Earl Boen, Terminator Franchise Star, Dies at 81

Earl Boen, a character actor that fans will best recognize for a recurring role in The Terminator film franchise, has passed away. According to Variety Boen died on Thursday, January 5th in Hawaii. He was 81. The trade reports that Boen had been diagnosed with lung cancer in the fall of 2022. Variety goes on to note that Boen is survived by his wife Cathy, stepdaughter Ruby and grandchildren Kimmy Abaricia and Kimo Harbin. 

Despite having credits in the hundreds and a career that spanned six decades, many film fans will recall Boen for appearing across the first three Terminator movies. In James Cameron’s The Terminator he appears as Dr. Peter Silberman, a criminal psychologist that is brought in by the police to interrogate Kyle Reese and to hear his story about killer machines from the future. Terminator 2: Judgement Day would see him reprise the role, now working at a hospital where he cares for Sarah Conner while she’s incarcerated, notably seeing the Terminators himself first hand after not believing his patient for years. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines saw him make a final cameo, coming face to face with Arnold’s Terminator once again and have a bit of a panic.

Boen’s career wasn’t limited to just the sci-fi action franchise though as he also appeared in films like 9 to 5, Battle Beyond the Stars and others. He had a prolific career in television however dating back to the 1970s with appearances in shows like Kojak, Hawaii Five-O, The Jeffersons, and Buck Rogers. He would continue to work in TV throughout his career including guest appearances on hits like Seinfeld, M*A*S*H, St. Elsewhere, Night Court, Growing Pains, Hillstreet Blues, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Murder, She Wrote, Tales From the Crypt, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

His television appearances weren’t exclusive to live-action either as Boen had a sizable amount of work as a voice actor on animated shows including voicing Magneto in X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men (an animated pilot that premiered years before X-Men: The Animated Series), a gangster named Rhino in multiple episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, Simon Stagg in Justice League, and even both Red Skull and the Beyonder in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He’d also lend his voice to the likes of SWAT Kats, The Addams Family, Animaniacs, Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

Boen’s voice acting wasn’t limited just to television either as he’s famously the voice of World of Warcraft, acting as the narrator of the hit MMO Games from the 2004 original up through the 2016 expansion World of Warcraft: Legion. He would also voice Captain LeChuck in the Monkey Island video games as well as characters in Psychonauts and EverQuest II.

Our thoughts go out to his family and friends during this difficult time.