Biography

Was considered for the role of Freddy Kruger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

Was in two movies that opened in the U.S. on the same weekend - The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003) and Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) (August 29, 2003 - Labor Day Weekend).

With TV commercials producer Kass McClaskey, he has a son Gannon McClaskey Wise (born 1985) and a daughter Kyna Wise (born 1987).

Attended the 2011 Twin Peaks Festival.

Profiled in "Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting" by Scott Voisin.

What goes through my mind when I see myself blowing some guy's brains out on screen? It looks a lot worse than it did when I was doing it. It's all so technical, really, when we're shotgun-blasting apart Peter Weller. It's kind of gruesome when you're doing it, but it looks worse on screen. It's not so bad, really. A little bit of gratuitous violence in a well-thought-out story is fine. -- on RoboCop (1987)

I'm so glad I played Leland Palmer, I can't even tell you. Reading the pilot episode and seeing what Leland went through, I thought, "This could be pretty one-dimensional. It was a father grieving for his murdered daughter. But boy, was I wrong. I had no idea the gamut Leland would run during the course of that show. They just wrote a beautiful character, and I'm fortunate to have played it. -- on Twin Peaks (1990)

I've always been a Dracula/vampire aficionado, being half-Romanian myself. Dracula has always been close to my heart -- in fact, I have a first edition of Bram Stoker's book. I read it over and over again as a young kid. I was a fan of the Lugosi film, and I've been a fan really of all the Dracula films made ever since. Christopher Lee's is a particular favorite of mine, and I like Coppola's film with 'Gary Oldman'. But I've never felt like the definitive Dracula film has been made. I'd like to take a shot at that some time in the near future.

My memories are of 95-degree temperatures and 98-percent humidity, and these big mosquitoes, and black flies and alligators. My fondest memories are of Adrienne Barbeau and her cavorting around the swamp. We had a great time down there in Charleston, South Carolina, Wes Craven and the whole bunch of us. We were like kids, playing these great comic-book characters. -- on Swamp Thing (1982)

They [the producers] pretty much laid out this character out for me in the writing, how they wanted him to have a sense of humor, that kind of twinkle in his eye, and a little bit of charm. I wasn't the standard scary devil, and that really appealed to me. I'm a big fan of all the great movie devils, from Walter Huston to Ray Walston to Al Pacino to Jack Nicholson. I admired a lot of their devils, and I wanted mine to be somewhat different. It's kind of a combination between a used-car salesman and a game-show host. -- on playing The Devil in Reaper (2007)