Matt Craven

Matthew John Crnkovich, known as Matt Craven (born November 10, 1956) is a Canadian actor. He has appeared in over 40 films including Happy Birthday to Me, Jacob's Ladder, K2, A Few Good Men, The Juror, Assault on Precinct 13, Disturbia, and X-Men: First Class.

Craven has also made several television appearances, most notably as Clayton Jarvis on the CBS series, NCIS, Officer Lenny Gayer on High Incident, Dr. Tim Lonner on L.A. Doctors, and Sheriff Fred Langston on the series, Resurrection.

Early life

Craven, a Canadian, spent his early life in Ontario. His father died six weeks after his birth and Craven ultimately dropped out of high school to work a variety of odd jobs to help support his mother and sister. He was about 20 when he discovered his love for acting - auditioning for, and starring in, a local production of Dracula as Jonathan Harker.

Career

Matt Craven is best known as a character actor working in TV and film. His credits include starring roles opposite such Hollywood stars as Helen Mirren, Denzel Washington, James Gandolfini, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman and Maggie Gyllenhaal. His films include the Academy Award nominated Crimson Tide, A Few Good Men, the SAG nominated X-Men: First Class, Public Enemies, Disturbia, Déjà Vu, The Life of David Gale, Tin Men and K2. Craven's first film Meatballs opposite Bill Murray was a huge hit and launched Craven's career in film and comedy. Murray took Craven under his wing and immediately started teaching him the fundamentals of improv and how to create and mold a character. Craven's second feature, the live action short Bravery in the Field was nominated for an Academy Award.

The next few years saw Craven starring in several comedy pilots opposite the likes of Alan Arkin, Richard Lewis, Annie Potts and Holland Taylor. His first major dramatic film was the drama/horror/mystery cult favorite Jacob's Ladder which follows a haunted Vietnam vet as he attempts to discover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. Craven starred as Michael, a chemist in the Army's chemical warfare division where he worked on a drug that was secretly given to the veteran's unit. This critically acclaimed film raised Craven's career to a whole new level, proving his versatility as an actor. On television, Craven has worked with Steven Spielberg as a series regular on High Incident, on TNT's Nuremberg and Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long, opposite Jeff Goldblum on Raines, several seasons on the international hit NCIS, and extensively with producer/writer Graham Yost on Justified, From the Earth to the Moon, The Pacific and Boomtown. Most recently, Craven starred on the ABC series Resurrection.

Craven had two features for 2015 - Roland Emmerich's Stonewall and Unless in which he stars opposite Catherine Keener.

Filmography

Movies

Television

Personal life

Craven has been married for the past 25 years to Sally Sutton, the Emmy Award winning makeup artist whom he met on the set of K2. They have two children, Nicholas and Josephine.

Craven is a strong supporter of "One Heart Source" and organisation designed to empower at risk children through education in Africa. He is an avid golfer and has been ranked third in Golf Digest's Hollywood's Top 100 Golfers. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, cooking and woodworking. He did a lot of his stunts for K2, worked as a doorman for the legendary nightclub the Bitter End, did his own stunt driving in The Life of David Gale, and is a lifelong fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

References

External links

• Matt Craven at the Internet Movie Database
• Meatballs movie website