Quick Facts
Biography
Nicholas Worth (September 4, 1937 – May 7, 2007) was an American character actor who appeared on film, on TV, and in video-games.
Career
An imposing, bulky, balding (later bald) man with a powerful bass voice, Worth specialized in playing menacing, threatening characters. His best-known, most typical roles are Kirk Smith, the tormented necrophiliac serial-killer of attractive young women in the low-budget horror film Don't Answer the Phone (1980), and Ray, a fearsome homosexual rapist in the 1985 TV movie The Rape of Richard Beck.
He began with a low-level TV career, appearing in one episode of Charlie's Angels as a kidnapper-on-skates. Subsequently, he played numerous roles as henchmen and tough guys in films such as Swamp Thing (1982), City Heat (1984), Doin' Time (1985), The Ladies Club (1986), No Way Out (1987), Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988), Action Jackson (1988), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), Darkman (1990), Best of the Best 2 (1993), Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II (1996), Barb Wire (1996) and Blood Dolls (1999). He appeared in the beginning of Heartbreak Ridge (1986) as a convict who gets beaten up by Clint Eastwood. He continued his TV career, playing small roles in sci-fi programs like Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and in WKRP in Cincinnati and Night Court.
He also did video-game work, portraying General Marzaq and Premier Romanov in Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series of games, Emperor: Battle for Dune, and also voice-acted as Colonel Bulba/Mr. Jones in Freedom Fighters.
Weightlifting
He was an amateur power-lifter and body-builder.
Military service
He served for three years in the army as a paratrooper.
Death
Nicholas Worth died of heart failure at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys at the age of 69.
Selected filmography
- For Pete's Sake (1966)
- Scream Blacula Scream (1973) - Dennis
- Bogard (1974) - Masters
- The Terminal Man (1974) - Hospital Orderly (uncredited)
- Black Starlet (1974) - Motorcycle Cop
- Mule Feathers (1977) - Copperhead
- Coma (1978) - Patterson Institute Chief of Security (uncredited)
- The Glove (1979) - Chuck
- Don't Answer the Phone (1980) - Kirk Smith
- Swamp Thing (1982) - Bruno
- Invitation to Hell (1984) - Sheriff
- The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984) - The Reaper (voice, uncredited)
- City Heat (1984) - Troy Roker
- Doin' Time (1985) - Animal
- The Ladies Club (1986) - Jack Dwyer
- Armed and Dangerous (1986) - Transvestite
- Heartbreak Ridge (1986) - Jail Binger
- No Way Out (1987) - Cup Breaker
- Dirty Laundry (1987) - Vito
- Death Feud (1987) - Jim
- Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) - Bull
- Action Jackson (1988) - Cartier
- The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) - Thug #1
- Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog (1989) - The Head Chef
- Darkman (1990) - Pauly
- Blood and Concrete (1991) - Spuntz
- Best of the Best 2 (1993) - Sick Humor
- Fist of Honor (1993) - Tucchi
- Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II (1994) - Rock
- A Gift from Heaven (1995)
- Barb Wire (1996) - Ruben
- High School High (1996) - Rhino
- Timelock (1996) - Sullivan
- Dangerous Cargo (1996) - Yuri
- Leather Jacket Love Story (1997) - Jack
- Denial (1998) - Walt Smiley
- Slaves of Hollywood (1999) - Sam Gittleman
- Blood Dolls (1999) - George Warbeck
- Every Dog Has Its Day (1999) - Mel
- Starforce (2000) - Jemma Quonloy