Demetri Goritsas

Demetri Goritsas is a Canadian-American actor and voice actor who played the father of Jack Harkness in the British science-fiction television series Torchwood, and the Immortal Timon in the TV series Highlander.

As a voice actor, Goritsas has played the leads in such video game franchises as Driver and Killzone, and narrated numerous documentaries for television.

Early life
Goritsas was born in Eugene, Oregon, USA. His father emigrated from a village near Mykines, Greece. His mother’s side are of Norwegian descent. Within days of Goritsas’s birth his family moved to Canada and he grew up in Prince George, British Columbia.

He graduated from Prince George Senior Secondary School and studied acting at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London, England.

He graduated from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in 1993. His peers included Ewan Bailey, comedienne Catherine Tate, actor James Frain and writer Derren Litten.

1993-2000
His first work in film was in minor roles in Little Women and Excess Baggage. In television he played the Immortal Timon in Highlander: The Series, portrayed Jimmie Dodd in A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story, and acted with William Shatner as Baxter, a villain, in Prisoner of Zenda, Inc.

In 1998, he played Private Parker in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. Goritsas was living in Canada at the time and flew to the United Kingdom where the film was shooting to audition. He waited in London for weeks afterwards until he learned he had been cast.

In 2000 Goritsas was cast as Ethan, the idiot savant flatmate to David Baddiel in the Sky One sitcom series Baddiel's Syndrome, which also featured Stephen Fry, Morwenna Banks, Kim Thomson, and Jonathan Bailey.

2001-2009
In 2001 Goritsas debuted at the Royal National Theatre in Edward Albee’s play Finding The Sun, playing Daniel.

He returned to the Royal National Theatre over the next few years, playing Dan Needham in Simon Bent’s adaption of John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, and as Endicott in John Guare’s adaptation of His Girl Friday.

Goritsas also performed on stage at the Royal Court Theatre, teaming with director Ian Rickson and playwright Rebecca Gilman in two of her plays, playing Tony in the UK premiere of Boy Gets Girl with Katrin Cartlidge, and playing Brian in the world premiere of The Sweetest Swing in Baseball opposite Gillian Anderson.

On film, he played one of the Com Techs along with Josh Hamilton and Walton Goggins in The Bourne Identity, and appeared in the films Spy Game,  Thunderbirds, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

He voiced the character of Badhand in the 2004 Atari video game Driv3r, and in 2005 was one of a number of narrators for Tolga Örnek’s documentary feature film Gallipoli, alongside Jeremy Irons and Sam Neill.

From 2006 Goritsas worked with director Michael Winterbottom on three of his films:  The Road to Guantanamo, Genova, and A Mighty Heart, playing FBI agent John Skelton with Angelina Jolie.

On television, Goritsas played the father of Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, in the BBC science fiction television series Torchwood.

In 2009, Goritsas voiced the protagonist Sgt. Thomas "Sev" Sevchenko in the computer game Killzone 2. In the same year he also played Kyle, the ex-husband to Kathryn Bolkovac, played by Rachel Weisz, in Larysa Kondracki’s debut film The Whistleblower.

2010-present
In 2010 Goritsas was cast as FBI Agent Levene in the superhero film X-Men: First Class. He voiced protagonist John Tanner in the video game Driver: San Francisco, seven years after voicing the supporting role of Badhand in Driv3r, part of the Driver video game series. In 2012 he played Felix Leiter in the first-person shooter video game 007 Legends, providing the voice and likeness for the character.

He narrated the TLC documentary series My Strange Addiction, the National Geographic Channel series The Lion Ranger about Kevin Richardson, and multiple episodes for Nova, including the documentary Steve Jobs: One Last Thing.

On television, Goritsas played the recurring role of the Director of the sitcom Pucks! in the first two seasons of the BBC/Showtime sitcom, Episodes. He also guest starred as the cocaine-loving ad exec, Max Madeley, in the BBC mockumentary series ''Twenty-Twelve.

Recent film appearances include the British film Good Vibrations, and Rush.

Goritsas also starred in the Italian TV movie Souvenir with Giorgia Surina. It was filmed in English and shot on location in Malta for Canale 5.

In 2014 Goritsas will appear in the BBC TV movie about Dylan Thomas, A Poet in New York, playing Dr Milton Feltenstein. He will also star in the Sky Atlantic sitcom Nixon’s The One, playing White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman opposite Harry Shearer as President Richard Nixon.