Terrence Mann

Terrence Vaughan Mann (born July 1, 1951) is an American theatre, film and television actor and baritone singer. He is best known for his appearances on the Broadway stage, which include Lyman in Barnum, The Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, The Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Charlemagne in Pippin, Mal Beineke in The Addams Family, Charles Frohman / Captain James Hook in Finding Neverland, and The Man in the Yellow Suit in Tuck Everlasting. He has received three Tony Award nominations, an Emmy Award nomination, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. His film credits include the Critters series, A Chorus Line, Big Top Pee-wee and Solarbabies. He also starred as the villain Whispers in the Netflix series Sense8 from 2015 to 2018. He is a distinguished professor of musical theatre at Western Carolina University, and is an artistic director of the Carolina Arts Festival and the North Carolina Theatre. Early life Mann was born in Ashland, Kentucky, the eldest of three sons to Helen and Charles Mann. Mann's mother was a concert pianist, and his father sang in a barbershop quartet. Music was part of his growing up, so singing came naturally to him. But it was the multiple pleasures of the stage that drew him to the world of theater. In an interview with the Hartford Courant, Mann said: "When I was doing the junior class play — it was called 'In Deadly Earnest' — at the end of a scene, the script said, 'They kiss.' It was then that I honestly thought, 'I'm going to be in the theater!' I was fascinated with having words put in my mouth and that someone would say something back to me that would get us to a moment where we ended up in a kiss. I remember when my school counselor asked me what I wanted to do, I said without hesitation, 'Go into the theater!'"