Brent Huff
Brent Huff is an actor, born 1961.
Modelling paid first. Brent Huff came out of Springfield, Missouri by way of that, and the physique got him where physiques got people in the mid-1980s: leading roles in international action pictures nobody expected to review. He was the male lead in Gwendoline in 1984 and in 9 Deaths of the Ninja the year after, films made fast, sold on their posters, and watched mostly on video.
That was the first career. The second was two decades of direct-to-video work, cops and agents and heavies in low-budget science fiction, action and horror, a body of work that asks an actor to hit his mark, say the line and get the day finished. He moved behind the camera as a writer and director too, which is what performers at that end of the industry do when they tire of waiting for a call.
The third act is the interesting one. Decades after the ninja films, he became a recognisable television face again as the recurring Officer Smitty on The Rookie, a comic part that carried over into the spin-off The Rookie: Feds, and he has also had recurring work on Shameless, Pensacola: Wings of Gold and Black Scorpion, plus guest spots across Mad Men, The West Wing, NCIS, JAG and Cold Case. Late character work like that is not a consolation prize for the earlier stuff. It is the payoff for staying in the business four decades and more.
Movies (11)
TV (3)
Where to start with Brent Huff
Most people arrive here from The Rookie, where Officer Smitty is a small recurring part played for laughs and used sparingly enough that it never wears thin. The Rookie: Feds carries the same character into the spin-off. That is the accessible half of the filmography and the sensible place to begin.
The other half is a video-shelf education. 9 Deaths of the Ninja is the essential one, gloriously silly mid-eighties action with Huff as the lead, and Gwendoline is the strange European adventure that gave him his first starring role. Oblivion 2: Backlash is the enjoyable science fiction western, Submerged and Hot Boyz sum up the direct-to-video action years, and Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader is exactly what its title promises. King Kong lists him as an extra, a fun piece of trivia and nothing more.