Donal Logue

Donal Francis Logue was born in Ottawa, Ontario,^[1] to Irish parents from County Kerry.^[3][4] His parents were Carmelite missionaries,^[5] and the family moved from Ireland to Canada to Boston and elsewhere before settling in Calexico, California, in the state's Imperial Valley.^[6] There and in nearby El Centro, California,^[6] Logue grew up with three sisters—Karina, Deirdre and Eileen^[1]—and their mother taught at Calexico High School and Vincent Memorial Catholic High School.^[6] Logue attended Central Union High School in El Centro, where he became interested in theater. With friend John Everly during what Logue called the "summer during our sophomore year", he created the theater group Imperial Valley Players to perform in the school's auditorium, mounting the theater of the absurd play Picnic on the Battlefield by Fernando Arrabal.^[6]

For part of his junior year of high school,^[6] Logue attended the Jesuit school St. Ignatius' College in Enfield Town, London, England.^[7] In 1983, while a high-school senior, Donal was elected president of the 37th session of the American Legion Boys Nation, representing California and becoming the first non-citizen elected Boys Nation president.^[8] He went on to study history at Harvard University, graduating in 1988.^[6][9] In the late 1980s, he worked as a road manager for such bands as Bullet LaVolta.^[10]

After a few appearances in made-for-TV films, Logue appeared in the 1992 film Sneakers, playing Dr. Gunter Janek. Of his career start, Logue recalled,

After being accepted to Harvard as an intellectual history major and being convinced to audition for plays by my college roommates, I auditioned for 15 and didn't get called back for a single one. I had been a road manager for punk bands and a stage manager for a traveling theater company, but nothing had materialized. Out of the blue, though, I got a call to audition for the movie Sneakers out in L.A. and I had very little experience. When I was there, auditioning for the role in front of Ben Kingsley and Robert Redford and getting nods of approval, it provided validation to my efforts. That was my first big movie, and I knew that my life would not be dictated by normality.^[6]

In 1993, he portrayed Capt. Ellis Spear in Gettysburg, and a movie agent, Judd Bromell, on the Northern Exposure episode "Baby Blues", then later appeared as an FBI agent in The X-Files episode "Squeeze." Logue's character Jimmy The Cab Driver was a staple of MTV promos in the early 1990s. He also appeared in Blade and The Patriot, in 2000. He appeared in two of Edward Burns films: Purple Violets and The Groomsmen.

Logue's portrayal as the lead in The Tao of Steve won him a Special Grand Jury Prize for best actor at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, and was noticed by ER producer John Wells, who cast Logue in several episodes as Chuck Martin, a nurse Dr. Susan Lewis marries one weekend in Las Vegas on a whim, and later has a child with. Concurrent with the run on ER, Logue starred in the critically acclaimed comedy Grounded for Life. In December 2005, Logue had a pilot development deal for a new situation comedy on ABC television, originally titled I Want to Rob Mick Jagger.^[11] The pilot was picked up and debuted in the winter of 2006 under the name The Knights of Prosperity. The show disappeared from the ABC lineup in early March 2007.^[12]

Logue also appeared in a supporting role in Just Like Heaven (2005). Logue had appeared as Phil Stubbs in the original pilot for the NBC show Ed, but dropped out to star in the sitcom Grounded for Life. The first two and a half seasons of Grounded for Life were telecast on the Fox network; thereafter, the show moved to The WB for the remainder of its run. In 2002 and 2003, Logue appeared on the VH1 I Love... instalments '80s, '70s, and '80s Strikes Back. In 2010, Logue appeared on House, M.D. as millionaire patient Curtis Harry.

Logue also appeared in NBC's The Dennis, in 2005, about a former child prodigy whose parents kick him out of the house and into the real world. It was not picked up, however.^[13] Logue co-starred with Nicolas Cage in the film Ghost Rider, the David Fincher film Zodiac, and alongside Mark Wahlberg in the 20th Century Fox film Max Payne. In 2007 he had an uncredited role in "Monk" Season 6 episode "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night" as a grifter Monk meets in a bar. In 2008, Logue appeared in the Jack Kerouac documentary One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur. Logue starred as Captain Kevin Tidwell in the NBC crime drama Life from 2008 to 2009. On May 4, 2009, NBC announced Life would not be returning for a third season.

Logue starred in FX series Terriers, which ran 13 episodes from September to December 2010. After the show's cancellation, a frustrated Logue briefly left acting for truck-driving, according to his friend and fellow actor W. Earl Brown.^[14] Logue starred as the main character in Theory of a Deadman's music video for the song "Lowlife", off their 2011 release The Truth Is....

In late 2012, Logue joined the casts of Sons of Anarchy as renegade ex-U.S. Marshal Lee Toric who is out for revenge for the murder of his sister and Vikings as King Horik. In 2013, he joined the cast of BBC America's show Copper as a returning Union General turned Tammany Hall insider, General Brendan Donovan, and he returned to Sons of Anarchy and Vikings to reprise his roles from the previous seasons. Logue had roles in two 2013: CBGB with Alan Rickman and 9 Full Moons with Amy Seimetz and Bret Roberts.

Between March and May 2014, he appeared in six episodes of the NBC police procedural, crime, legal drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Lieutenant Declan Murphy, a former undercover officer appointed as acting commander of the Special Victims Unit.^[15] From 2014 to the show's conclusion in 2019, he portrayed Harvey Bullock in the police procedural series Gotham, based on the DC Comics Batman franchise.

In 2015, Logue appeared in Adam Massey's thriller film The Intruders.^[16]

In 2021, Logue appeared in the FX series What We Do in the Shadows, portraying a fictionalized version of himself. He is at first mistaken for his Blade character of Quinn but explains that he had chosen to become a vampire after completing the movie Blade, as the vampire lifestyle appealed to him. This universe's rendition of Logue has become a respected member of the Supreme Worldwide Vampiric Council, is actively in touch with the cast members of Grounded for Life, and is an avid painter.

Logue travels back and forth to Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, where his mother lives, and holds both Irish and Canadian citizenship.^[17]

Logue has homes in Los Angeles and in Shady Cove, Oregon, where he cofounded Frison Logue Hardwood.^[10] Logue regularly plays for the Los Angeles–based amateur soccer team Hollywood United.^[18]

Logue has a Class-A Commercial Drivers License and is licensed to drive tractor-trailers with double or triple trailers, tankers and hazardous materials. He has a hardwood company with one partner called Frison-Logue Hardwood, and a trucking company called Aisling Trucking with two partners based out of Central Point, Oregon, which the three founded in 2012.^[10][19][20]

Logue was formerly married^[18] or in a long-term committed relationship with Kasey Walker,^[1] also known as Kasey Smith.^[21] They have a son named Finn,^[22][5] and a transgender daughter, Jade.^[23] On June 27, 2017, Logue posted a tweet saying Jade had gone missing; he later deleted it^[24][25][26] and launched a wider public appeal for help after contacting police and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.^[25][27][28] By July 8, over a week later, Jade had been found in North Carolina and was returned home safely.^[29]

Film edit

Television edit

• Trejo, Danny; Logue, Donal (2021). Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1982150822.

• Donal Logue at IMDb
• TV Guide interview
• Film Threat interview
• Filmmaker magazine interview