Please Rewind // Franchise Archive

Terminator

From killer machines and nuclear nightmares to time-travel wars across the decades, explore the Terminator movies, cast, characters and latest franchise news on Please Rewind.

3 Movies0 Latest StoriesArchive Active

Cast Directory

Meet the Cast

The actors behind the Terminator movies — from the faces that defined the series to the supporting players who helped bring the world to life.

Explore all actors →

Cast Member

3 Films

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Thal

Born in Thal, Styria, on July 30, 1947, Arnold Schwarzenegger built one of cinema’s least conventional leading-man careers. An Austrian and American actor, he first became famous through bodybuilding, winning Mr. Universe and seven Mr. Olympia titles before turning his attention to the screen. That background was never something Schwarzenegger could—or wanted to—hide. His physique, Austrian accent and unusually formal delivery initially made acting difficult, but they eventually became central to his screen presence. Early appearances included the title role in Hercules in New York, a part in Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye and a Golden Globe-winning performance in Stay Hungry. The bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron then brought his competitive drive and calculated charisma to a wider audience. Conan the Barbarian gave Schwarzenegger his breakthrough as an action lead, while James Cameron’s The Terminator found the role that would define his film career. Its stripped-down dialogue and imposing physicality made perfect use of qualities Hollywood had once treated as obstacles. Through the 1980s and 1990s, films including Commando, Predator, The Running Man, Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies established him as an international action star. Yet Schwarzenegger’s best work was rarely humorless. Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Junior showed that he understood the comic potential of his image, playing against his size and severity without abandoning either. Even his action performances often carried a knowingly exaggerated edge. His career later took another remarkable turn when he served as Governor of California from 2003 to 2011. After a period away from leading film roles, he returned in projects including The Expendables series, The Last Stand, Escape Plan and further Terminator installments. He later took his first leading television-series role in the action comedy FUBAR, while the documentary series Arnold looked back across his bodybuilding, acting and political careers. Few screen careers have depended so completely on turning apparent limitations into a distinctive advantage.

View profile →

Cast Member

2 Films

Earl Boen

New York City

Earl Boen was an American actor whose career moved easily between film, television, the stage and voice work. Born in New York City on August 8, 1941, he made both his television and feature-film debuts in 1977, appearing in The Streets of San Francisco and Mr. Billion. Boen became especially well known as criminal psychiatrist Dr. Peter Silberman, a role he played across three entries in the Terminator series: The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Silberman gave Boen room to bring dry authority and comic exasperation to a character repeatedly confronted with events far beyond his understanding. His wider film work included 9 to 5, Battle Beyond the Stars, The Man with Two Brains, Alien Nation, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. On television, Boen was a dependable character actor with a gift for officials, bosses and clergymen. He played the Rev. Lloyd Meechum in a recurring role on Mama's Family, Jim Petersen on Who's the Boss? and Dr. Kramer on Get a Life. His credits also included appearances in The Jeffersons, Kojak, ALF, Matlock, The Golden Girls, The Wonder Years, Seinfeld and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After retiring from screen acting in 2003, Boen continued working extensively behind the microphone. He voiced the pirate LeChuck in the Monkey Island adventure games, Police Chief Kanifky in Bonkers and Horace Bleakman in Clifford the Big Red Dog. His game work also included World of Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, X-Men: Legends and several Star Trek titles. His voice was additionally heard on the Disneyland Railroad and Walt Disney World Railroad. Boen fully retired from acting in 2017. He died in 2023, leaving a body of work shaped by steady character acting and a voice that could carry comedy, menace or authority.

View profile →

Cast Member

2 Films

Linda Hamilton

Salisbury, Maryland, USA

Linda Hamilton has built a career around strength that rarely comes without a cost. Born in Salisbury, Maryland, in 1956, she studied at Washington College before moving to New York City for acting training, including workshops given by Lee Strasberg. Her professional screen debut came in the 1979 drama Night-Flowers, followed by early television work and her first starring film role in TAG: The Assassination Game. Her career changed sharply in 1984. After starring in Children of the Corn, Hamilton played Sarah Connor in James Cameron’s The Terminator. She begins the film as an ordinary waitress caught in an impossible pursuit, and Hamilton makes every stage of Sarah’s fear, confusion and resilience count. When she returned for Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991, the character had been radically transformed. Hamilton underwent intense physical training for a performance driven by fury, discipline and psychological strain, earning a Saturn Award for Best Actress and two MTV Movie Awards. Sarah Connor may be her defining screen role, but Hamilton’s work has never been confined to it. On television, she played district attorney Catherine Chandler in CBS’s Beauty and the Beast, receiving Golden Globe and Emmy nominations and winning a Romy Award. She brought warmth to the fantasy-comedy Mr. Destiny, played a widow diagnosed with AIDS in the television movie A Mother’s Prayer, and grounded the disaster spectacle of Dante’s Peak as small-town mayor Rachel Wando. Hamilton has also moved comfortably between film, television, stage and voice acting. Her later work includes recurring roles in Chuck, Lost Girl, Defiance and Resident Alien, as well as stage performances in Laura, Worse Than Murder: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and The Night of the Iguana. She returned to Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate, giving the franchise an older, battle-worn version of the character, and later joined Stranger Things as the military researcher Dr. Kay. Across those roles, Hamilton’s most compelling quality remains the tension between toughness and vulnerability—the sense that survival always leaves a mark.

View profile →

Cast Member

1 Film

Cástulo Guerra

Córdoba

Born in Córdoba on August 24, 1945, Cástulo Guerra is an Argentine actor whose career has moved across theatre, film, television, video games and animation. His work on stage includes playing the Player in a Teatro Universitario de Tucumán production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The production traveled to the Teatro Cervantes in Buenos Aires in 1971. Guerra’s film credits reflect a willingness to work across very different kinds of movies. He appeared in Where the River Runs Black and Cold Heaven, as well as major Hollywood productions including Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Usual Suspects and The Mexican. His filmography also includes Meet Me in Miami, The Celestine Prophecy and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. It is a varied group of titles, ranging from science fiction and crime to drama, comedy and family entertainment. Television has been an equally substantial part of his career. Guerra appeared in series including Riptide, The Fall Guy, Falcon Crest, The A-Team and Remington Steele, followed by credits in L.A. Law, Star Trek: The Next Generation, 21 Jump Street and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Later television work included Brimstone, Nash Bridges, The Agency, ER, Alias, CSI: Miami, The West Wing, Prison Break and Numb3rs. He also played Raphael Castillo in Santa Barbara. Beyond live-action roles, Guerra is known to video game audiences as Samir Duran in StarCraft. He also voiced General Suarez in the animated series Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons. Taken together, these credits show the shape of a durable acting career: one built not around a single genre or medium, but around decades of work in stories ranging from daytime drama and network television to landmark science fiction and crime films.

View profile →

Cast Member

1 Film

Christopher Lawford

Santa Monica

Christopher Lawford built a screen career around supporting roles, moving comfortably between daytime television, prime-time series and feature films. Born in Santa Monica on March 29, 1955, he was the son of actor and Rat Pack member Peter Lawford. Acting, however, was not his first professional plan. He graduated from Tufts University in 1977, earned a law degree from Boston College Law School in 1983 and eventually decided that a legal career was not for him. After appearing in Boston commercials for two years, Lawford moved to Southern California in 1988 to pursue acting. His most sustained television role came as Philip “Charlie” Brent Jr. on All My Children from 1992 to 1995. He later had a brief run on General Hospital and appeared in series including Frasier and The O.C. His film work was similarly varied. Lawford took small roles in The Russia House and Oliver Stone’s The Doors, appeared in the independent comedy Kiss Me Guido and played Navy officer William Ecker in Thirteen Days, the 2000 drama about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Further credits included Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and the Anthony Hopkins motorcycle drama The World’s Fastest Indian. Across more than two decades in film and television, he became a familiar supporting presence rather than a conventional leading man. Lawford’s public life ultimately extended well beyond acting and producing. After entering rehabilitation in 1986, he remained sober until his death in 2018 and spent two decades speaking about addiction and recovery. He wrote several books on those subjects, beginning with the 2005 memoir Symptoms of Withdrawal, and also addressed his experience with hepatitis C in Healing Hepatitis C. His advocacy included work with the World Health Organization, the United Nations and other public-health organizations. That combination of screen work, writing and recovery activism gave Lawford a career with two distinct but connected sides: telling stories as an actor and using his own story to help change how addiction was discussed.

View profile →

Cast Member

1 Film

Claire Danes

Manhattan

Claire Danes has spent her career moving between emotional intimacy and high-pressure drama, often playing characters whose intelligence does not make their lives any easier. Born in Manhattan on April 12, 1979, she grew up in a creative household and began studying dance at six. Acting followed soon after, with classes and early theatre and video work in New York City. Her breakthrough came as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life. The series lasted only 19 episodes, but developed a large cult following, while Danes won a Golden Globe and received an Emmy nomination for her performance. Angela’s uncertainty, self-consciousness and restless inner life gave Danes an early showcase for the close, emotionally exposed acting that would remain a strength throughout her career. She quickly moved into film, playing Beth March in the 1994 adaptation of Little Women before taking her first big-screen leading role as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. The late 1990s brought a varied run that included The Rainmaker, Les Misérables, Polish Wedding, Brokedown Palace and the English-language version of Princess Mononoke. After stepping away temporarily to study psychology at Yale University, she returned with roles in Igby Goes Down, The Hours, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Stage Beauty, Shopgirl, The Family Stone and Stardust. Television later provided some of her most substantial work. Danes portrayed Temple Grandin in the 2010 HBO biopic, winning Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards. From 2011 to 2020, she played CIA agent Carrie Mathison in Homeland, a demanding role that earned her two consecutive Emmys and Golden Globes. She continued with The Essex Serpent, Fleishman Is in Trouble, Full Circle and the psychological thriller The Beast in Me. Danes has also maintained a connection to the stage, from early New York performances to her Broadway debut as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion and a later appearance in Dry Powder. Across film, television and theatre, her career has been shaped by a willingness to take on complicated people and stay close to their contradictions.

View profile →

Cast Member

1 Film

Danny Cooksey

Moore

Danny Cooksey has built the kind of varied career that can make him familiar for completely different reasons. Born November 2, 1975, in Moore, Oklahoma, Cooksey moved to Los Angeles with his mother when he was eight, initially with the intention of pursuing country music. Acting soon became a major part of the picture when he successfully auditioned for Diff'rent Strokes. As Sam McKinney, he appeared throughout the sitcom’s final three seasons. Cooksey continued working across television and film, playing Kevin Cavanaugh in The Cavanaughs and the troublemaking Bobby Budnick in Salute Your Shorts. On the big screen, he appeared as Tim, a friend of John Connor, in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. These live-action roles established his knack for playing energetic young characters, but voice acting would become an equally substantial side of his career. His animation work stretches across several generations of television. Cooksey voiced Montana Max in Tiny Toon Adventures, the title character in The Further Adventures of SuperTed, Mooch in 101 Dalmatians: The Series and Milo Kamalani in Pepper Ann. He also played Francis Stone, better known as Hotstreak, in Static Shock; Jack Spicer in Xiaolin Showdown; and the title role in Dave the Barbarian. For Hey Arnold! viewers, his voice belongs to Stoop Kid, the memorable subject of the show’s 1996 episode. Music has remained a continuing thread rather than an abandoned starting point. Cooksey was the lead singer of Bad4Good, which released the album Refugee through Interscope Records in 1992. He was also a member of Lucy’s Milk and later Arbuckle. In 2015, he contributed guitar and vocals to the Western band Shelter Dogs’ album Take Me Home, writing or co-writing every track. Taken together, his work reflects a career lived comfortably between live action, animation and music.

View profile →

Cast Member

1 Film

David Andrews

Baton Rouge

David Andrews has built a screen career around the kind of grounded, authoritative presence that works equally well in horror, historical drama, science fiction and television procedurals. Born on November 2, 1952, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he attended Louisiana State University before studying law at Duke University and Stanford Law School, graduating from Stanford in the late 1970s. His first major film role came in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street. During the rest of the decade, Andrews worked largely in television, including the 1987 BBC detective series Pulaski, while also taking the lead in Cherry 2000, which was released on videocassette rather than in theaters. He starred in the 1990 Stephen King adaptation Graveyard Shift and later played James Earp in Wyatt Earp. Andrews has often been cast as military officers, astronauts and other figures whose position needs to register quickly. He played astronaut Pete Conrad in Apollo 13 and Frank Borman in HBO's From the Earth to the Moon. In Band of Brothers, he appeared briefly as Major General Elbridge Chapman, while the final season of JAG found him playing Judge Advocate General Major General Gordon "Biff" Cresswell. His film work also includes appearances in Fight Club, Hannibal, A Walk to Remember, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Fair Game, in which he portrayed Scooter Libby. On television, his credits range from Mann & Machine and the TV films Our Son, the Matchmaker, Fifteen and Pregnant and Switched at Birth to a guest appearance in Criminal Minds. He also played Sheriff Tillman Napier in the third season of Justified, returning for one episode of season four. Across those roles, Andrews has shown the durable value of a character actor who can bring weight to a scene without pulling it out of shape.

View profile →

Cast Member

1 Film

Don Lake

Toronto

Don Lake is a Canadian actor, writer, screenwriter and television producer whose career has moved naturally between performance and the work that happens behind the camera. Born in Toronto on November 26, 1956, he studied at the California Institute of the Arts before returning to his hometown and joining the Second City Touring Company. He was later promoted to The Second City, placing ensemble comedy and live performance at the foundation of his work. That Second City background is an important part of Lake’s screen identity. His presence is grounded in the rhythms of ensemble comedy: knowing when to step forward, when to support the scene and how to make a moment land without overwhelming it. His experience as a writer and screenwriter also gives his career a broader shape than acting alone. He is someone whose work spans multiple sides of television production, with performance remaining one part of a wider creative practice. Lake also appeared in the Netflix comedy series Space Force. The show fits comfortably within the comedy-focused path suggested by his Second City experience, while giving him a place in a contemporary television ensemble. There are no Don Lake movies connected to Please Rewind yet, but his profile belongs on the Talent Wall for the range of work already represented here: actor, writer, screenwriter and producer. From Toronto’s Second City scene to a Netflix comedy series, Lake’s career reflects a steady connection to collaborative comedy and television. His is not a story defined by one supplied movie or a single role, but by the useful versatility of a performer who also understands how comedy is shaped on the page and in production.

View profile →

Cast Member

1 Film

Edward Furlong

Glendale

Edward Furlong arrived on screen with the kind of first role that can define an entire career. Born on August 2, 1977, in Glendale, California, he had no acting experience when casting director Mali Finn discovered him at the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club. After an uncertain first reading and a second chance, Furlong was cast as John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. His wary, rebellious performance gave the blockbuster a convincing human center and earned him an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor. Rather than simply repeat John Connor, Furlong spent the 1990s moving through troubled families, horror stories, independent dramas and offbeat comedy. He appeared in Pet Sematary Two, American Heart, A Home of Our Own, Little Odessa and Before and After, working alongside performers including Jeff Bridges, Kathy Bates, Tim Roth, Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson. Brainscan made particularly direct use of his uneasy screen presence, casting him as a horror- and video game-obsessed teenager pulled into something sinister. In 1998, Furlong showed two very different sides of his work. John Waters gave him the title role in Pecker, allowing him to step away from the dark characters that had shaped much of his early career. In American History X, opposite Edward Norton, he returned to heavier material as a teenager caught within a cycle of hatred. He later played a convict in Steve Buscemi’s Animal Factory and took roles in Jimmy & Judy, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, Night of the Demons and CSI: NY. Furlong’s adult career was significantly affected by substance abuse, and many of his later films received direct-to-DVD releases. His connection to John Connor nevertheless continued: he reprised the role in the T2-3D: Battle Across Time attraction, and his facial likeness appeared in Terminator: Dark Fate after he participated in facial-capture filming. More recently, he has appeared in Heart of a Champion, The Forest Hills and the Lovecraftian horror film Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep.

View profile →

The collection