Casey
Biggs was born April 4, 1955. Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Casey
chose to pursue an acting career while he was still a student at
Central Catholic High. He actually had a fair amount of talent as
a football player, but it was on the stage acting that made him
feel most comfortable. After dropping football, which he had taken
up in his freshman year, he concentrated his energy on serious acting,
joining the Toledo Repertory Theater, where Roy Fluhrer served as
his mentor, giving the young actor the encouragement.
Fluhrer would influence Casey for
life, as did other Toledeans Carolyn Seeman and Jerry DePrisco at
Catholic High and actress Eve Weiher also influenced Casey considerably.
While still in high school, Casey befriended Frank Fischer, who,
along with Bill Blinn, is a Hollywood producer. Fischer would accompany
Casey to New York to audition for entrance in the Juilliard School.
He was accepted! And after high school graduation in 1973, Casey
spent four years in the hallowed halls of one of the most famous
arts school in the world.
After receiving a BFA from Juilliard
in 1977, Casey had some guest roles in television sitcoms, but his
love of the stage was the center of his professional life. He joined
John Houseman's prestigious performance troupe, touring America
and Europe with a large cast. This included a role in the musical
The Cradle Will Rock, which Casey can be heard singing in the original
cast sound track (available here). Casey, having joined The Acting
Company, was also a member of the famed Arena Stage in Washington
D.C., where he performed as Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey in 1994.
Professionally, Casey was nominated
five times for the Helen Hayes Award for his work at Arena Stage,
with a 1996 nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Residence
Play in Long Days Journey into Night.
In 1995, came his role as Damar in
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Believing it to be yet another, simple
one-shot guest role, Casey was surprised to hear that they wanted
him to come back and read a second time (the same two lines of dialogue,
no less) for the role. On the first day of shooting he was warned
by guest director Jonathan West that the producers had "big
plans" for the character. At the time, they realized that they
definitely needed a solid actor to be Dukat's right hand man, but
no one guessed just how much of a prominent role Damar would turn
out being, or how much of an impression Casey would have on fans
around the world. As interest in Damar grew, Casey began being invited
to more and more Sci-fi conventions to the great delight of many
fans.
That many may not know, is that Casey
had been a foster child when he was very young. Realizing he had
a good opportunity to put his growing popularity to good use, Casey
sought for a way to help children in the same position he had been
in as a boy. With the help of the foster care center, Pennylane,
Casey instituted The Casey Biggs Scholarship Fund.
"We've given out Scholorships for the
past two years. The Scholarship started as a result of the fan club
and my desire to help emancipated foster kids who express a desire
to persue higher education. Being a former foster child myself I
felt it would be a noble cause to make an effort to help a young
man or woman get a leg up as they step out on their own and into
a college education. Penny Lane is the perfect place to concentrate
our efforts as it is one of the largest and most well respected
foster care organizations in California."
For
all his hard work and devotion, in the annual "Voices of Our
Children" benefit, Pennylane honored Casey with their "Blue
Skies Award". The awards were given on October 5, 2002. A brief
report and photos regarding that special night can be seen in our
News Archive.
Although best known to Star Trek fans
as the guest star of television shows, TV is not where Casey puts
his focus on. He is known to have said, "I'm a creature of
the stage. I'm much more fulfilled working on the stage, but to
be able to balance between the two is a big challenge. I see it
as an opportunity that I have because I seem to be working at both.
That's a real blessing." - "The Blade" (Toledo, Ohio
newspaper)
As of 2003, theatre is where Casey
has focused most of his attention in recent months, as a director
and performer. Recently he has made his return to The Arena Stage
in a new play called "Shakespeare in Hollywood". As a
member of Circus Theatricals, he has directed and starred in quite
a few critically acclaimed production at The Odyssey Theatre in
LA, including Shakespeare's "Richard III", and the west
coast premiere of Mamet's "Speed the Plow".
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