The Walking Dead: Terry O’Quinn Teases Major General Beale

“Come on, Rick. It’s like he told you — there’s no escape for the living.” Those are the words that Consignee Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) heard while trying to escape the Civic Republic Military in the final minutes of The Walking Dead. But who is “he”? It’s a name that has been uttered only on The Walking Dead: World Beyond, and a name that will strike fear into the hearts of survivors: CRM Major General Beale. And the man playing the shadowy leader of the CRM in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is Terry O’Quinn (Lost, Alias, Hawaii Five-0, Patriot). 

“He is the leader of the Civic Republic military and it operates prettyindependently of the Civic Republic government. So he doesn’t reallyhave to deal with them very much. And he’s held in high esteem. He’skind of a hero. He has a long military history. He served two terms inVietnam and went to officer training school. And he’s had to make somedecisions in terms of who lives and who dies and how to deal with themass of walking dead,” O’Quinn told Entertainment Weekly. “He has a big army, but he has about 2,000 of his front liners. They’rehis elite corps and they do most of the work, be it dirty or not dirty.He makes decisions based on what he thinks will help his communitysurvive. And it’s completely that he’s trying to make sure that thiscity survives, so he makes some tough decisions.

World Beyond revealed that the Civic Republic is headquartered in post-apocalyptic Philadelphia, a fortified city of more than 200,000 survivors. That series saw CRM Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Kublek (Julia Ormond) and Warrant Officer Jadis Stokes (Pollyanna McIntosh) carry out Beale’s orders — but now he’s stepping out of the shadows.

“I think that he’s very hidden. He’s a hidden guy. I’ve always beenintrigued by characters that you don’t know exactly what their agendais, what motivates them, or how they will be motivated. And I think inmy understanding of him and the way that I tried to play him is somebodywho will do whatever is necessary, but won’t be threatening about it,” O’Quinn said. “He seems like a completely reasonable person and the decisions he has tomake are all explicable to him. He understands why he has to do what hehas to do, whether some people agree with it or not. So I thinkpersonality-wise he has a history with all of his troops, and with theCivic Republic, he’s sort of a military, George Washington in the eyesof a lot of these people.”

He continued: “And then when he starts dealing with Rick, wedon’t know exactly what to do with him, or who he is, or what he is. Andso he plays coy with Rick a lot, and I think there’s a lot to be foundout there. So Rick helps discover the heart of the man, I think.” 

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live — starring AndrewLincoln as Rick Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne, and Pollyanna McIntosh, Lesley-Ann Brandt, MattJeffries, and Terry O’Quinn — premieres Sunday, February 25, on AMC andAMC+. 

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