| Dakin Matthews | |
|---|---|
 Dakin Matthews plays Joe Heffernan, Doug's father on "The King of Queens". | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthname | Melvin Richard Matthews |
| Born: | November 7, 1940 |
| Birthplace | Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1985-present |
| Family and Personal | |
| Character information | |
| Appeared on: | The King of Queens |
| Episodes appeared in: | 15 episodes, Seasons 3-9 |
| Appears as: | Joe Heffernan, Doug's father |
Dakin Matthews (born November 7, 1940) plays the part of Joe Heffernan, Doug's dad, on King of Queens. A versatile veteranactor with a long history of work in films, television and the stage, Dakin is also a talented playwright, Theatre director, and theatrical scholar.
Life and career[]
Born in Oakland, California, young Dakin initially aspired to become a Roman Catholic priest, studying in San Francisco and then at Gregorian University in Rome, Italy in the 1960s. However, his is growing interest in drama led him to the Juilliard School, where he taught, among others, actors Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone. He acted and taught at the American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) in San Francisco where Annette Bening was one of his students. He is also an Emeritus Professor of English at California State University, East Bay in Hayward, California.
In the 1980s, settling permanently in Los Angeles, Matthews began guest-starring in television series and appearing in films. He starred in series such as Down Home, Soul Man and, most successfully, The Jeff Foxworthy Show. He also has made many guest appearances on television, including NBC-TV's Remington Steele, CBS's Dallas and Murder, She Wrote, NBC's L.A. Law, Just Shoot Me!, and The West Wing, UPN's Star Trek: Voyager, The WB/CW's Gilmore Girls, FOX's Ally McBeal, ABC-TV's The Practice, NYPD Blue, and Desperate Housewives, ' the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men and Carnivàle.
Matthews has appeared in more than twenty feature films, including the Barbara Striesand film Nuts, Like Father Like Son, Clean and Sober, Thirteen Days, Child's Play 3, and Funny Farm and a number of television movies, including And the Band Played On, Baby M and White Mile. He is also a stage actor, most recently for his portrayals of C. S. Lewis in South Coast Repertory's Shadowlands as "Warwick" in Shakespeare's Henry IV at the Lincoln Center Theater, as "Undershaft" in Major Barbara for South Coast Repertory and as "The Fixer" in Water and Power for the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.
In 2010, Matthews joined the cast of the ABC-TV soap opera General Hospital as Judge Peter Carroll, the judge in Sonny Corinthos' trial.
He is also a playwright, director, and theater scholar who has published books and articles on Shakespeare and translations of 17th-century Spanish theater. He has been a dramaturg on numerous theatrical productions, including the 2005 Broadway revival of Julius Caesar starring Denzel Washington and the 2003 revival of Henry IV, winning a special Drama Desk Award for his adaptation of the latter.
Matthews was also Artistic Director of the Berkeley (CA) Shakespeare Festival and the California Actors Theatre; an Associate Artist of the Old Globe Theatre; and a founding member of the John Houseman's The Acting Company and the Antaeus Company.
Most recently, Matthews appeared in the 2011 summer season of The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, performing as the Provost in Measure for Measure [1] and Lafew in All's Well That Ends Well.[2] In 2011, his adaptation of The Capulets & The Montagues performed at the Andak Stage Company. This production won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Adaptation.
Matthews currently resides with his wife, director Anne McNaughton, in Los Angeles; they have four children.
