Terrance "Terry" O'Quinn (born July 15, 1952) is an Emmy Award-winning American actor.
Born Terrance Quinn at War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, O'Quinn grew up in nearby Newberry, Michigan, one of 11 siblings. He attended Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. He changed his surname from Quinn to O'Quinn as another registered actor already had the name Terrance Quinn.
O'Quinn began acting in the 1970s during his time at Central Michigan University. He not only was an outstanding actor but also playwright/director. He wrote and directed the musical Orchestrina. Starting in 1980, O'Quinn has appeared in various films such as Silver Bullet, Tombstone, Heaven's Gate, Young Guns, and as Howard Hughes in The Rocketeer.
His early television roles include guest appearances on Miami Vice, Earth 2, Moonlighting, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The New Twilight Zone, Homicide: Life on the Street, and a recurring role as Rear Admiral Thomas Boone on JAG.
O'Quinn made his breakthrough by appearing as the deranged serial killing title character in The Stepfather. His acting performance was praised by film critic Roger Ebert, from the Chicago Sun Times, who commented: "The Stepfather" has one wonderful element: Terry O'Quinn's performance". O'Quinn gained a Saturn Award and an Independent Spirit Award for his performance. A sequel was released, two years after the first movie, but it wasn't as much as a success as the first movie. It grossed almost a million dollar less at the box office. Around 1995, O'Quinn made guest appearances in The X-Files and Harsh Realm, also produced by Chris Carter, who also cast him in the film The X-Files: Fight The Future. O'Quinn holds the distinction of having played four different characters within the extended X-Files/Millennium continuum (the two shows being classed together since both Lance Henriksen's character of Frank Black and Charles Nelson Reilly's character of Jose Chung have appeared in both shows).
After a string of recurring appearances on Alias, as the FBI Director Kendall, O'Quinn became a favorite of television producer J.J. Abrams. Following a seven-episode guest run on The West Wing in 2003–2004, O'Quinn received a call from Abrams indicating that the producer wanted to cast him in his new television drama Lost without any audition. In 2005 and 2007, O'Quinn received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his work as John Locke on Lost. O'Quinn admitted on the TV Guide Channel that he did not have much faith in the series Lost at first, calling it "The Mysterious Gilligan's Island of Dr. Moreau". On September 16, 2007, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series for his role in Lost. In a Tv.com interview O'Quinn commented that the reason he felt comfortable playing this character is because he's a bit like him.
O'Quinn has been married to his wife, Lori, for 25 years. Most of that time they lived in Reisterstown, Maryland, but after Lost began airing, the couple decided to follow the example of O'Quinn's co-stars and move to Hawaii, where the series is shot. The couple own a home in Hawaii and one in Maryland. They have two sons, Oliver and Hunter. O'Quinn is also a grandfather of one girl.