Flynn adaptation "Sharp Objects" (HBO, 2018-).
