John Posey
John Posey is an actor, born 1956.
The credit list reads like casting-department shorthand for a certain kind of American father. Nikko's Dad in RoboCop 3, Aidan's Dad in Alone, Coach Tennent in Legendary, Mr. Walker in Extracurricular Activities, an old farmer, a pilot, a captain, a detective. Posey has built a career of more than thirty years out of being immediately legible: a man you believe holds a job and has children, dropped into a scene that needs one.
Two credits sit above the rest. In Manhunter he plays Mr. Jacobi, father of the first family the investigation circles, which is a small part in a very good film and one that carries weight because the entire story begins there. In From the Earth to the Moon he plays the astronaut John Young, in a series that took its flight crews seriously and cast accordingly.
Steady television has done the rest: guest spots for decades, then Judge Millstone across the first two seasons of How to Get Away with Murder, and six appearances as Dr. Conrad Fenris in Teen Wolf, a series led by his son Tyler Posey and not among the credits listed here. The recent work is smaller and looser, including an uncredited detective in Emily the Criminal. It is an unglamorous career and a real one, the sort that keeps a production honest at the edges of the frame, and it deserves better than being described as a footnote to his son's.
Movies (12)
TV (2)
Where to start with John Posey
Manhunter is the place to start and the best film he is in: cold, blue, beautifully composed, and preferred by a lot of people to the more famous version of the same character. His part is small, so watch it for the film. From the Earth to the Moon is the other genuinely good thing here, and his John Young is the kind of casting that series got right. How to Get Away with Murder is where the recurring television work lives, and his judge is a useful cold surface in a show that runs hot. Emily the Criminal and Alone are the recent small ones, both worth your time on their own terms. Perry Mason: The Case of the Defiant Daughter is a curio for people with a taste for late television movies.