Samuel Stewart Witwer (born October 20, 1977) is an American screen actor and musician best known for his roles as the pilot Crashdown on Battlestar Galactica (2003), Aidan in Being Human (US) and Davis Bloom/Doomsday in the 8th season of Smallville. He has also made a number of other minor appearances on the shows Dexter, CSI, Shark, The Walking Dead, Dark Angel and Bones.
Star Wars fans would recognize him as both the voice and look of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller/Galen Marek, in The Force Unleashed, (in which he also voices an uncannily Ian McDiarmid-like Emperor Palpatine). He returned as Starkiller's clone in the sequel, The Force Unleashed II. He also voices the Son and Darth Maul in The Clone Wars. Rebels saw him back again, reprising his roles as Palpatine and Maul, and he continues to voice them in other media to this day. Sam is very much a geek at heart, being a huge gamer and an all-round massive Star Wars nerd, so those roles were a dream come true for him.
He had attended Juilliard School of Drama for a time, but according to his own website
"he got kicked out, but it was all good!" He has said in interviews that grades have never been his thing.
As of late, he seems to be the go-to guy for Villain Protagonists and Anti-Heroes. Sam likes to get inside the heads of his characters and bring out their sympathetic qualities alongside their villainous ones, compelling the audience to root for them (or at least sympathize) no matter what alignment they are at the time. And he can go from a nice, normal guy to being scary-as-hell at a drop of a hat.
Apart from his acting career, he has his own metal rock band called The Crashtones. He also made a Machete Order variant putting select Clone Wars episodes before Rogue One and A New Hope.
Selected filmography:
- JAG (2001, 2003) as Beasley
- Dark Angel (2002) as Marrow
- Battlestar Galactica (2004 — 2005) as Lt Crashdown
- Cold Case (2004) as James Creighton
- Crank (2006) as Shootout Henchman
- Dexter (2006) as Neil Perry
- The Mist (2007) as Private Jessup
- Pathology (2008) as Party Boy
- Soul Calibur IV (2008) as Starkiller (English voice)
- CSI (2007 — 2008) as Officer Casella
- Smallville (2008 — 2009) as Davis Bloome
- Gamer (2009) as Social Worker
- Being Human (2011 — 2014) as Aidan Waite
- Star Wars (2008 — present) as various characters, including Darth Maul:
- The Force Unleashed (2008) as Galen Marek/Starkiller
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2011 — 2020) as The Son and Darth Maul
- Star Wars Rebels (2015 — 2018) as Darth Maul & Emperor Palpatine
- Star Wars Battlefront (2015) as Emperor Palpatine
- The Force Awakens (2015) as Alien, Stormtrooper & additional voices
- Rogue One (2016) as Stormtrooper
- Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) as Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine
- Solo (2018) as Darth Maul (voice)
- Star Wars Resistance (2018) as Hugh Sion
- The Book of Boba Fett (2021) as Rodian
- Andor (2022) as Shoretrooper
- Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter (2022), narrating the Essential Legends Collection edition audiobook, applying his Maul and Sidious voices.
- Tales of Halloween (2015) as Hank
- Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015) as Orm / Ocean Master (voice)
- Once Upon a Time (2016) as Mr. Hyde
- Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams: Real Life (2017) as Chris
- Supergirl (2018) as Ben Lockwood / Agent Liberty
- Days Gone (2019) as Deacon St. John (voice & likeness)
- Riverdale (2019) as Rupert Chipping
- The Callisto Protocol (2022) as Leon Ferris
- Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores as Walter Londra (voice & likeness)
He provides examples of:
- Chewing the Scenery: Not so much in his live-action roles, but in his voiceover work, he really goes all out. Though it's not like Sith are known for restraint.The Son: We will DESTROY the Sith! And the Jedi...Darth Maul: The scum! HE TOOK THEM FROM ME!! ''KENOBIIIIIIIIII!''Starkiller's Clone: YOU WILL DIE WHERE YOU STAND!!
- Ink-Suit Actor: As Starkiller. And as Deacon.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Though he's played more villains than heroes.
- Money, Dear Boy: Darth Maul was being featured in a Brisk Iced Tea commercial, and part of Lucasfilm's license stated they had to cast who they said, which meant they used Sam. He confirmed it was the most money he'd made relative to the time he put in by far.
- Mr. Fanservice: He's easy on the eyes, that's for sure.
- Playing Against Type:
- In Horizon Forbidden West's DLC Burning Shores he plays Walter Londra, a vile, unsympathetic villain who is a Hate Sink.
- In Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown, he played a bait shop owner who, aside from some snark and skewed priorities, is otherwise just a normal guy.
- In Star Wars Rebels, he played heroic Resistance pilot Hugh Sion, a friend of the main character with no ulterior agendas.
- Promoted Fanboy: He's a massive Star Wars fan, making his job in The Force Unleashed a dream come true. And if that's not enough, he's also been in Star Wars: The Clone Wars as The Son and Darth Maul.
- Apparently, Sam was driving when he got the call that he was going to play Darth Maul and nearly crashed his car after hearing the news.
- Throw It In!: While being interviewed about playing Darth Maul in the Lucasfilm archives, Witwer briefly interrupted the session to appreciate the vast collection of props from Lucasfilm properties around him. They left it in.
- Typecasting: Doomsday in Smallville, Starkiller and Palpatine in The Force Unleashed, The Son and Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars... seeing a pattern here? It was even jokingly lampshaded in an interview with him, about working on The Clone Wars:Sam: Look, if you’ve got to be typecast for something, you might as well be —Interviewer: The ultimate asskicker?
