Overview (4)
Born | in Anniston, Alabama, USA |
Birth Name | Michael Connell Biehn |
Nicknames |
Mike Mick |
Height | 5' 11¾" (1.82 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Michael Connell Biehn was born on July 31, 1956 in Anniston, Alabama, to Marcia (Connell) and Don Biehn, a lawyer. He grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and at age 14 moved with his family to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where he won a drama scholarship to the University of Arizona. He left prematurely two years later to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. His first big role was as a psychotic fan stalking Lauren Bacall in The Fan (1981) and later appeared in The Lords of Discipline (1983). He hit the big-time when he was cast as Kyle Reese, the man sent back through time to stop Arnold Schwarzenegger in James Cameron's The Terminator (1984). This established a good working relationship with Cameron, a relationship that should have catapulted Biehn to international stardom. He starred in Cameron's subsequent films, Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989), the latter a standout performance as unstable Navy SEAL officer Lt. Hiram Coffey. In the 1990s he starred in films like Navy Seals (1990), K2 (1991) and was particularly memorable as Johnny Ringo in Tombstone (1993). Biehn is married and the father of four sons.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: André Hansson <andreh@hawkan.pp.se>
Spouse (3)
Jennifer Blanc-Biehn | (7 June 2018 - present) ( 1 child) |
Gina Marsh | (1 January 1988 - 2014) ( divorced) ( 2 children) |
Carlene Olson | (11 July 1980 - 14 July 1987) ( divorced) ( 2 children) |
Trade Mark (3)
Trivia (64)
Personal Quotes (48)
Again, it was a mistake that I made, because I would've loved to have worked with Kathryn, because she went on to do the movie with Patrick Swayze and Keanu, and there was a call that was made to me about the Patrick Swayze role in that, also. That was a mistake, that I didn't do Near Dark (1987). I look at it, and I've seen it recently, and it's an interesting film from a first time filmmaker, and she's a brilliant filmmaker.
What I said was "Fuck you for having that happen to my character." There was no way I would ever let that character have a monster come bursting out of his chest, so you can forget about that happening. Jim wasn't happy about that either, so they dropped that idea and then they came back and they said "We want to use your picture" and I said "Okay, you can use my picture. It's going to cost you and it's going to cost you a lot."
So they paid me a lot of money to use my picture in that movie. It was really probably the most disappointing moment in my career when I look at like "Jeez, I could have been a part of a franchise that went like four or five deep and made a lot of money and really had been able to..."
Some directors, like Lewis Teague who did Navy Seals (1990), somehow they just keep failing upwards. Like The Jewel of the Nile (1985), which is one of the worst movies ever made, but somehow he gets work off it. It's like, "Okay, The Jewel of the Nile (1985). Well then, let him do Navy Seals (1990)." They're just kind of [examples] of people who really aren't that good at what they do, and slowly, but surely, just disappear.
It's funny, because usually when people... When I try to think of the name of that movie, if you hadn't just said "Deadfall (1993)" or had you said, "What's the movie you did with Nic Cage and Charlie Sheen?" I always have this mental Freudian block and I can never remember the name of it. To be perfectly honest with you, I kind of have a bottom five of movies that I was in. That was one of them."
And we went out and rehearsed that, and we spent six or eight hours rehearsing it, kind of doing that thing where we'd walk around each other, sizing each other up, and then how I got shot and how I still continued to pull the trigger even though I had a bullet through the brain. All of that stuff, Val and I rehearsed the day before we shot, and that's the kind of actor that I know Val Kilmer is. I mean, he is passionate and he wants to get it right, and he is like me and like Jim Cameron and like a lot of people who are like, "I'm making a movie here. I'm going to do the best I can, and if you're not with me, then get out of the way."
It didn't make any sense to me. Even when I watch the movie now you really have to stay on top of it to know what's going on. But they never offered me the role, they said would you like to come in and either audition, or read, or maybe just meet Bryan, and I said, "No man, I don't understand it," and of course, I didn't know Bryan Singer was going to be Bryan Singer. I thought it was just a guy with a confusing script!
Once he cast Sigourney, then he felt... I ended up hearing this though my son, because my son went to school with Jon Landau's son, he felt that there's too much of that Aliens connection and he didn't want the Hicks-Ripley thing to be a part of that movie, so once he signed on Sigourney then he went with Stephen Lang. I like Stephen a lot and I really think that he's been around for a long time and I was really happy that he got he role if I didn't get it.
Anyway, we're at the big screen downtown, a thousand people, and the movie starts, blah blah blah happens, Josh Brolin's doing his thing. All of a sudden, I come crashing through the front door with a shotgun in my hand... and fucking everybody goes crazy. Everybody stands up and cheers. Here comes the fucking cavalry, which I guess I represented. Which I guess he knew I represented. That's Robert. He knew that moment was going to happen if he cast me in that role, as opposed to somebody else, I think, because of all the stuff that I had done back in the '80s I guess was kind of heroic.