Sam Witwer

**Samuel Stewart Witwer** is an American actor, voice actor, and musician. He is known for playing Crashdown in *Battlestar Galactica*, Davis Bloome in *Smallville*, Aidan Waite in *Being Human*, Mr. Hyde in *Once Upon a Time*, and Ben Lockwood in *Supergirl*. He has voiced Starkiller in *Star Wars: The Force Unleashed*, the Son in *Star Wars: The Clone Wars* and Emperor Palpatine in *Star Wars Rebels*. He also voices Darth Maul in both the Clone Wars and in Rebels. In 2019, he joined the cast of *Riverdale* as Jughead Jones' school teacher Mr. Rupert Chipping. Witwer voiced protagonist Deacon St. John in the PlayStation 4 game *Days Gone* released in 2019 by SIE Bend Studio.

## Early life

Witwer grew up in Glenview, Illinois, a small suburb outside of Chicago. He attended Glenbrook South High School, during which time he was involved in drama and theater classes, as well as being the lead singer of a high school band called "Love Plumber". He attended the Juilliard School for a time before moving to Los Angeles.

## Career

Witwer's first on-screen credit was that of a Chicago Bulls commercial. He soon found himself in speaking roles on hit television series, such as ER.

Witwer's first major recurring role came in the form of portraying Lt. Crashdown on Battlestar Galactica, although he has credited much of his current success to his role as Neil Perry on the Showtime series Dexter. Witwer also appeared as Private Wayne Jessup in the movie The Mist.

From 2008 to 2009, Witwer was cast Season 8 of Smallville as Davis Bloome, a charming paramedic who struggles with a darkness within as he is the human camouflage of Doomsday, a character in the comics best known for being the only villain to have killed Superman. While Witwer played Davis, Doomsday was played by stuntman Dario Delacio. Witwer's performance in Smallville was incredibly well-received, and he has stated that his experience on the show had opened more opportunities for him in the future of acting.

Witwer made a cameo appearance in The Walking Dead as a dead (zombie) soldier in a tank in the Season 1 episode "Days Gone Bye" which reunited him with director Frank Darabont from The Mist.

Witwer starred in the North American remake of Being Human. He played the role of vampire Aidan Waite.

He voiced Ocean Master in the animated film Justice League: Throne of Atlantis for the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series, replacing fellow Star Wars actor Steven Blum from Justice League: War.

In 2016 Witwer played a recurring role of Mr Hyde on Once Upon a Time.

### **Roleplaying games**

Sam is an avid player of both electronic games and pen-and-paper roleplaying games. This is a hobby that he has engaged in for years. He has been a frequent guest on the Podcast Order 66 and has expressed a love for all iterations of Star Wars roleplaying games Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (by West End Games) to Star Wars Roleplaying Game (by Wizards of the Coast) and to the current series of cross-compatible Star Wars roleplaying games by Fantasy Flight Games.

Sam appeared in episode 19 of Geek and Sundry's Tabletop playing the Dragon Age roleplaying game.

### ***Star Wars*career**

A lifelong Star Wars fan, Witwer provided both his voice and likeness for lead character Galen Marek/Starkiller (Darth Vader's secret apprentice) in the 2008 video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and 2010 sequel Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. He has since received much praise for his contribution to the role. He also voiced Darth Sidious (Emperor Palpatine) in both games, and reprised it for the games Disney Infinity 3.0 and Battlefront and for season 2 of Star Wars Rebels, where he also plays Darth Maul.

For Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Witwer had also vocally performed the Son in a three episode story arc (known as the Mortis trilogy) in Season 3 as well as the iconic Sith Lord Darth Maul in the Season 4 finale episodes and in four episodes of Season 5. He also lent his voice for Darth Maul in other projects such as the Star Wars: Episode I Brisk commercial as well as the Cartoon Network special Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out, and is playing Maul again for Star Wars Rebels.

Sam attended The Clone Wars Season 5 Red Carpet Premier in Orlando, Florida on August 24, 2012 during Celebration VI along with some of his co-stars Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kane, Daniel Logan, Stephen Stanton and Ashley Eckstein, as well as Supervising Director Dave Filoni. During Celebration VI, he also had his own panel called Sam Witwer "The Maul Within" on August 26, 2012. In 2013, he attended for the first time the annual event, Star Wars Weekends at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida for a three-day weekend and fans praised him for his roles in The Force Unleashed games and on The Clone Wars. During the live show "Behind the Force", Sam showed his acting skills by saying one or two lines of the characters that he's played in the Star Wars universe.

Sam also guest voiced an alien as well as a stormtrooper during the siege of Maz Kanata's palace in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

### **Music career**

Witwer serves as the front-man for the band The Crashtones, whose first studio album Colorful of the Stereo was released February 15, 2006.

## Trivia

* Lead singer of The Crashtones.
* His family name "Witwer" is German for "widower".
* He was part of a Chicago Bulls Commercial for his first on-screen credit.
* He worked with Edward James Olmos in the film, Battlestar Galactica.
* He was born in Illinois where he grew up with his family. He began dating actress Chloe Dykstra in 2015. The couple later ended their relationship.