Jeffrey Alan Combs (born September 9, 1954) is an American actor known for his horror film roles and his appearances playing a number of characters in the Star Trek franchise.
Combs was born in Oxnard, California and raised in Lompoc, California. He attended Santa Maria's Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and later developed his acting talent in the Professional Actor's Training Program at the University of Washington.
After spending several years performing in playhouses all along the West Coast, Combs moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and landed his first role in the 1981 feature film, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, playing an intern. His first horror film role came the next year in Frightmare, which set the path for the much of his career in the genre.
Combs' best known film role is Dr. Herbert West, a character in Re-Animator which he has reprised in the film's two sequels. He also portrayed the part of Re-Animator author H. P. Lovecraft in the film Necronomicon: Book of the Dead. His most recent film credits include FeardotCom (2002), House on Haunted Hill (1999), and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998).
He began to appear on the science fiction series The 4400 in August 2005, in what by 2006 became a recurring role. He also starred as the telepath Harriman Gray, in Eyes, a first season episode of Babylon 5. In early 2007, he played Edgar Allan Poe in "The Black Cat", an episode of Masters of Horror.
On television, Combs enjoyed critical and popular success with his alien characters on the various modern Star Trek incarnations, beginning in 1994 with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in 2000 with Star Trek: Voyager, and in 2001 with Star Trek: Enterprise. Even Trek fans unfamiliar with Combs' human face immediately recognized him due to his distinctive voice. Ironically, this distinctive voice Combs uses in all his screen roles is not his natural speaking voice but rather an affected one, as evidenced by interviews and commentaries on various DVDs of his film and television appearances. Combs originally auditioned for the role of Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but lost out to Jonathan Frakes, though producers kept him in mind for casting in the later series.
His largest role to date has been the multi-episode, multi-season Vorta clone Weyoun on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. On the same series, he had a recurring role as the Ferengi Brunt. During the DS9 episode "The Dogs of War", Combs made Trek history as the first guest actor to play two unrelated recurring roles in the same episode.
On Star Trek: Enterprise Combs had a very popular recurring role as Shran, an Andorian military officer. Shran represents a dramatic shift in character type for Combs, as his three previous Star Trek incarnations, Weyoun, Brunt and Penk, had all been somewhat passive officials, whereas Shran is a more heatedly aggressive leader. Enterprise producer Manny Coto once mentioned in an interview that he hoped to make Shran and Combs a regular on the show, had the series been renewed for a fifth season. In addition Combs made some non-recurring appearances, including Officer Kevin Mulkahey and Tiron on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Penk on Star Trek: Voyager, and the Ferengi Krem in Star Trek: Enterprise.
Combs has done extensive voice work; among others, Combs voiced The Scarecrow in the 1997 "revamp" of Batman: The Animated Series. Combs continued his work in the DCAU several years later with a recurring role as The Question in Justice League Unlimited. His version of the Question was well-regarded by both fans and the JLU writing staff and is credited for reviving interest in the character.
His most recent work to date includes a recurring role as Dr. Kevin Burkhoff on The 4400.
On September 11, 2001, a man named Jeffrey Coombs (note the extra 'o' in the last name) was aboard hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, which was later crashed into the World Trade Center. Having been confused with the passenger on the jet, Combs the actor was pronounced dead by news media outlets and had to announce publicly that he was still alive.
