'Double Impact' and 'Lethal Weapon 3' Actor Alan Scarfe Dies at 77

Published: 6:03 p.m. PDT, June 6, 2024

Alan Scarfe — a classically trained British-Canadian actor who played opposite Jean Claude Van Damme In Double impact And Mel Gibson In Lethal Weapon 3 — is dead. He was 77 years old.

Scarfe's family announced in an online obituary that the actor died peacefully on April 28 from colon cancer. The family also shared that Scarfe died at his home in Longueuil, in the province of Quebec, Canada. The online obituary lists many of his accolades as an actor, director and novelist.

For so long, Scarfe – born in Harpenden, England but raised in Vancouver, Canada – romanticized the idea of ​​becoming a classically trained actor.

“I wanted to be a great classical actor in the long tradition of Burbage, Garrick, Kean, Booth, Olivier,” he said. an interview from August 2007. “45 years ago, when I started, it was still possible to think in such a romantic and idealistic way.”

He accomplished this feat after studying at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He would go on to play an important role behind the scenes in the late 1960s as associate director of the Everyman Theater in Liverpool, England.

Scarfe would ultimately devote his professional career to theater, traveling the world and performing across Europe, the United States and Canada and performing over 100 roles. And it was in Canada, while he played eight seasons at the Stratford Festival, that he began his rise and landed several film roles, including The boy from the bay (1984), Deserters (1984), Overnight (1986), Street justice (1987) and Iron Eagle II (1988), among others.

Scarfe once played coy when asked which films he was most proud of after a long career in Hollywood.

“I don’t really consider film and television the most impressive part of my career,” he said. “But among films, it's especially the small independent films that I'm most proud of. Films like Deserters And The portrait and the recent Hamster cage“.

In 1988, Scarfe made his way to Broadway, playing Macduff in Macbeth opposite Christopher Plummer and Glenda Jackson. But fans will no doubt remember his sci-fi roles, including Dr. Bradley Talmadge of the National Security Agency in Seven days. The UPN series aired 66 episodes over three seasons from 1998 to 2001.

Scarfe also appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation And Star Trek: Traveler. He would continue to endear himself to Trekkies during his numerous appearances at Star Trek conventions. Needless to say, he loved his sci-fi roles.

“Sci-fi in film and television, especially if you're playing an alien character with fantastical makeup, is ideal for actors with strong stage experience,” he once shared. “Productions need that kind of performance and intensity. You can't really mumble if you're a Klingon.”

Born Alan John Scarfe on June 8, 1946, the late actor emigrated to Canada with his parents and two brothers while his father pursued an academic career. In fact, the Scarfe Building at the University of British Columbia is named after his father.

Scarfe, who wrote three novels including The Revelation of Jack the Ripperwas first married to Sara Botsford, but he later met his second wife, actress Barbara March, while performing at the Stratford Festival in the mid-1970s. They remained married until his death in 2019.

Scarfe is survived by his daughter, son, brother and two grandchildren.

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