Neil Hopkins

**Neil Hopkins** (born May 13, 1977) is an American actor. He portrays Larry Crock/Sportsmaster as a guest star in the first and second seasons of *Stargirl*. He was promoted to a series regular for the third season.

## Biography

**Neil Edward Hopkins** (born May 13, 1977) is an American television and film actor. He is a trained actor and singer; best known for his portrayal of Charlie's heroin-addicted brother Liam on *Lost*.

### Early Life

Hopkins was born in Trenton, New Jersey. Later, he and his family moved to Aurora, Colorado, where he graduated from Regis Jesuit High School, class of 1995, and then attended College of the Holy Crossin Worcester, Massachusetts from 1996 to 1999. He is a graduate of the American Conservatory Theater's MFA program.

## Career

Hopkins has portrayed characters in several television shows including a "Specialist" in *Birds of Prey*, "Lester" in *Crossing Jordan*, and has had appearances in *Dragnet*, *Charmed*, *Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service*, *My Name Is Earl*, *Point Pleasant* and *Ghost Whisperer*. Hopkins has also starred in an episode of *CSI: Crime Scene Investigation* as "Donny Drummer" and had a recurring role on *Lost* as Charlie's older brother and former heroin addict, "Liam Pace". He also made appearances in two episodes of Big Love as "Ken Byington" and in an episode of *The 4400* as "Nick Crowley". Hopkins plays musicians in several series, appearing as a rock star in *The 4400* and *Lost*, and as a promising musician on *Ghost Whisperer*.

As well as his television appearances, Hopkins has also had roles in feature films, such as the main character in Philip Zlotorynski's Walkentalk, "Chris", and a guest role in *My Big Fat Independent Movie*, as the "Lanky Man". In both films, Hopkins did an impersonation of Christopher Walken, a skill he is renowned for.

Hopkins has also appeared in Aimée Price as "Kevin" and in the 2005 remake of the silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as "Alan". He is also set to star in the film Because I Said So as "Rafferty", which is expected for a 2007 release.

He also co-wrote, co-produced and co-starred in the pilot *Hit Factor*, which took the Best Drama award at the New York Television Festival (NYTVF) in New York City. Hopkins also starred in the Brothers Strause science fiction thriller *Skyline*.

## Trivia

* On June 26, 2020 **Neil Hopkins** and Stella Smith did an AMA over on the Stargirl reddit forum where they answered a couple of fan questions.
	+ Neil for his part said that "the audition process was normal like any other audition it was on tape I never met the producers. The difference was I had no idea who I was actually auditioning for. I knew what the character was like but I had no idea that it was Sportsmaster or that it was a villain and the PC world. I didn’t know that until a couple weeks later when I got the offer".
	+ Neil also mentioned that the creation of the Sportsmaster Suit was a long one, and he had to try on several versions of it as they developed it. But it is apparently very comfortable to wear.
	+ Neil also revealed he hadn't heard of Sportsmaster prior to getting the role. But once he got offered the role, he immediately started reading up on him. Although most of what he found was the recent portrayal of Sportsmaster on the *Young Justice* series.
	+ When it comes to Sportsmaster though Geoff Johns had his own take on him and Neil described him as more funny and psycho.
	+ Neil wento onto say that when he first met the producers they gave them *“JSA: The Golden Age”* to read, but so much of Neil's version of Sportsmaster was just in the script that they wrote for the series. It’s a new, different take on the character.
	+ Neil also mentioned how shooting the fight scene in the 6th episode was a lot of fun but very grueling. The cast and crew saw a Lot of sunrises because it took them over a week to shoot due to the constant raining. As a result, they had to continuously end the shoots early, which lead to the schedule getting pushed again and again.
* He previously guest starred on episode #9 of The CW's predecessor The WB's short-lived *Birds of Prey* television series, which was his first acting role. He played a metahuman hitman.
* Neil had dummy sides for the character under the name "Scott Miller". He worked with his audition coach who happens to be his wife. When he booked the series he learned the truth about his character and the role he had landed. There had been no previous indication that his role was a supervillain until have he booked it.
* He and Joy Osmanski were the first people to be cast, preceding even Luke Wilson.

## External links

* Neil Hopkins on the Internet Movie Database
* Follow Neil Hopkins [@neilehopkins] on Twitter
* Follow Neil Hopkins [@neilehopkins] on Instagram
* Official website

## References

1. ↑ https://deadline.com/2018/12/stargirl-casting-meet-three-members-of-injustice-society-1202524168/
2. ↑ AMA with Stella Smith & Neil Hopkins