Louis Ferreira
Louis Ferreira is an actor, born 1966.
Born on Terceira in the Azores and Canadian by career, Louis Ferreira has been working steadily since the late 1980s, turning up in Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, as a soldier in Cocktail and Exterminator #3 in Naked Lunch. One practical note for anyone digging through his early filmography: he was credited under a different name until 2008, which is why the first twenty years can look like a separate actor's resume.
His speciality is rank. Colonel Everett Young in Stargate Universe is the definitive version, a commanding officer whose authority is constantly being questioned and who is visibly tired of defending it. The same quality gets used repeatedly: Detective Oscar Vega in Motive, William 'Buck' Spivey in S.W.A.T., Rick Hall in Travelers, Colonel Ferrus in The Andromeda Strain. He is very good at men who have to make a decision that someone in the room will hate.
The other half of the job is menace. He played Ray Prager, the serial killer at the centre of Durham County's first season, and Art Blank across three of the Saw films, of which Saw IV is here. Recent work has widened the frame: Captain-General Ferreira in Shogun, which by coincidence gives him a character with his own surname, and Jesse in House of David.
Movies (14)
TV (14)
Where to start with Louis Ferreira
Everything worth knowing about him sits in Stargate Universe, which is also why most people know the face. He is the ranking officer on a ship nobody wants to be on, and the show is largely about whether he deserves the chair, which is a much better use of him than any of the procedurals.
Durham County is the counterweight, and the performance that tends to surprise people who only know him as the boss. Motive is the comfortable procedural version, and he is the reason to watch it. For films, Saw IV is his most-seen credit and Dawn of the Dead gives him an early part in a very good remake.
Most recently Shōgun and House of David show him working in prestige period television, and Travelers is the underrated Canadian science fiction series worth the detour.