Matt Craven
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
Although best known as a prolific supporting player, Matt Craven also enjoyed leading man status in "K2" (1991) and recurring roles in "High Incident" (ABC, 1996-97), "NCIS" (CBS, 2003-) and "Resurrection" (ABC, 2014-15). Born in Port Colborne, Ontario in 1956, Craven lost his father aged just six weeks old and was subsequently forced to leave high school in his teens and take various dead-end jobs to help support his family. Craven got the acting bug aged 20 after performing in a local production of "Dracula," and after making his screen debut in a "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975-) sketch, was cast as trainee counselor Hardware in "Meatballs" (1979). Craven then starred in Oscar-nominated short "Bravery in the Field" (1979), appeared in a series of low-budget horrors, and landed the recurring parts of Richie Messina and Bobby Kratz on short-lived sitcoms "Tough Cookies" (CBS, 1986) and "Harry" (ABC, 1987), respectively. Following supporting roles in "Palais Royale" (1988), "Chattahoochee" (1989) and "Blue Steel" (1990), Craven played the mysterious chemist in "Jacob's Ladder" (1990), shared top billing as mountain climber Harold in "K2" (1991) and portrayed Lt. Dave Spradling in "A Few Good Men" (1992). After adding "Indian Summer" (1993), "Killer" (1994), "Kansas" (1995) and "Double Cross" (1995) to his resume, Craven earned critical acclaim for his performance of civic leader Seymour Weiss in "Kingfish" (1995), appeared as Lt. Roy Zimmer in "Crimson Tide" (1995) and played Officer Lenny Gayer in 32 episodes of police drama "High Incident" (ABC, 1996-97). Craven's prolific period continued with supporting big-screen parts in "The Juror" (1996), "The Final Cut" (1996), "Never Too Late" (1996), "Masterminds" (1997) and "Paulie" (1998), and the regular role of Dr. Tim Lonner in "L.A. Doctors" (CBS, 1998-99). Craven remained just as busy throughout the following decade, with notable roles including conman Beamish in "Varian's War" (2001), gambler Greg in "Bleacher Bums" (2001) and murder suspect Dusty Wright in "The Life of David Gale" (2003). He also enjoyed a three-episode stint as Gordon Price on "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009), appeared in "Dragonfly" (2002), "Timeline" (2003) and "The Statement" (2003), and was cast as lawyer George Riley in "The Lyon's Den" (NBC, 2003). Craven then played authority figures in "The Clearing" (2004), "Assault on Precinct 13" (2005) "Deja vu" (2006) and "Raines" (NBC, 2007), portrayed war criminal Hans Frank in "Karol: A Man Who Became Pope" (2005), and added "Disturbia" (2007), "Public Enemies" (2009) and "Devil" (2010) to his list of box-office hits. Craven then bagged three of his biggest roles in quick succession, Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis in "NCIS" (CBS, 2003-), Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Dan Grant in "Justified" (FX, 2010-15) and Sheriff Fred Langston in "Resurrection" (ABC, 2014-15). He also showed up in "X-Men: First Class" (2011), "The Good Lie" (2012), "White House Down" (2013) and "Stonewall" (2015), as well as indie movies "Unless" (2016) and "Awakening the Zodiac" (2017), before being cast as small-town police officer Vickery in Gillian Flynn adaptation "Sharp Objects" (HBO, 2018-).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1979
Featured in the Oscar-nominated Canadian short, "Bravery in the Field"
1979
Made his film debut in Ivan Reitman's "Meatballs"
1981
Made TV-movie debut in ABC's "The Intruder Within"
1986
Appeared in the off-Broadway production of Craig Lucas' "Blue Window"; reprised role for the 1987 PBS production
1987
Supported Alan Arkin in the short-lived ABC sitcom, "Harry"
1988
Had featured role in "Palais Royale"
1991
Shared top billing in "K2"
1994
Supported Anthony LaPaglia and Mimi Rogers in "Bulletproof Heart"
1996
Portrayed Officer Len Gayer in the ABC police drama, "High Incident"
1998
Co-starred in the CBS drama series, "L.A. Doctors"
2000
Cast as Walter in the romantic comedy, "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her"
2002
Co-starred in the made-for-television feature, "Bleacher Bums"
2003
Cast in the feature film, "The Life of David Gale"
2003
Cast as George Riley in NBC's "The Lyon's Den"
2004
Cast as Agent Ray Fuller opposite Robert Redford and Willem Dafoe in the thriller, "The Clearing"
2006
Co-starred with Denzel Washington in director Tony Scott's "Déja Vu"
2010
Appeared in the HBO miniseries "The Pacific"
2010
Had a recurring role as U.S. Marshal Dan Grant on FX's "Justified"
2011
Played CIA Director McCone in the "X-Men" prequel "X-Men: First Class"
2011
Played Secretary Jarvis on "NCIS"
2014
Landed role of Sheriff Fred Langston in "Resurrection" (ABC, 2014-15)
2017
Appeared as Vickery on "Sharp Objects"
2017
Appeared as Harvey in "Awakening the Zodiac"
Family
Companions
