

Frewer said he based the personality on Ted Baxter, the character played by Ted Knight on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.įrewer, covered in heavy makeup and prosthetics to make him seem more artificial, would really act, with harsh side-lighting in front of a blank blue background. Not only did he look the part, he had a quick wit and insincere delivery that fit the character perfectly. ( Toy Story, the first computer-animated feature film, didn't come out until 1995.) They needed a real, flesh-and-blood Max, and found him in Matt Frewer, a Canadian-born London-based actor with a remarkably chiseled face. That was clear instantly - while Max's creators could write the character as artificial intelligence, they couldn't just invent animation techniques that were a decade off. Computer Animation Didn't Actually Exist In 1985Īt the time the concept for Max Headroom was taking shape, computer graphics were far too primitive to simulate a talking human face. So that was a plan - just need to send it to the computer animation department and let them work their magic, right? Well no, not in 1985. Max would be an obnoxious and condescending white American male in a suit. Morton decided his yet-to-be-visualized host should be the opposite of that, as unappealing as the VJs at MTV were appealing. Rocky Morton, a co-creator, was drawn to the idea of a host who was completely inappropriate to the material - music videos at the time were very creative, DIY clips with storytelling that spoke to young people like nothing else on TV.

The show's producers hit upon animation, which evolved into the idea of a computer-generated talking head. Something like the VJs that MTV used, but different. A new channel in the UK called Channel 4 was launching a music-video program, which would need some kind of constant element or structure to make it feel like a show and not just an assortment of unrelated clips. In the same year, Frewer was cast in the Netflix horror-drama series, The Order.Max Headroom was created to fill a need.
#Who played max headroom series#
In 2018, Frewer portrayed Carnage in the Netflix series Altered Carbon. Aldous Leekie on the first two seasons of Orphan Black. He has appeared in several adaptations of Stephen King stories, such as The Stand, Quicksilver Highway, Riding the Bullet, Desperation and Bag of Bones. He starred as Pestilence in two episodes of Season 5 of Supernatural. In 2009, Frewer portrayed the retired villain Moloch the Mystic in Watchmen and appeared as the White Knight in the December 2009 Syfy two-part miniseries Alice, based upon Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Frewer portrayed Matt Praeger in Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal from 1997–2000. He has done voiceover work on several animated projects, including Batman: The Animated Series (1993) and The Incredible Hulk (1996–1997). He was a regular on Eureka during the series' first two seasons, playing Jim Taggart. Frewer has also appeared in such films as The Fourth Protocol (1987), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), National Lampoon's Senior Trip (1995), and the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.įrewer was nominated for two Gemini Awards in 2000, one for a guest appearance on Da Vinci's Inquest and another for his work on the series Mentors. He also appeared as Trashcan Man in the television miniseries The Stand. He reprised this role in the science fiction comedy film Pixels (2015).įrewer starred as Mike Stratford in Doctor Doctor (1989–1991). He also portrayed the character in other media, including a series of television commercials for "New Coke", as well as the single and music video for "Paranoimia" by Art of Noise.
#Who played max headroom movie#
In 1987, an American series based upon the 1985 movie aired, titled Max Headroom (1987–1988). This ran for two series, called seasons in the U.S., the second which featured a studio audience with whom Max interacted. This led to a series on the UK Channel 4 network with the Max Headroom character as a video jockey and interviewer. Frewer portrayed the artificial intelligence character Max Headroom in the 1980s, starring in the 1985 eponymous science fiction television film Frewer also played award-winning Network 23 journalist Edison Carter in the film.
