Jeffrey William Meek (born February 11, 1959) is an American actor. Meek and his family moved often; as a child, Meek lived in

Zweibrücken Zweibrücken (; ; , ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach (Blies), Schwarzbach River. Name The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; older forms of the name include Middl ...

(West Germany),

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Meek graduated from Arlington High School in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...

, and attended the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

at Irvine. After graduating from UCI with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in Drama, he moved to New York City, after he was offered the role of Quinn McCleary on ''

Search for Tomorrow ''Search for Tomorrow'' is an American television soap opera. It began its run on CBS on September 3, 1951, and concluded on NBC, 35 years later, on December 26, 1986. Set in the fictional town of Henderson in an unspecified state, the show f ...

''.

Acting roles

Meek's film acting includes appearing with

Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles Denzel Washington on screen and stage, on stage and screen, Washington has received List of awards and nominations ...

and Bob Hoskins in '' Heart Condition'' with Mickey Rourke, Morgan Freeman and Forest Whitaker in ''

Johnny Handsome ''Johnny Handsome'' is a 1989 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Walter Hill (director), Walter Hill and starring Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern, Forest Whitaker, Lance Henriksen and Morgan Freeman. The film was ...

'', and with

Kurt Russell Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor before transitioning to leading roles as an adult in various genres such as action adventures, science-fiction, westerns, romance films, co ...

and Kelly McGillis in '' Winter People''. His television work includes starring in the episode "Fruit of the Poison Tree" (5x09), of the TV series ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

'' (1989), and in the CBS series, '' Raven'' and the CBS late-night series, ''

The Exile ''The eXile'' was a Moscow-based English-language biweekly free tabloid newspaper, aimed at the city's expatriate community, which combined outrageous, sometimes satirical, content with investigative reporting. In October 2006, co-editor Jake ...

''. He also played the dual roles of Raiden and Shao Kahn in the TNT series, '' Mortal Kombat: Conquest''. He played the title role in the 1988 TV adaptation of '' Remo Williams''. He began his TV career playing Quinn McCleary on the daytime series ''Search for Tomorrow'', portrayed Craig Montgomery on ''As the World Turns'', and guest-starred in the A&E series '' The Glades''. Having performed in over 100 plays and musicals, he played Stanley Kowalski in ''

A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pe ...

'', at the Tony Award-winning, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Jim Morrison, in the Doors musical, ''Celebration of the Lizard'', produced by Doors co-founder and keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, at the San Diego Repertory Theatre and the title role in Shakespeare's '' Coriolanus''. He also played the lead role of Markus, in the west coast première of Rob Ackerman's dark comedy, ''Table Top'', at the Laguna Playhouse and, most recently, starred as Mack the Knife, in San Diego Repertory's production of ''

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François V ...

''. He has received two Dramalogue Awards. At the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

he played Hoss in Sam Shepard's ''The Tooth of Crime'', and the title role in Shakespeare's ''Coriolanus'', both directed by Keith Fowler. He has studied acting with Ivanna Chubbuck and Cameron Thor. He has also been writing for most of his 30-year career. He co-wrote the

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed Pop music, pop, Swing music, swing, Folk music, folk, rock and roll, and country music. Darin started ...

biographical film '' Beyond the Sea'', starring

Kevin Spacey Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. Known for Kevin Spacey on screen and stage, his work on stage and screen, he List of awards and nominations received by Kevin Spacey, has received numerous accolades, including two ...

and Kate Bosworth.

Personal life

During Meek's time in New York, he fronted a rock band, ''Crime'' which included

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, ...

, Derf Scratch and John Densmore. He is an accomplished athlete. In addition to playing basketball and golf, he holds black belt grades in both

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

and

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meek, Jeffrey American aikidoka American male stage actors American male film actors American male television actors American male taekwondo practitioners 1959 births Living people People from Fairfield, California University of California, Irvine alumni 20th-century American sportsmen