Tim Matheson

Not to be confused with Tim Mathieson.

Tim Matheson (born Timothy Lewis Matthieson; December 31, 1947) is an American actor and director.^[1] Some of his best-known acting roles include the title character of the 1960s animated Jonny Quest TV series, Eric "Otter" Stratton in the 1978 comedy film National Lampoon's Animal House, and the recurring role of Vice President John Hoynes in the 2000s NBC drama The West Wing, which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Tim Matheson
Matheson in a Bonanza publicity photo, 1972
Born	Timothy Lewis Matthieson (1947-12-31) December 31, 1947 (age 76) Glendale, California, U.S.
Other names	Tim Matthieson (early credits)
Occupation(s)	Actor, director
Years active	1961–present
Spouses	Jennifer Leak ​ ​ (m. 1968; div. 1971)​ Megan Murphy Matheson ​ ​ (m. 1985; div. 2010)​ Elizabeth Marighetto ​ ​ (m. 2018)​
Children	3

Early life

Matheson was born in Glendale, California, the son of Clifford Matthieson, a training pilot, and Sally Matthieson.^[2] Matheson served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.^[3]

Career

At age 13, Matheson appeared as Roddy Miller in Robert Young's CBS nostalgia comedy series Window on Main Street during the 1961–1962 television season. In the 1962–1963 season he appeared in two episodes of Leave It to Beaver, cast as Mike Harmon, a friend of Beaver’s.^[4][5] In 1964, he provided the voice of the lead character in the animated series Jonny Quest. He also supplied the voices of Sinbad Jr. the Sailor in the 1960s Hanna-Barbera animated series Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt ^[6] and Jace in Space Ghost. He co-starred as Joe Hardy, opposite Richard Gates as Frank Hardy, in a 1967 pilot episode for what would have been a TV series called The Hardy Boys, based on the novel series of the same name, but the series was not picked up.^[7]

He played the role of the oldest son, Mike Beardsley, in the film Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), which starred Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.

Matheson as Jim Horn

In 1969, Matheson joined the cast of NBC's television Western The Virginian in the eighth season as Jim Horn. He had a guest role in the 14th episode of the second season of Night Gallery, in the story "Logoda's Heads". In the final season of the television Western Bonanza in 1972–1973, Matheson played Griff King, a parolee who tries to reform his life as a worker at the Ponderosa Ranch under Ben Cartwright's tutelage. He portrayed a corrupt motorcycle cop, Phil Sweet, who was part of a death squad with some other young cops in the film Magnum Force (1973). Matheson also appeared earlier in the CBS situation comedy My Three Sons. In 1975, he guest starred in CBS's short-lived family drama Three for the Road.

In 1976, Matheson appeared with Kurt Russell in the 15-episode NBC series The Quest. In 1978, he was part of the ensemble cast of National Lampoon's Animal House. The following year, he appeared with John Belushi again in Steven Spielberg's 1941. In 1980 he auditioned for the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which Harrison Ford won the part.

Matheson appeared in the film To Be or Not to Be (1983) starring Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. He and Catherine Hicks played Rick and Amanda Tucker, who operate a detective agency in Laurel Canyon in CBS' Tucker's Witch, which aired during the 1982–1983 season. Then Matheson starred in the comedy films Up the Creek (1984) and Fletch (1985). In 1989, he starred in the short-lived sitcom "Just in Time" produced by Warner Bros.^[8]

Matheson and Bruce Campbell at San Diego Comic-Con, July 22, 2010

Along with business partner Daniel Grodnik, he bought National Lampoon in 1989,^[9][10][11] selling it in 1991.^[12][13]

He had a recurring role as Vice President John Hoynes on The West Wing. His work on The West Wing earned him two Primetime Emmy award nominations.^[14][15]

He has directed episodes of Third Watch, Ed, The Twilight Zone, Cold Case, Without a Trace, The West Wing, Psych, The Good Guys, Shark, White Collar, Criminal Minds, Suits and Burn Notice (on which he also performed in a recurring role).

In 1996, Matheson took on the role of a con man who claims to be Carol Brady's thought-to-be-dead husband in A Very Brady Sequel. He appeared in the film Van Wilder (2002), playing the father of the title character, who was inspired by his own character in Animal House; Matheson's character even makes a veiled reference to the fun times he had had at Dartmouth, where the fraternity upon which Animal House is rumored to have "had a strong tradition of existence". He appeared in the auto-racing film Redline. He also appeared in a Volkswagen commercial in 2008.

In 2009, Matheson directed the pilot episode of Covert Affairs, premiered on USA Network in 2010. Matheson also directed the pilot episodes of The Good Guys (2010) for the Fox Network, Criminal Behavior (2011) for Lifetime, and Wild Card (2011) for USA Network. He played Dr. Brick Breeland on Hart of Dixie from 2011 to 2015. Since 2019, Matheson has starred as Doc Mullins in the Netflix series Virgin River.

Personal life

Matheson has been married three times. He was first married to actress Jennifer Leak from 1968 to 1971, whom he met on the set of Yours, Mine, and Ours. In 1985 he married Megan Murphy, with whom he had three children; they divorced in 2010.^[16] He married Elizabeth Marighetto in March 2018; the two live together in Hollywood, California.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	Divorce American Style	Mark Harmon
	The Mystery of the Chinese Junk	Joe Hardy
1968	Yours, Mine and Ours	Mike Beardsley
1969	How to Commit Marriage	David Poe
1973	Magnum Force	Officer Phil Sweet
1978	National Lampoon's Animal House	Eric "Otter" Stratton
	Almost Summer	Kevin Hawkins
1979	Dreamer	Harold "Dreamer" Nuttingham
	The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again	Private Jeff Reed/Captain Jeff Phillips
	1941	Captain Loomis Birkhead
1982	A Little Sex	Michael Donovan
1983	To Be or Not to Be	Lieutenant Andre Sobinski
1984	The House of God	Roy Basch
	Up the Creek	Bob McGraw
	Impulse	Stuart
1985	Fletch	Alan Stanwyck
1989	Speed Zone	Jack O'Neill
1990	Solar Crisis	Steve Kelso
1991	Drop Dead Fred	Charles
1995	Midnight Heat	Tyler Grey
1996	Black Sheep	Al Donnelly
	A Very Brady Sequel	Roy Martin/Trevor Thomas
1998	A Very Unlucky Leprechaun	Howard Wilson
1999	She's All That	Harlan Siler
	The Story of Us	Marty
2000	Chump Change	Simon "Sez" Simone
2002	Van Wilder	Vance Wilder Sr.
2003	Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update	Dr. Eric "Otter" Stratton, OB/GYN	Short
2005	Don't Come Knocking	Producer 1
	Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D	Houston Capcom	Voice
2007	Redline	Jerry Brecken
2009	Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia	Carl Dobbs	Video
	American Pie Presents: The Book of Love	Alumnus Guy No. 4	Video
2011	No Strings Attached	Eli's Dad #2
2015	Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest	The President	Voice[17]
2017	Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle	Old Man Vreeke	Uncredited
2018	6 Balloons	Gary
2019	Child's Play	Henry Kaslan

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1961–1962	Window on Main Street	Roddy Miller	First acting role
	The Alvin Show	Additional voices	1 episode
1962–1963	Leave It to Beaver	Michael "Mike" Harmon	2 episodes
1962	My Three Sons	Alan Edgerton	Episode: "Tramp's First Bite" (uncredited)
1963	Ripcord	David	Episode: "The Final Jump"
1964–1965	Jonny Quest	Jonny Quest	Voice
1965	Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt	Sinbad Jr.	Voice
	O.K. Crackerby!	Huntington Hawthorne
1966	Space Ghost	Jace	Voice
	Thompson's Ghost	Eddie Thompson	Television film
1967	Samson & Goliath	Samson	Voice
	NBC Children's Theatre	Randy
1969	Adam-12	Leroy
1969–1970	The Virginian	Jim Horn
1970	San Francisco International Airport	SFX
	Bracken's World	Teek Howell
1971	Matt Lincoln	Stan Lowell	Episode: "Karen"
	Room 222	Jerry Cates
	Hitched	Clarence Bridgeman	Television film
	Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law	Jim McGuire
	Lock, Stock and Barrel	Clarence Bridgeman	Television film
	The D.A.	Howard Goodman
	The Bold Ones: The Lawyers	Miles Parker
	Night Gallery	Henley
1972	Here's Lucy	Peter Sullivan
	Ironside	Darryl Podell
	The Smith Family	Mark
1972–1973	Bonanza	Griff King	9 episodes
1972–1978	Insight	Various	6 episodes
1973	The Wide World of Mystery	Tommy
	Medical Center	Sam Miller
	Kung Fu	Lieutenant Bill Wyland	Episode: "The Soldier"
1974	The Magician	Jerry Purcell
	Police Story	Allen Rich
	Remember When	Warren Thompson	Television film
1975	The Last Day	Emmet Dalton	Television film
	The Runaway Barge	Danny Worth	Television film
	Three for the Road	Tom Aberling
1976	Rhoda	Michael Stearns
	Jigsaw John	Nick Pappas
	Petrocelli	Mike Fisher
	The Hemingway Play	Wemidge – Young Hemingway	Television film
	The Quest	Quentin Beaudine
	The War Widow	Amy's Husband	Voice
	Visions	Leonard	Voice
1977	Hawaii Five-O	Brent Saunders
	Mary White	William L. White	Television film
	What Really Happened to the Class of '65?	Jay Miller
1978	Baa Baa Black Sheep	Major Bud Warren
	How the West Was Won	Curt Grayson
1982	Bus Stop	Beauregard "Beau" Decker	Television film
1982–1983	Tucker's Witch	Rick Tucker
1983	Listen to Your Heart	Josh Stern
1984	The Best Legs in the Eighth Grade	Mark Fisher	Television film
1985	Obsessed with a Married Woman	Tony Hammond	Television film
	George Burns Comedy Week	"The Girl With Something Extra"
1986	Blind Justice	Jim Anderson	Television film
1987	Warm Hearts, Cold Feet	Mike Byrd	Television film
	Bay Cove	Jerry Lebon	Television film
	Trying Times	Mitch
1988	Just in Time	Harry Stadlin
1989	Nikki and Alexander	Alexander[8]	Television film
	The Littlest Victims	Doctor James Oleske	Television film
	Little White Lies	Dr. Harry McCrae	Television film
1990	Buried Alive	Clint Goodman	Television film
	Joshua's Heart	Tom	Television film
1991	Sometimes They Come Back	Jim Norman	Television film
	The Woman Who Sinned	Michael Robeson	Television film
	Charlie Hoover	Charlie Hoover
1992	Quicksand: No Escape	Scott Reinhardt	Television film
1993	Relentless: Mind of a Killer	Dr. Peter Hellman	Television film
	Dying to Love You	Roger Paulson	Television film
	Batman: The Animated Series	Deputy Commissioner Gil Mason	Voice, episode: "Shadow of the Bat"[17]
	Fallen Angels	Howard Hughes
	Shameful Secrets	Daniel	Television film
	A Kiss to Die For	William Tauber	Television film
	Trial & Error	Peter Hudson	Television film
	Harmful Intent	Dr. Rhodes	Television film
1994	Target of Suspicion	Nick	Television film
	While Justice Sleeps	Winfield 'Win' Cooke	Television film
1995	Cybill	Teddy
	Fast Company	Detective Jack Matthews	Television film
	Tails You Live, Heads You're Dead	Detective McKinley	Television film
	Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber Insects	4-Dac	Voice, television film[17]
1996	An Unfinished Affair	Alex Connor	Television film
	Twilight Man	Jordan P. Cooper	Television film
	Buried Secrets	Clay Roff	Television film
	Christmas in My Hometown	Jacob (Jake) Peterson	Television film; also known as A Holiday for Love
1997	The Legend of Calamity Jane	Captain John O'Rourke	Voice[17]
	Sleeping with the Devil	Dick Strang	Television film
	Buried Alive II	Clint Goodman	Television film
1998	Dead Man's Gun	Reverent Jeremiah Early
	Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Families	Adolf Althoff	Television film
	Forever Love	Alex Brooks	Television film
	The New Batman Adventures	Michael Vreeland	Voice, episode: "Chemistry"[17]
	Catch Me If You Can	Norm	Television film
1999	At the Mercy of a Stranger	John Davis	Television film
1999–2006	The West Wing	Vice President John Hoynes	20 episodes Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (2002–2003)
2000	Navigating the Heart	John Daly	Television film
	Hell Swarm	Kirk Bluhdorn	Television film
	Sharing the Secret	John Moss	Television film
	Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis	John F. Kennedy	Television film
2001	Second Honeymoon	George	Television film
2001–2002	Wolf Lake	Sheriff Matthew Donner
2002	Mom's on Strike	Alan Harris	Television film
	The King of Queens	Dr. Farber	Episode: "Two-Thirty"
	Breaking News	Bill Dunne
2003	Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart	Andy Stewart	Television film
	The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay	Al Dodge	Television film
	Ed	Peter Evashavik
	Without a Trace	Dr. Aaron Morrison
2004	Judas	Pontius Pilate	Television film
	Justice League Unlimited	Maxwell Lord	Voice, episode: "Ultimatum"[17]
2006	Augusta, Gone	Ben Dudman	Television film
2007	The World According to Barnes		Television film
	Shark	Judge Andrew Bennett
2007–2013	Burn Notice	Larry Sizemore	Recurring role
2008	Entourage	Steve Parles
	To Love and Die	James White	Television film
2009	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Jarvis Kord	Voice, episode: "Fall of the Blue Beetle!"[17]
	Body Politic	Senator Webster	Television film
2010	White Collar	Edward Walker	Episode: "Withdrawal"
2011–2015	Hart of Dixie	Dr. Bertram "Brick" Breeland	Recurring role episodes 1–14; regular role episodes 15-76
2012–2013	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Brad Chiles	Voice, 13 episodes
2013	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Oliver Tate	2 episodes
2015	The Prince	Soloman	Television film
	Last Chance of Christmas	Reginald Buckley	Television film
2016	Motive	Brent Rodman	Episode: "Chronology of Pain"
	Killing Reagan	Ronald Reagan[18]	Television film Nominated — Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries (2016)
2017	Snowfall	George Miller	Unaired pilot
2017	Magical Christmas Ornaments	J. P. Presley	Television film
2017–2019	Madam Secretary	Fred Moran	2 episodes
2017–2018	Me, Myself & I	Richard	2 episodes
2018	The Good Fight	Tully Nelson	4 episodes
	The Affair	James	2 episodes
2019	Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television	Steve	3 episodes
	The Goldbergs	Eric	Episode: "Animal House"
2019–present	Virgin River	Doc Mullins	Main role; also director[19]
2019–2021	This Is Us	Dave Malone	3 episodes
2019–2020	Fast & Furious Spy Racers	General Dudley	Voice; 4 episodes[17]
2021	Evil	Edward Tragoren	2 episodes
2023	Quantum Leap	Neal Russell	Episode: "The Lonely Hearts Club"

Theme parks

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Body Wars	Captain Braddock	Disney attraction

As director

Year	Title	Notes
1984	St. Elsewhere
1994	Breach of Conduct	Television film
1995	Tails You Live, Heads You're Dead	Television film
1997	Buried Alive II	Television film
1999	In the Company of Spies	Television film
2000	Hell Swarm	Television film
2003	The Twilight Zone
	Threat Matrix
	Ed
2003–2004	Third Watch
	Without a Trace
2004–2005	Cold Case
2005	Numbers
	Las Vegas
	Threshold
	E-Ring
2006	Killer Instinct
	Augusta, Gone	Television film
	The West Wing
	Just Legal
2006–2009	Criminal Minds
2007	Traveler
	Eureka
	Bionic Woman
2007–2009	Psych
2007–2010	Burn Notice
2008	True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet	Television film
2009	Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia	Video
	Dirty Sexy Money
	Greek
2010	The Good Guys
	White Collar
	Covert Affairs
	Persons Unknown
2011	Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior
	Suits
	Criminal Behavior	Television film
2011–2012	Drop Dead Diva
2012–2015	Hart of Dixie
2014	Wild Card	Pilot
2015	The Last Ship
2016	Lucifer
	Person of Interest
2017	Taken
2019–2020	Virgin River

References

1. Erickson, Hal (October 31, 2013). "Tim Matheson". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 31, 2013.
2. Horsburgh, Susan (May 20, 2002). "Frat and Happy". People. Archived from the original on June 22, 2019.
3. Williams, Kari (July 25, 2022). "'Animal House' Star Tim Matheson Talks Marine Corps Service". Military.com. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
4. Green, Paul (January 10, 2014). A History of Television's The Virginian, 1962-1971. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5799-1.
5. Leiby, Bruce R.; Leiby, Linda F. (September 15, 2015). A Reference Guide to Television's Bonanza: Episodes, Personnel and Broadcast History. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-0075-8.
6. "Sinbad Jr. Intro, YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021.
7. Terrace, Vincent (2018). Encyclopedia of Unaired Television Pilots, 1945-2018. McFarland & Company. p. 310. ISBN 978-1-4766-7206-9.
8. Bobbin, Jay (April 21, 1989). "Matheson in serious role". Rome News-Tribune. Tribune Media Services. p. TV9. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
9. Farhi, Paul (December 30, 1988). "A Funny Twist for National Lampoon Inc". Archived from the original on February 1, 2022.
10. Staff writer (March 17, 1989). "An Actor Acquires Control of National Lampoon Inc". The New York Times. sec.D, p.5.
11. Delugach, Al (March 17, 1989). "Film Producers Matheson and Grodnik Buy Control of National Lampoon Inc". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2022.
12. Staff writer (March 10, 1990). "National Lampoon Acquisition Set". New York Times. sec.1, p.33.
13. McNary, Dave (October 26, 1990). "New owner takes over National Lampoon". United Press International. Archived from the original on February 1, 2022.
14. Weekly, Entertainment (September 11, 2020). Entertainment Weekly The West Wing. Time Home Entertainment. ISBN 978-1-5478-5478-3.
15. Aaker, Everett (May 16, 2017). Television Western Players, 1960-1975: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2856-1.
16. "About". TimMatheson.
17. "Tim Matheson (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 22, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
18. "Tim Matheson and Cynthia Nixon join Killing Reagan as Ronald and Nancy". Entertainment Weekly. May 6, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
19. Andreeva, Nellie; Petski, Denise (December 19, 2018). "Virgin River: Alexandra Breckenridge, Martin Henderson, Tim Matheson & Annette O'Toole To Star In Netflix Series". Deadline. Retrieved November 22, 2024.

Further reading

• Kevin Scott Collier. Jonny, Sinbad Jr. & Me. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. ISBN 1978414838

External links

• Official website
• Tim Matheson at IMDb
• Interview with Tim Matheson @ A.V. Club