Vernon Wells will be appearing at the NorthEast ComicCon & Collectibles Extravaganza March 11-13, 2022 to sign autographs and do photo ops with fans.
Vernon is a well recognized character actor who began appearing on Australian television shows in the mid-1970s, and is best known to international audiences for his role of Wez in the 1981 science fiction action film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, where Wells portrays a psychotic, post-apocalyptic henchman who relentlessly pursues hero Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), before meeting a spectacular death at the film’s finale.. Mad Max 2 received positive reviews and is regarded by many critics as one of the best films of 1981.
Hollywood beckoned for Wells, and he spoofed his mad biker role in the popular 1985 teen comedy Weird Science, written and directed by John Hughes and produced by Joel Silver. Wells so impressed Silver with his work in that film that he was immediately secured for the role of Bennett opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985). In 1992,
Vernon Wells played another memorable role as Bennett in the military action film Commando. He also appeared in science fiction comedies Weird Science (1985) and Innerspace (1987). In the 2000s, Wells acted in the television series Power Rangers Time Force, portraying the series’ main villain Ransik.
Many of Wells’s roles in the 1990s and 2000s portrayed villains, as in the films Circuitry Man (1990), Kick of Death (1997), Starforce (2000) and the 2009 horror film Silent Night, Zombie Night. Wells appeared in one of the few roles in which he is not cast as a villain, in the short-lived 1992 television comedy series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys. The show was about a professor who accidentally enlarged three Sea-Monkeys to human-size, and then had to deal with their comical ineptness in the world. In the Power Rangers Time Force (2001) episodes, he played the role of Ransik, a mutant crime lord from the year 3000 who travels back in time to take over the world. In 2002, he reprised this role for the Power Rangers Wild Force/Time Force two-part team-up episode “Reinforcements from the Future”.
Over 200 credits later Vernon Wells is looking on to the future.
“I’m so thankful that I decided to stay as an actor, because it has been the most amazing time of my life, being an actor and doing all the films and projects that I’ve done,” he says. “I mean, back when I was doing the ’80s movies — Road Warrior, Weird Science, Inner Space, Commando — all of those movies are classics, they really are in their own way, they’ve gone on to become classic movies of their genre. Which, when you look it, you go, ‘I was in every one of them, how about that.’”
Watch movies starring Vernon Wells in his 200-somethingth role, now on VOD.
Acting Credits Include:
- 1981 Mad Max 2 – Wez
- 1985 Weird Science – Lord General
- 1985 Commando – Bennett
- 1985 Fortress – Dabby Duck
- 1985 MacGyver – as Catlin
- 1986 Coming of Age – Chuck Proby (Donald)
- 1986 Hunter – Sonny Zajak
- 1987 Innerspace – Mr. Igoe
- 1987 Last Man Standing – Roo Marcus
- 1987 P.I. Private Investigations – Detective North
- 1988 Sunset – Houseman
- 1988 MacGyver – Paul Donnay
- 1989 American Eagle – Johnny Burke
- 1990 Circuitry Man – Plughead
- 1990 The Shrimp on the Barbie – Bruce
- 1992 Fortress – Maddox
- 1994 Ultimatum – Gerard Richter
- 1994 Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II – Plughead
- 1994 Manosaurus – Professor Sorenson
- 1996 Space Truckers – Mr. Cutt
- 1998 Billy Frankenstein – Otto von Sloane
- 2001 Power Rangers Time Force (television series) – Ransik
- 2002 Power Rangers Wild Force (television series) – Ransik
- 2001 Beneath Loch Ness – Constable
- 2003 Curse of the Forty-Niner – Jeremiah Stone
- 2003 Looney Tunes: Back in Action – Acme VP, Child Labor
- 2003 Devil’s Knight – Frank
- 2003 King of the Ants – Beckett
- 2005 Chastity – Trucker
- 2006 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Dr. Dennis Lanyon
- 2007 Tru Loved – Coach Wesley
- 2009 Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground – Tankersley Governor
- 2010 The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie – Scott the Network Head
- 2011 Silent Night, Zombie Night – Paul Irwin
- 2013 Jurassic Attack – Agent Grimaldi
- 2017 Throwback – Detective McNab
- 2017 Jurassic City – Agent LaFranco
- 2015 Relentless Justice – Mayor Jason Macendale
- 2016 Timber the Treasure Dog – Wolf (voice)
- 2016 The Perfect Weapon – The Interrogator
- 2017 Death House – Nela
- 2017 Landfall – Wexler
- 2017 Der Vertrag (television film) – Cooper Ryan
- 2018 Trouble Is My Business – Detective Barry Tate
- 2018 Lilith – Phillip
- 2018 Loss Prevention – CEO Reginald Bachman
- 2018 Glass Jaw – Happy
- 2018 The City of Gold – The Inquisitor
- 2018 Impact Event – Ed
- 2019 Crossbreed – Murphy
- 2019 The Silent Natural – Sarah’s Father
- 2019 Eason’s Gold – Eason
- 2019 Slayer: The Repentless Killogy – Prison Guard #1
- 2019 Zombies V the C.W.A. (short) – Narrator
- 2020 Emerald Run – Dodson
- 2020 No Chance – Barrett Transformed
- 2020 Debt Collectors – Cyrus Skinner
- 2020 Kill Giggles – Malcolm Fossor (Giggles)
- 2020 Await the Dawn – Zed
- 2020 Maverick N Grundy – Wesley
- 2020 Camp Twilight – Detective Bennett
- 2020 Charlie’s Christmas Wish – Hank Wentworth
- 2020 Starspawn: Overture (short) – Randolph Sutton
- 2020 Social Distance – Gil Oldman Jr.
- 2021 Red Snow – Julius King
- 2021 Frost – Grant
Video Game Credits Include:
- 2005 Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan – Ridge
- 2010 Darksiders – Samael
- 2012 Darksiders II – Samael
- 2016 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Jim Miller
- 2019 Darksiders Genesis – Samael
Vernon Wells will be appearing at the NorthEast ComicCon
