Biographie

25 novembre 1966 · Everett, Washington, États-Unis

William Albert Burke

6′ 2″ (1,88 m)

[2012, on] Komodo (1999) There are things you do for art and there are things you do for commerce. I am not embarrassed about saying that I had an amazing time in Australia making that movie. Was it a piece of genius? No. But I remember having such a great time making it. It was me and Jill Hennessy and Kevin Zegers, and we had a ball, actually. We shot it on the Gold Coast of Australia, and every weekend we'd go down to either Sydney or Melbourne and have a blast. I don't really remember what the movie was about, but, uh, there were some lizards in it, right?

[2012, on his role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine] I barely remember that, except for the fact that it was one of my very first gigs. I remember being in makeup for four and a half or five hours, and then to take off the makeup it was another three or four in makeup, because you have to go through the whole process. It was very brief. One scene, maybe a scene and a half. It was basically a walk-on role. But it was very... it was a style that I was completely not used to as an actor. It was very Shakespearean, that show. But I did the best I could.

[2012, on getting into acting] I had known that I'd wanted to be an actor from a very early age, but I had always known that I wanted to have a dual career. I wanted to be an actor, and I also at that time wanted to be a rock star. And I went down the rock-star path first, and... that had its successes, but it didn't actually turn into rock stardom. But while I was doing that-this was up in Seattle, during the pre-grunge years-I met a woman who was producing an independent film, and she asked me to come and read for it. I did, and I got that part. And then she ended up doing another movie, and I got a part in that. Then I kind of did the thing that all the kids do: I moved to L.A. and just... I was doing music at the time, I had a demo deal with Warner Bros. that didn't pan out in the end, but I decided that while I was down here I'd just try and read for everything that I possibly could, and I started working as an actor in a timely fashion. And I've had a good 21 years so far.

[2012, on Jane Austen's Mafia!] Yeah! That was my first studio picture. It was two tons of fun. Great cast: Jay Mohr, Christina Applegate, the late Lloyd Bridges... one of his last movies, as a matter of fact. Yeah, just that silly, fall-down, slap-in-the-face, really great comedy that I never get the chance to do anymore, actually. But it was good times.

(2012, on landing Revolution) I was in Las Vegas, being a danger to myself. I got a call from my manager. She said, "Jon Favreau and Eric Kripke would like to meet you. They're doing a show. It's also produced by J.J. Abrams." I said, "What time do I gotta be there?" I flew back immediately, we met on a weekend, and they sort of just pitched me the show, what it was and what it was about. And given that and the pedigree that it came with, I said, "What do I gotta do? I'm in." And that's where it went from there. It's been nothing but joy ever since.