Julian Christopher

The credits here run from Black Gunn in 1972 to Crash Pad in 2017, which is a long time to work without becoming a name. Christopher was a character actor of the most useful kind: the man in the suit, the one who states the official position and then gets out of the scene.

He is remembered by two audiences who have probably never compared notes. The 1970s knew him from The Magician, where he played Jerry Anderson, and from the crime cycle of the period, Lt. Hopper in Black Gunn and J.C. in McQ. Star Trek fans know him from the Next Generation episode Code of Honor, a credit not among the ones listed here. His filmography also includes X-Men: The Last Stand and Elysium.

The second half was genre television and horror, and the role names tell that story without help: a district attorney in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, an FBI agent in 88 Minutes, a president in Bionic Woman, a doctor in Smallville, a judge in Autumn in the Vineyard, a bishop in Our Fathers, a colonel in Serving in Silence. He played Lemaster Cane twice in the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, which is the closest thing on this page to a recurring part.

It is an honest record of a trade that does not generate obituaries: five decades of credits, almost all of them in service of somebody else's scene. He died in 2023.