John Schuck was born Conrad John Schuck in Boston, Massachusetts in 1940, the son of an English professor who took several teaching positions including Princeton College and SUNY Buffalo while John was growing up. Following graduation from Denison University where he appeared in a number of plays, John turned to regional theatre for work, including the Cleveland Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, and American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He was discovered at ACT for film by director Robert Altman, who featured him as Painless, the dentist in the now-cult classic film M.A.S.H. (1970). Altman continued to use John in Brewster McCloud (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and most assuredly in Thieves Like Us (1974), arguably his best film role. On television, Schuck won a regular part as a sergeant on McMillan & Wife (1971) opposite Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James for six seasons. However, most of his work seemed mired in playing dim, simple-minded characters such as the robot on the silly short-lived comedy Holmes and Yoyo (1976) and as Herman Munster on The Munsters Today (1987), a revisit to the ghoulish 1960s television family.
More challenging guest role work has come to him on occasion with television series such as NYPD Blue (1993), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Star Trek: Voyager (1995) and Babylon 5 (1993). In the popular films Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), John has earned himself a place in the hearts of Trekkie fans all over the nation. The musical stage in the last few decades has also taken a precedence. For decades now, John has appeared regularly as the gruff-speaking Daddy Warbucks in the musical “Annie” not only on Broadway but on tours and in smaller theater venues such as the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. He also had much success playing Frank Butler in “Annie Get Your Gun” with Bernadette Peters on tour. Other musical roles in “The Sound of Music”, “Peter Pan”, “The Most Happy Fella” and “She Loves Me” also appear on his active resume. A sailor on the sly, John lives with his second wife, painter Harrison Houle, in Venice, California.
