Well... I suppose that's the end of John de Lancie...
Au contraire, mon troper! He's back!
Yes, friends,
Philadelphia-born actor John de Lancie is best known as that most
magnificent of omnipotent bastards, Q from
Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he was popular enough to return in
Deep Space Nine and
Voyager.
The son of a famous oboist (also named
John de Lancie), de Lancie (the actor, by the way) was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and didn't learn how to read until he was 12. At the age of 14 he was in a production of
Henry V, setting him on the road of acting. He studied acting at Kent State University around the time of the 1970 shootings there. Eventually in the 1970s, he got television work in small character roles in such series like
The Six Million Dollar Man and
Battlestar Galactica (1978) as well as two doctor characters in the final
Emergency! TV Movies.
As stated above John de Lancie's most famous role is Q from the
Star Trek franchise, who despite only being in 8 episodes of TNG, 1 episode of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and 3 episodes of
Star Trek: Voyager became
quite popular with the fandom. In one of Q's appearances on
Voyager de Lancie's son Keegan
played Q's son. In 1996 he would co-found
Alien Voices with fellow
Star Trek alumnus
Leonard Nimoy, which produced several sci-fi audio productions including answering a question of great importance to humanity - What would happen if
Spock and Q ever met? Turns out something like this.Being a part of
Star Trek is far from John de Lancie's only contribution to science fiction shows. He also played Frank Simmons in
Stargate SG-1, CIA Director Allen Shapiro in the
Doctor Who spin-off
Torchwood: Miracle Day, Russell Bennett in the film
Evolver, and even appeared on
Battlestar Galactica (1978). Other shows he's worked on include
Law & Order: LA,
Breaking Bad,
Mission: Impossible (the
revival from
The '80s), and
Charmed.
John de Lancie's voice is quite distinctive and has lent it to several cartoons and video games. Notable roles include Dr. Quest in
Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures, Desmond's father William Miles in
Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Professor Fitz Quadwrangle in
Quantum Conundrum, Alarak in
StarCraft (including
Heroes of the Storm), and
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic semi-reformed villain (and Q
Expy) Discord, which is currently his most well known voice-over role thanks to the show's immense popularity. He had completely forgotten he had done anything
My Little Pony related
note It was only two episodes after all, and he does a lot of other things by the time a preview clip appeared online, at which point he was overwhelmed by the brony community, noting that at least
Gene Roddenberry warned him about Trekkies beforehand. De Lancie has since come to embrace the bronies and worked on a
documentary to help shed some light on the fandom.
He has the
perfect voice for reading classic literature aloud.
Here's him reading
Edgar Allan Poe's
The Raven.
Provides examples of:
- Badass Beard: Tends to sport one in some roles and has one in Real Life.
- His most famous role, Q, does not have a beard. Ironically, its expy, Discord, does (being part goat and all).
- Cool Old Guy: Has become this to both Trekkies and Bronies.
- Deadpan Snarker: Comes across as a bit of one on his Twitter, and two of his most well known roles are big ones as well.
- Disability Superpower: His dyslexia made it difficult to read scripts and teleprompters, so he compensated by being ridiculously good at improvisation.
- The Gadfly: A brony recounts his meeting with Mr. De Lancie.
- Not So Different: He's pointed out that Trekkies and Bronies have quite a lot in common, and has even said that Lauren Faust reminds him of Gene Roddenberry.
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Between Q, Discord, and Alarak, he has a thing these days for playing snarky Anti-Hero Trolls.
