Christopher Heyerdahl

Christopher Heyerdahl
PerformerCaprica
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Portrays:	Kevin Reikle
Date of Birth:	September 18, 1963
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month! ,
Age:	62
Nationality:	CAN
Related Media
		@ BW Media
[{{{site}}} Official Site]
IMDb profile

Christopher Heyerdahl (born September 18, 1963) is a Canadian actor who portrayed Kevin Reikle in Caprica.

Biography

Heyerdahl was born in British Columbia, Canada, and is of Norwegian and Scottish descent. His father emigrated from Norway in the 1950s, and he is a first cousin once removed of famed Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl. He is fluent in French and has starred in several French-language productions.

Career

Heyerdahl is a classically trained actor who honed his craft at Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He has an extensive career in Canadian and American television, particularly within the science fiction genre.

Before his role on Caprica, he was well known to sci-fi fans for his multiple roles in the Stargate franchise. In Stargate: Atlantis, he played two prominent, recurring roles: the Athosian leader Halling, and the fan-favorite, duplicitous Wraith commander, "Todd". Heyerdahl enjoyed the character's unpredictability and his complex relationship with Colonel Sheppard, calling it a "very questionable relationship" that was the best part of the role. He felt Todd should always remain an unpredictable "X factor" in the series.

His other notable genre roles include the demon Alastair in Supernatural, and the dual roles of Bigfoot and John Druitt in Sanctuary. In The Twilight Saga, he played Marcus, an ancient vampire leader whose power is to sense the relationships between others. Heyerdahl viewed the Volturi not as simple villains, but as a necessary governing body, arguing, "Someone has to rule. Otherwise it would be a free for all."

He gained further acclaim for his role as the antagonist Thor Gundersen, better known as "The Swede," in the AMC western series Hell on Wheels. Heyerdahl drew upon his Norwegian heritage for the role, using his father's accent as direct inspiration. He considered the character's restrictive, high-collared costume a "gift" that was essential to embodying the character's rigid and controlled psychology. He found the character's misnomer of 'The Swede' to be an authentic and "hilarious" detail, reflecting a real-world slight often felt by Norwegians, joking that "The Swedes have just got a better publicity agent."

Caprica

According to actress Magda Apanowicz in the podcast commentary for "Blowback," Heyerdahl was genuinely concerned that she might accidentally hit him for real during the scene where her character, Lacy Rand, attacks Reikle with a rifle.

External Links

• Christopher Heyerdahl article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki.

• Christopher Heyerdahl article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
• Christopher Heyerdahl at the Internet Movie Database