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Brian Steele

Brian Steele has built a screen career around characters who tend to make an entrance before they ever say a word. Born on October 10, 1956, in Milford, the American actor became known for performing beneath elaborate creature designs, bringing physical definition to monsters, predators and other imposing figures across television, film and advertising. Steele began playing Harry, the friendly Bigfoot at the center of the television series Harry and the Hendersons, in 1992. He was the third of three actors to take on the role. From there, his work moved increasingly toward theatrical creature performances. He played the relentless Sammael in Hellboy and later appeared as Mr. Wink in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a role that required him to work under more than 130 pounds of makeup. His filmography reads like a roll call of modern screen creatures. Steele portrayed Lycan werewolves in Underworld and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, then played William Corvinus in Underworld: Evolution. In Blade: Trinity, he appeared as Drake Beast, while Terminator Salvation cast him as a T-600. He also stepped into the Predator series as the Berzerker Predator in Predators and returned to Bigfoot territory for Eduardo Sánchez’s horror-thriller Exists. Steele’s best-known recurring Sasquatch performance may have happened between movies. From 2006 to 2014, he played the prank-redeeming creature in more than 40 “Messin’ with Sasquatch” commercials for Jack Link’s Jerky. Together, these roles show the unusual shape of his career: a sustained body of acting in which costume, makeup and creature design are not barriers to performance, but the essential tools of it.