John Sherwood de Lancie, Jr. (born March 20, 1948) is an American actor.
De Lancie's first television role was in Captains and the Kings in 1976. His other television series roles include Eugene Bradford in Days of Our Lives (1982–1986; 1989–1990), Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1 (2001–2002), Donald Margolis in Breaking Bad (2009–2010), Agent Allen Shapiro in Torchwood (2011), the voice of Discord in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2011–2019), as well as Q in various Star Trek series, beginning with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 and leading up to the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2025.
De Lancie became an outspoken secular activist and was a featured speaker at the 2016 Reason Rally and at CSICon 2019.
Early life and education
De Lancie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 20, 1948,
As a child, he was diagnosed with dyslexia and struggled to read throughout his school years. He did not learn to read until he was 12. One of his teachers recommended that his parents encourage him to consider a career as an actor. He began to act around the age of 14, performing in a high school production of William Shakespeare's Henry V. He went on to study acting at Kent State University (he was in attendance during the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970) and won a scholarship to Juilliard. He performed in numerous stage productions, at venues such as the American Shakespeare Festival and the Mark Taper Forum, and established a successful career in film and television. In a 2012 interview, he said that he recalled his original audition, after which Roddenberry approached him, touched him on the shoulder, and said, "You make my writing sound better than it is."
In April 2021, it was announced that de Lancie would reprise his role of Q in the second season of Star Trek: Picard. He subsequently appeared in multiple episodes of seasons two and three.
Video games
De Lancie voiced Antonio Malochio in Interstate '76, Trias in Planescape: Torment, Dr. Death in Outlaws, William Miles in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III, Fitz Quadwrangle in Quantum Conundrum, and Q in both the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball game and the mobile game Star Trek Timelines, and portrayed Q in Star Trek: Borg. He further voiced the human emperor in Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars. He also voiced Alarak in StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void and reprised the role for Heroes of the Storm. More recently, he voiced Geist, the leader of the Templars in the XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen. He voiced the narrator wizard of Popup Dungeon. He also voiced the Dota 2 hero Ringmaster, released in August 2024.
Stage
thumb|upright|De Lancie at a performance in 2007
De Lancie is a former member of the American Shakespeare Festival, the Seattle Repertory Company, South Coast Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Old Globe (where he performed Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues). He performed and directed for L.A. Theatre Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio where the series The Play's the Thing originated.
In the touring company Star Trek: The Music, De Lancie co-hosted and appeared with Robert Picardo (who portrayed the Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager). De Lancie and Picardo narrate around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek. De Lancie hosted the children's concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall during the 2003–04 season; in 2005, he hosted the children's series of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Voice acting
Known for his distinctive speaking style, de Lancie lent his voice to a number of projects. In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, he voiced Discord, a recurring character. Discord was inspired by Q as an omnipotent being who embodies mischief and chaos, but is genuinely good-hearted and is occasionally helpful to the heroes of the show; another connection to Q is that Discord often uses fewer contractions in his vocabulary. Discord is best described as an anti-hero, also similar to Q. Initially, Lauren Faust wanted to cast someone who could impersonate de Lancie, but Hasbro suggested casting de Lancie himself. Ironically, de Lancie has stated in an interview that, in preparation for his role as Discord, he did not draw from his past experience as Q. De Lancie mentioned during a 2013 convention panel that his voice recordings of Discord are slightly sped up and lose their deep bass sound. Nevertheless, fans still praised de Lancie for his performance. According to Jim Miller in The Art of Equestria, de Lancie's sessions are always done by phone, but his first session as Discord was videotaped.
His other animated television roles included The Angry Beavers, Extreme Ghostbusters, Invader Zim, Duck Dodgers, Max Steel, Duckman, Young Justice, and DC Super Hero Girls as Mr. Freeze.
Writing
De Lancie co-wrote the Star Trek novel I, Q with Peter David, as well as co-writing the novel Soldier of Light (with Tom Cool). He wrote the DC comic book story The Gift. In 1996, along with Leonard Nimoy and writer-producer Nat Segaloff, de Lancie formed and recorded Alien Voices, a collection of audio dramas based on classic science fiction and fantasy stories, such as The Time Machine and The Lost World. He provided the narration for the world premiere of Lorenzo Palomo's The Sneetches and Other Stories (based on the book by Dr. Seuss) with the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra. He wrote and directed ten symphonic plays, which were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras.
Documentary
While on stage at the 2012 Ottawa ComicCon, de Lancie announced that he had made plans to co-produce a documentary about "bronies" (older, usually male teenage and adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic). He said he was taken aback by how disrespectfully national news media portrayed the brony fandom. He started a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the documentary, since titled Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony. The campaign began on May 13, 2012, and by June 10 had reached $322,022, becoming Kickstarter's second-highest funded film project of all time.
On June 4, 2016, he addressed the participants at the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. Speaking in reference to his Star Trek character Q, he said:
On July 14, 2017, de Lancie attended the unveiling of a statue of Clarence Darrow at the Rhea County Courthouse, Dayton, Tennessee, the site of the Scopes Trial in 1925, where Darrow had argued in favor of the teaching of evolution and secular education.
thumbnail|upright=1.15|De Lancie speaking at [[CSICon 2019]]
In October 2019, de Lancie was a featured speaker at the annual conference of the Center for Inquiry, CSICon. At the conference he announced two new projects. The first, an animated series, titled God's Goofs, is meant to point out that intelligent design is absurd. The second project is a play based on the historic intelligent design trial Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005) in Dover, Pennsylvania — the first direct challenge brought in US federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design.
Personal life
De Lancie is married to Marnie Mosiman, with whom he has two sons: Keegan (b. 1984) and a younger son, Owen (b. 1987).
De Lancie is an experienced sailor, spending time on the Pacific Ocean, which he said "sometimes involves very terrifying experiences."
He is long-time friends with fellow Star Trek alum Kate Mulgrew. He is also good friends with MacGyver and Stargate SG-1 star Richard Dean Anderson, with whom he has appeared in episodes of both series, and in the 1995 television series Legend.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of performances and appearances by John de Lancie in film
|-
! scope="col" | Year !! scope="col" | Title !! scope="col" | Role !! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1979 || The Onion Field || LAPD Lieutenant No. 2 ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1990 || Bad Influence || Howard ||
|-
|Taking Care of Business || Ted Bradford Jr. ||
|-
| 1991 || The Fisher King || TV Executive ||
|-
| 1992 || The Hand that Rocks the Cradle || Dr. Victor Mott ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1993 || Arcade || Difford ||
|-
|Fearless || Jeff Gordon ||
|-
| 1994 || Deep Red || Thomas Newmeyer ||
|-
| 1995 || Evolver || Russell Bennett ||
|-
| 1996 || Multiplicity || Ted Gray ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1997 || Trekkies || Himself ||
|-
| Final Descent || George Bouchard ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1998 || Saving Private Ryan || Letter-Reader || Voice<br />Uncredited
|-
|You Lucky Dog || Lyle Windsor ||
|-
| 1999 || Final Run || George Bouchard ||
|-
| 2000 || Woman on Top || Alex Reeves ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2001 || Nicolas || Dr. Fisher ||
|-
|Good Advice || Ted ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2007 || Reign Over Me || Nigel Pennington ||
|-
|Teenius || Principal Senseman ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2008 || My Apocalypse || Nathan Eastman ||
|-
|Pathology || Dr. Quentin Morris ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2009 || Crank: High Voltage || Fish Halman ||
|-
|Gamer || Chief of Staff ||
|-
| 2013 || Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony || Himself || Also co-producer
|-
| 2015 || Visions || Victor Napoli ||
|-
| 2017 || Olaf's Frozen Adventure || Mr. Olsen || Voice<br />Featurette
|-
| 2018 || Buttons: A Christmas Tale || Johnson ||
|-
| 2024 || Identiteaze || Steve ||
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of performances and appearances by John de Lancie in television
|-
! scope="col" | Year !! scope="col" | Title !! scope="col" | Role !! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1977 || Barnaby Jones|| Grady || Episode: "Terror on a Quiet Afternoon"
|-
| McMillan & Wife || Powell ||
|-
| SST: Death Flight || Bob Connors || Television film
|-
| 1977–1978 || The Six Million Dollar Man || Various Characters ||
|-
| 1978–1979 || Emergency! || Dr. Neil Colby/Dr. Deroy || 3 episodes
|-
| 1978 || The Bastard || Lt. Stark ||
|-
| 1979 || Battlestar Galactica || Officer || Episode: "Experiment in Terra"
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1981 || It's a Living || Tom Morton || Episode: "The Wedding"
|-
| Nero Wolfe || Tom Irwin || Episode: "Might as Well Be Dead"
|-
| 1982–1986, || Days of Our Lives || Eugene Bradford ||
|-
| 1983 || The Thorn Birds || Alastair MacQueen || Miniseries
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1986 || Gone to Texas || John Van Fossen || Television film
|-
|The Twilight Zone || The Dispatcher || Episode: "Dead Run"
|-
|MacGyver || Brian Ashford || Episode: "The Escape"
|-
|Murder, She Wrote || Binky Holborn || Episode: "If the Frame Fits"
|-
| 1987–1994 || Star Trek: The Next Generation || Q || 8 episodes
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1988 || Trial and Error || Bob Adams || Regular cast
|-
|Mission: Impossible || Matthew Drake || Episode: "The Killer"
|-
| Hooperman || Lucius Cain || Episode: "High Noon"
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1989 || Get Smart, Again! || Major Preston Waterhouse || Uncredited
|-
| The Nutt House || Norman Shrike|| Episode: "Pilot"
|-
| 1991 || L.A. Law || Mark Chelios || Episode: "The Beverly Hill Hangers"
|-
| 1992
| '
| Lyle Wicks
| Episode: "Good Night Sweet Charlotte"
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1993 || Star Trek: Deep Space Nine || Q || Episode: "Q-Less"
|-
|Batman: The Animated Series || Eagleton ||Voice, 2 episodes
</references>
Sources
External links
- StarTrek.com biography
- John de Lancie Interview at AMCtv.com (archive)