David Lee Smith as John Oldman

Rugged leading man David Lee Smith played the title role as “John Oldman” in Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth. Birmingham, Alabama, where he graduated from Banks High School. He went on to graduate from the University of Alabama and later earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from SMU. He began his career in television in 1992 with featured roles on “As The World Turns” and “All My Children”.
 
 
Throughout the 90’s David appeared on dozens of shows including “Star Trek: Voyager”, “Dharma & Greg”, Just Shoot Me!”, “JAG”, “Providence” and “V.I.P.” He had reoccurring roles on the hugely successful “CSI:Miami” & “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”.

David’s feature film credits include Gone But Not Forgotten, Mysterious Skin, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, A Walk to Remember and David Fincher’s Fight Club. He appeared in The Big Empty which also starred Selma Blair and Hugh Laurie, as well as Crimson Winter and Sick People.

Richard Riehle as Gruber

Legendary character actor Richard Riehle has often been cast as corrupt characters whose bravado melts in the face of adversity. He spent over 15 years working in repertory theaters in Oregon, Alaska, Arizona and elsewhere, in addition to teaching acting in Northern California and at the University of Washington. Riehle ventured to Broadway in 1985 and beginning a career as a working character player. After debuting in “Execution of Justice”, he remained in New York and often worked with the Classic Stage Company and the Public Theatre.

Riehle made his TV debut with a bit role in “The Other Side of Hell” (NBC, 1978) and his first regular series role was as Mr. Rooney, the smarmy principal in the short-lived TV version of “Ferris Bueller” (NBC, 1990-91). He was a juror alongside Jasmine Guy in the TV-movie “A Killer Among Us” (NBC, 1990) and has worked steadily in TV longforms since, including “A Stranger in Town” (CBS, 1995), in which he was a sheriff skeptical of Jean Smart’s past.

Roles in the movies Black Rain and Glory (both 1989) and the miniseries “Cross of Fire” (NBC, 1989) convinced him to move to Los Angeles. It was his part in Glory that actually put Riehle on the potential casting lists in Hollywood; he was featured only in one scene as a quartermaster sneeringly denying the “Negro” soldiers shoes while bathing in his own corruption. Riehle has appeared in over 300 TV series and films including Bandits, Joe Dirt, Say it Isn’t So, Office Space, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Mighty Joe Young, Lethal Weapon 4, The Odd Couple II, Mercury Rising, Casino, Jury Duty, The Fugitive, Body of Evidence and Executive Decision just to name a few, and he’s probably played Santa Claus more than any other living film actor.

Tony Todd as Dan

Prior to his appearance in The Man From Earth, Tony Todd was perhaps best known for his chilling performance as title character Candyman (in the eponymous film and its two sequels). He has consistently turned in compelling performances since his debut in the motion picture Sleepwalk (1986). Todd’s extensive credits exemplify his versatility. They include such film classics as The Rock (1996), The Crow (1994), Lean on Me (1989), Bird (1988), Night of the Living Dead (1990), Final Destination, Final Destination 2, and the Academy Award winning Oliver Stone film Platoon (1986).
 
He has had prominent guest star roles in numerous critically acclaimed television series, including “Boston Public”, “NYPD Blue”, “Smallville”, “Law and Order”, “24”, “Crossing Jordan”, “Homicide” and “The X Files”. Todd recurred on all three incarnations of “Star Trek” and guest starred on “Xena“, “CSI: Miami” and “Andromeda”.

Todd’s considerable theatre credits include the world premiere of award-winning playwright August Wilson’s “King Hedley II,” where he originated the title role in Pittsburgh, Seattle and Boston. Variety commented: “Todd’s King Hedley dominates the stage. A sour-faced mix of rage and resolve, anger and vulnerability. Todd’s Hedley was a memorable tour-de-force even on opening.” He also received a coveted Helen Hayes nomination for his performance in Athol Fugard’s “The Captain’s Tiger at La Jolla, the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Kennedy Center. Other theatre credits include “Les Blancs,” “Playboy of the West Indies,” “Othello,” “Zooman and the Sign,” award-winning playwright Keith Glover’s “Dark Paradise,” “Aida” (on Broadway), “Levee James” for the prestigious Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference and The New Dramatist Guild.

Ellen Crawford as Edith

As the efficient Nurse Lydia Wright on the NBC series “ER”, Ellen Crawford had the distinction of uttering its first line. Her character went on to marry Sgt. Al Grabarski, played by her real-life husband, Mike Genovese.

Nurse Lydia was on staff at fictional County General Hospital for ten seasons, then returned for the series finale in an homage to the first scene of the pilot.
 

About her role on ER as a nurse, Ellen says, “The true gift of acting is that we are allowed to be perpetual students, to step into other lives and worlds. It was an honor to explore such a challenging and noble profession as nursing.” Ellen Crawford grew up in Normal, Illinois, where she became familiar with playacting by participating in theater projects for kids. “That was the best of all worlds”, says Crawford, “All the advantages of culture and education of a university town in the middle of corn fields”. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s college of Fine Arts.

Ellen has guest starred on “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Desperate Housewives,” “Mental”, “Without A Trace”, “Boston Legal” and “CSI”, as well as many other shows. Feature films include recent releases “Angel’s Perch”, “Model Minority” and “Petunia”, as well as “The Man From Earth”, “Soldier”, “Cries Of Silence”, “The War Of The Roses” and “Remember” for which her role as an Alzheimer’s patient garnered her a Best Actress nomination at the California Independent Film Festival.

On Broadway, Ellen originated the role of the ancient and intimidating Sister Lee in “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” Off Broadway she has appeared in “The Misunderstanding” and “A Touch of the Poet”. Regional theatre audiences have seen her as Miss Havisham in the musical “Great Expectations, Emily Dickinson in “The Belle Of Amherst”, and opposite husband Mike Genovese in both “On Golden Pond” and “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf”.

William Katt as Art

Although most famous for his role as “Ralph Hinkley” on the classic television series, “The Greatest American Hero”, William Katt is an accomplished actor, writer, director, producer who has appeared in over 120 movies, tele-films and TV roles.

Katt attended Orange Coast College before pursuing a career as a musician. Inspired by his father, he then started an acting career, appearing in summer stock and in small television roles.
 
 
His earliest film credits include the role of a jock, Tommy Ross in Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror film adaptation Carrie, which allowed Katt to make a name for himself. In 1978, he appeared as Barlow, a young surfer, in the John Milius drama film Big Wednesday opposite Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey. His mother in that film was his real-life mother, Barbara Hale.

The following year he took the role of Sundance Kid in the 1979 film Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. The role in Big Wednesday made him so well known in the surfing community that in 2004 he presented one of the Association of Surfing Professionals awards at their annual World championship tour ceremony to wild applause from the crowd of professional surfers. Katt explained in a 1979 interview with critic Roger Ebert that he was holding out only for parts which were personally interesting to him.

In December 1975, Katt auditioned for the part of Luke Skywalker in 1977’s science fiction blockbuster Star Wars, and footage of his audition has been featured in many Star Wars documentaries. He was seriously considered for the role, which instead went to Mark Hamill, and Katt instead starred that year in First Love, playing a college student who experiences his first romantic relationship.

In 1981, Katt was cast as the title role in a filmed version of the Broadway musical comedy Pippin, which received mixed reviews. He won his best remembered role that year, however, as Ralph Hinkley, a mild-mannered schoolteacher given a superpowered suit by aliens on the television series “The Greatest American Hero”, a role he played until the show was canceled in 1983. Also starring veteran actor Robert Culp, the show was wildly popular however, and retains a cult fanbase. Its theme song, “Believe It or Not”, penned by television soundtrack icon Mike Post, also became a big hit in the music charts. In 1982, due to the success of the first season of “The Greatest American Hero”, Katt signed to MCA and released a soft rock album, Secret Smiles under the name Billy Katt.

After “The Greatest American Hero”, Katt starred in Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985), about explorers searching for apatosaurs in Africa; the cult horror/comedy film House (1986) (reprising his role for the third sequel, House IV in 1992), and played the recurring role of detective Paul Drake Jr. in the periodic Perry Mason TV movies of the late eighties. These co-starred his mother, Barbara Hale, who resumed her Della Street role from the original show, and Katt collaborated on some of the later scripts. Katt starred in the 1989 TV series “Top of the Hill” and made a guest appearance on the first episode of the short-lived 1991 series “Good Sports”.

Katt continues to appear on television and in supporting film roles, and also has branched out into voice acting. He appeared in an episode of “House” in 2006. In recent years, he has returned to genre work, with appearances in Andromeda and Justice League and roles in the award-winning film Gamers (2006), The Man from Earth (2007), and Alien vs Hunter (2007).

Katt attended and was a mentor at the 2nd annual HatcH audiovisual festival in Bozeman, MT in October 2005. HatcH is a film and arts festival whose mission is to provide mentorship, education, inspiration, and recognition to the next generation of creative innovators. In 2008, he started his own line of comic books, Catastrophic Comics, with the launch of the critically acclaimed book Sparks co-created with Christopher Folino.

Katt briefly appeared in Heroes season 3 in “The Butterfly Effect” as a nosy reporter investigating Ali Larter’s character. He portrayed Jack Matheson in the thriller film, Mirrors 2. In 2010 during season 6, Katt guest starred as C.J. Payne’s musician birth-father in the episode “Who’s Your Daddy Now?” in the Tyler Perry comedy House of Payne.

Katt also has written a Greatest American Hero comic book and contributed to that series’ Facebook page. In 2013, Katt played himself in the spoof film Paranormal Movie directed by Kevin Farley.

John Billingsley as Harry

John Billingsley was born in Media, Pennsylvania, to a family that moved frequently in his early years. When they settled in Weston, Connecticut, Billingsley appeared in school plays and went on to study theatre at Bennington College in Vermont. After graduating in 1982, he spent fifteen years pursuing a stage career, most notably in and around Seattle, WA. In 1990, John founded a Seattle based theatre company called Book-It, which was devoted to adapting fiction for the stage and which still flourishes in the Pacific Northwest. John also helped found an acting studio in Seattle called Freehold, where he taught for seven years.

An LA resident since 1995, Billingsley’s Los Angeles stage credits include productions at the theatre company A Noise Within in such plays as “The Winter’s Tale,” “Twelfth Night,” “Great Expectations” and “The Country Wife.” With the Los Angeles company The Actors’ Gang, he performed in “Ugly’s First World,” and he toured in Europe with Milwaukee’s Theatre X in “A History of Sexuality.” He also trod the boards of the prestigious Seattle Repertory Theatre in “Nothing Sacred.”

John was a Series Regular on “The Others”, “Star Trek: Enterprise” and “The Nine”. He recurred for a number of years on “True Blood”, and has had recurring roles on several other series, as well (“Prison Break”, “NYPD Blue”, “Nikita”, etc.). He has guest starred on approximately 60 TV shows (“Revenge”, “The Mentalist”, “Suits”, “Southland”, Scrubs, Nip/Tuck, 6 Feet Under, The Closer, The West Wing, NCIS, Stargate, CSI:NY, “Criminal Minds”, “Gilmore Girls”, “Cold Case”, etc.). Notable feature films include Out Of Time (in which he starred opposite Denzel Washington), High Crimes, 2012, and approximately 30 others, including recently released indies Trade Of Innocents, A Green Story, Red Line, Sironia, and Losing Control.

On a personal note, John is a voracious reader, and he is blissfully married to the accomplished actress, Bonita Friedericy, who has appeared on stage and on screen with him on multiple occasions.

Annika Peterson as Sandy

Annika Peterson is an accomplished actress born and raised in New York City. She is the daughter of fashion photographer Gosta Peterson and New York Times editor Patricia Peterson. A graduate of Boston University Theatre Conservatory, her feature film roles include Devil You Know, The Pick Up, Icon, No Such Thing, Moment in Time, Dinner Rush, and Walk Among the Tombstones.

 
She has also appeared in numerous hit television series including “Elementary”, “Medium”, “Numb3ers”, “Boomtown”, “CSI: Miami”, “The West Wing”, “Thieves”, “Third Watch”, “Oz” and “Law and Order”. She recently opened the Turn Gallery in New York City.

Alexis Thorpe as Linda

Alexis is probably best known for her work on the American television daytime drama “Days of Our Lives”. Before coming to Days in 2002, for two years she starred as Rianna Miner on the CBS daytime drama “The Young and the Restless.” She also starred as a special guest on the NBC sitcom “Friends” and has appeared on numerous other hit television shows including “Dark Shadows”, “Nip/Tuck”and “House M.D.”. Her feature film roles include The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Pretty Cool, American Wedding, a starring role in the cult classic horror film The Forsaken and National Lampoon’s Pledge This.