Biography

American supporting player, active in films and on television for two decades from the mid-70s. Phalen began acting in his school's drama club and later on stage in California after joining the San Francisco Actor's Workshop. A frequent performer on Broadway from 1965, he appeared in major plays, including Twelfth Night, The Crucible, Saint Joan, King Lear and A Streetcar Named Desire. Phalen debuted on screen in 1974 and was subsequently featured in guest roles on M.A.S.H. (1972) (as an outspoken sergeant), Racines (1977) (Rufus Jackson) and Babylon 5 (1993) (as Susan Ivanova's estranged father). His best known motion picture appearance was in La Nuit des masques (1978), as the sinister Dr. Terence Wynn (instrumental in setting the homicidal Michael Myers on his path). He also played the stern Major Bell, relentless in his pursuit of the alien Starman (1984). Most of Phalen's screen personae turned out to be tough authority figures, from judges and attorneys to senators and middle-echelon army officers. Phalen died from complications of AIDS in Los Angeles on December 6 1995 at the age of 58.

- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis