Jeffrey Combs is anything but typical. With an impressive career that includes more than 140 acting credits and spans more than 30 years, Combs has played roles ranging from mad scientists to devious aliens, and much more in between. He's become a legendary figure in both horror and science fiction, praised by many for bringing a delightful madness to his performances. His impact on horror and science fiction is understated, if it's mentioned at all.
Combs has always had a fascination with human behavior. He first started acting in the early '80s, but his interest in the range of human expression began as a child, with drawing. He was mostly interested in the study of human behavior, especially faces and expressions, as he said in an interview with SlashFilm. This naturally led him into exploring acting by the time he entered high school.
Since then, he's made a name for himself as a kind of cult-worshipped actor, appearing in niche roles that have small but enthusiastic fan bases, such as the Re-Animator series, or Star Trek. His style is exuberant and eclectic, relishing in the strange and bizarre in a way that has served him well, especially in horror or as a villain.
With such an impressive and underappreciated career, which performances are the best of Jeffrey Combs?
5 FBI Agent Milton Dammers - The Frighteners (1996)
The Frighteners received mixed reviews when it came out. But it has since gained a cult appreciation for its fun performances and engaging storyline, and currently holds a 71% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed and co-written by Peter Jackson, with an all-star cast that included Michael J. Fox, Jake Busey, and Dee Wallace Stone, and with music by the wonderful Danny Elfman, it seemed like the movie should have been a bigger hit than it was. But enjoyment of this movie has only grown over the years, and perhaps one of the most memorable parts of it is Jeffrey Combs' performance as the twitchy FBI Agent Milton Dammers.
In the LA Times review of The Frighteners, they specifically mention Combs as notable for clearly relishing the role, saying that he was "the kind of FBI agent who could bring J. Edgar Hoover back from the dead." And the BBC said in their review, "Full of special effects, but still strangely 'indie', the movie has a unique sensibility - such as throwing in oddball characters like a nosey FBI agent called Milton Dammers (Combs) - that can really only be appreciated in the watching." Combs helps carry along the feeling of the movie perfectly with his performance. No one can really play a bug-eyed, neurotic, decidedly strange FBI agent quite like Combs can.
4 Dr. Crawford Tillinghast - From Beyond (1986)
From Beyond is one of the two most famous H.P. Lovecraft movie adaptations, and perhaps the best one. With Combs in the lead role, the movie ends up being one of his best performances in horror. It was also one of his earliest collaborations with director Stuart Gordon, with whom he would share a career-long partnership until the director's passing in 2020. With high praise from both critics and fans, it's not a surprise that a recent sequel was made, continuing the events of the main story.
What's especially fun about Combs' lead role as the scientist Dr. Crawford Tillinghast is the way he slowly morphs into a tortured and deadly nightmare of a creature, still partially human and fighting the disturbing urges he has developed. It's riveting to follow and see what will happen to him. Combs is a master of transformation, and this movie is one of the best examples of it, showcasing his nuanced brilliance as he struggles with what he is evolving into.
3 Dr. Herbert West - Re-Animator (1985)
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With three movies spread out over 20 years, the Re-Animator series might be the most recognizable role for Jeffrey Combs. It's also the other famous H.P. Lovecraft adaptation directed by Stuart Gordon, who excels at adapting Lovecraft and other similar horror material.
Combs stars as the sociopathic Dr. Herbert West in these movies, experimenting to bring the dead back to life. This movie was the defining role of Combs for ages, and one of the biggest zombie films of the 1980s as well. The film released to positive reviews, with Roger Ebert saying, "One of the pleasures of the movies... is to find a movie that chooses a disreputable genre and then tries with all its might to transcend the genre, to go over the top into some kind of artistic vision, however weird." With a phenomenal actor like Combs in the lead, "over the top" and "weird" is exactly right. Ebert would go on to say that director Stuart Gordon "creates a livid, bloody, deadpan exercise in the theater of the undead."
Combs puts all of his energy and exuberance into this role, making it an iconic staple of the time. It is signature in style and fun to watch to this day. The way he plays the mad doctor West was so memorable that there is even a recent modern remake. During a decade when horror movies had more fun with what they were doing, it was an ideal era for an actor such as Combs, and is to this day one of his best roles.
2 Edgar Allan Poe - Nevermore (2014)
One of the least-known performances by Combs may be one of his best - as the "Master of the Macabre" himself, Edgar Allan Poe. Combs first performed the role of the iconic poet back in 2007, when he played Poe in an episode of The Masters of Horror, directed again by Gordon. It was Gordon who was so impressed that he thought Combs should do a one-man play of Poe, but Combs originally turned down the idea. Yet it lingered in his mind, until a couple of years later, when he agreed, and they set it up. He performed again as Poe onstage, by himself for an hour and a half, in the play Nevermore...an Evening with Edgar Allan Poe.
Combs' performance was so riveting that its run was extended four times to accommodate the high demand by audiences. He not only had an uncanny resemblance to the tortured poet; his entire acting style of wild gesticulation and dramatic horror blended perfectly into the aura of Poe. It was as if his entire career had been building up to this role. The LA Times review, struggling not to seem "gushy," would say that "Combs' performance is definitive, so full-blown he does not seem to be so much playing Poe as channeling him." The review went on to say that renderings of "The Tell-Tale Heart" or "The Raven" have never truly been heard, until you've heard Combs perform them. And a review from Audiofile Magazine said that "One would love to go back in time and hear an original Poe lecture. With Combs' bright and nuanced performance we have the next best thing." Another reviewer even said, "As a New Yorker who has been to many a Broadway show and live performance, I can without hesitation tell you that it was the best live show I'd ever seen, bar none."
Thankfully, for all of us who missed such an incredible show, a recording of Combs' stage performance was released in 2020 and is available on Audible.
1 Weyoun - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)
By far the most complex and interesting villain in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and certainly one of the best in the entire Star Trek franchise, was Weyoun. Not only was this role Combs' favorite to play from Star Trek, it was also the one that he had the most input on for the creation of the character.
Originally, Weyoun was meant to be a one-off character, killed off by the end of his first episode in Season four, "To the Death". But the writers were so compelled by Combs' performance that they decided to make his species, the Vorta, regularly cloned so that they could bring a clone of him back. They even asked him for insight into his character, to help them write out Weyoun. Combs' performance is what shaped how Weyoun was written for years to come. He ended up being one of the best villains of the entire series, present for four years, right up until the finale.
Combs didn't originally know what Weyoun's personality would be like. As he said in an interview with StarTrek.com:
"I had no idea what a Vorta looked like until the makeup was done at 6:30 in the morning, when I looked in the mirror and went, 'Who is this guy? OK, make a decision.' I decided right away that he was a very pleasant fellow, very placid. Sometimes you’ve got to run with your initial instinct, and in that case it was a good one."
His instincts were spot on, and he ended up shaping an intriguing villain who is all smiles and pleasantries, until the knife is in your back. He almost seems sincere as he approaches things - just a good guy wanting to do right by people. In one scene he offers to make Captain Sisko a dictator, pleading to him, "Wouldn't it be much simpler if the Dominion and the Federation could reach some mutual beneficial understanding without resorting to the unpleasantness of military conflict?" His reasonable tone and friendly demeanor make the underlying snake that he is all the more powerful and evil.
But the best part about Weyoun is that, over the four years Combs played him, there are five different clones - and not all of them are the same. One clone even goes "rogue", helping the protagonists and, of course, being killed off for it. The brilliance of Combs' acting shines through in each of these performances, making Weyoun feel both the same, and somehow a bit different, or very different. The subtlety that he adds to this role, and the uniqueness of this detestable villain, make this long-running role Jeffrey Combs' best performance of his career.