John de Lancie

Early life

De Lancie was born Jonathan de Lancie in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 20, 1948 to John Sherwood de Lancie (who was principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1954-77) and Andrea de Lancie

I was dyslexic, but at the time that was not really a word that was used. What was used was “mildly retarded” or “slow”.

— John de Lancie

Being dyslexic, he struggled with reading difficulties throughout his school years. One of his teachers recommended to his parents to encourage him to consider a career as an actor. He ended up winning a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York.

Career

Acting

Star Trek

De Lancie portrayed Q, a recurring character in several of the Star Trek franchise series. He is one of the few characters appearing in multiple series of the franchise. In eight episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Encounter at Farpoint", "Hide and Q", "Q Who", "Deja Q", "Qpid", "True Q", "Tapestry", "All Good Things..."), in one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Q-Less"), and in three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager ("Death Wish", "The Q and the Grey", "Q2"). De Lancie's son Keegan de Lancie appeared with his father as Q's son in one episode of Star Trek: Voyager ("Q2").

My popularity is very disproportionate to the amount of times that I actually was on the show. … It’s a double-edged sword. I never partook of the financial rewards of the show in terms of being a regular, I just came on and once a year would do a show.

— John de Lancie

De Lancie was initially too busy to audition for the part of "Q" but Gene Rodenberry, whom he did not know, arranged a second opportunity. De Lancie recognizes that even though Star Trek was only a small part of his career, it opened doors for him.

Other television roles

In addition to his role in Star Trek, de Lancie has appeared in many other television series. He most notably plays the voice of Discord, a recurring character in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Discord was inspired by de Lancie's "Q", as an omnipotent being who embodies chaos but is occasionally helpful to the heroes of the show. He was a popular actor on Days of Our Lives as Eugene Bradford. He also co-starred in Michael Piller's creation, Legend and had recurring roles in Stargate SG-1 as an NID agent.

He has also guest-starred in multiple television series, including Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Charmed, Andromeda, The Unit, MacGyver, Law & Order: LA, Torchwood: Miracle Day, Touched by an Angel, the 1980s revival of Mission: Impossible, and Special Unit 2, along with animated series, including The Angry Beavers, Extreme Ghostbusters, Invader Zim, Duck Dodgers, Max Steel, Duckman, and Young Justice.

Film

De Lancie's film credits include The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Get Smart, Again!, The Fisher King, Bad Influence, The Onion Field, Taking Care of Business, Fearless, Arcade, Multiplicity, Woman on Top, Good Advice, The Big Time, Pathology, Evolver, Reign Over Me, My Apocalypse, Crank, Crank: High Voltage, and You Lucky Dog.

Stage

He has been a 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).

De Lancie has performed and directed for Los Angeles Theater Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio, where the series The Play's the Thing originates.

He appeared in Star Trek: The Music, a touring company, with Robert Picardo. De Lancie and Picardo narrate around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek. He performed Pierre Curie in Alan Alda's play, Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie in 2001 at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles.

Video games

De Lancie voiced the characters of Antonio Malochio in Interstate '76, Trias in Planescape: Torment, and Dr. Death in Outlaws, William Miles in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III, Fitz Quadwrangle in Quantum Conundrum, and Q in the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball game and portrayed Q in Star Trek: Borg. He further human emperor in Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars.. He also voiced Alarak in Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void.

Writing

He 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. With actor Leonard Nimoy, de Lancie recorded audio dramas based on several classic science-fiction tales, under the label "Alien voices".

Music

He has performed as narrator with a number of major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. 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 has written and directed ten symphonic plays which were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras.

De Lancie was the writer, director and host of First Nights, an adult concert series at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, based loosely on the book of the same name by Thomas Forrest Kelly, which explored the life and music of Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Prokofiev. In 2006, de Lancie made his opera directorial debut with the Atlanta Opera performing Puccini's "Tosca" from May 18–21.

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). De Lancie stated that he was taken aback by how disrespectfully national news media portrayed the brony fandom.

He began a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the documentary, now titled Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony. The Kickstarter campaign began on May 13, 2012, and by June 10, 2012, had reached a total of $322,022, becoming Kickstarter's second-highest funded film project of all time.

Personal life

De Lancie is married to actress Marnie Mosiman, who guest-starred in one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a character known as Harmony/Wisdom/Balance in the episode "Loud as a Whisper". The couple have two sons: Keegan (born 1984) and Owen (born 1987).

De Lancie is not religious, advocating for others who have this view to be open about it. He spoke at the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2016. He spoke in reference to his Star Trek character Q, "My name is John de Lancie, and I am a god. At least, I've played one on TV. And I'm here to tell you as a god that I was created by humans. The words I spoke were written by men and women.... Just like all the gods before me, ...my god creators wanted you to believe I was the omnipotent one."

On 14 July 2017, de Lancie was at the unveiling of a statue of Clarence Darrow at the Rhea County Courthouse, Dayton, Tennessee, the site of the Scopes Trial over evolution in 1925, where Darrow had argued in favor of teaching of evolution and secular education.

He is an experienced sailor who spends a lot of his time on the Pacific ocean, which "sometimes involves very terrifying experiences."

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Video games