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Brian Downey

Born on Halloween in the Canadian Maritimes, Brian Downey seems always to have been drawn to offbeat projects. His film debut was in "The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood," a surreal, satirical independent film shot in his native Newfoundland. In 1989, he appeared in "George's Island," a creepy children's film set on Halloween and filmed in Nova Scotia. In 1997, Downey created the character for which he is best known, and which has provided him with an ardent cadre of fans. In "Lexx," Downey played Stanley H. Tweedle, the captain of the massive sentient spaceship of the title. A Canadian-German co-production, "Lexx" ran for four years and was filmed primarily in Halifax and Berlin, with some of its otherworldly landscapes being provided by Iceland, Namibia, and Thailand. In contrast to the brave and relentlessly competent starship captains most viewers are familiar with, Downey's Tweedle is weak and cowardly, and has a criminal background. The show's unconventional characters, bizarre storylines and ribald humor made it a cult favorite on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the end of the series, Downey has continued appearing in films and television. His abiding taste for the unusual can be seen in the title of his 2011 film starring Rutger Hauer: "Hobo with a Shotgun."