Actor
Tim Matheson
Notes from Evan Smith
"If a single part can define a career, then Tim Matheson owes it all to Eric Stratton, better known as Otter, the rush chairman who was damn glad to meet pledges of Delta House in the 1978 classic comedy Animal House. Yes, classic. While the humor may be a little broad and crude for the refined sensibilities of a PBS audience, you have to give the film's creators high praise for evoking what it was like to live and nearly die on the campus of a major American university, in the midst of fraternity craziness, at a precise moment in time. And you have to give Matheson gobs of credit for his pitch-perfect depiction of a handsome smoothie skating on the edge of expulsion for various misdeeds coerced and perpetrated. Matheson was a very youthful looking 31 at the time the film came out, and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was his Hollywood debut, but no - the Glendale, California, native had already been acting for more than half his life. At age 13, he had a small part alongside Robert Young on the CBS comedy Window on Main Street, and a few years later he was the voice of the cartoon hero Johnny Quest. A few years after that, he joined the cast of The Viriginian, and then took a part in the last season of Bonanza. In the years after Animal House, Matheson's ubiqiuity as an actor was established, as he appeared in everything from Steven Spielberg's 1941 to the Chevy Chase movie Fletch. Other than Otter, he is perhaps best remembered as Vice President John Hoynes on The West Wing, a role for which he earned two Emmy nominations. These days Matheson, who's just as youthful-looking at 62, is hot in demand as a director of episodic television on cable. His directing credits include Third Watch, Burn Notice, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and Psych. But in the minds of many - okay, in my mind - he'll always be the guy in the supermarket, flirting with Dean Wormer's wife, leeringly talking about the size of a vegetable that shall remain nameless. Hey, it's PBS, right?" - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 04.22.10