Gerrit Graham

Gerrit Graham was born in New York City on November 27, 1948, to parents John and Janet Graham. The family went on to live in Missouri and Michigan before settling in Chicago.

Graham attended, but did not graduate from Columbia University. At Columbia, he was the head of Columbia Players, the college theater company. His future co-worker, Brian De Palma, was also a former manager of the student group during his undergraduate years.

Film:

Graham appeared in films such as Used Cars, TerrorVision, National Lampoon's Class Reunion, Child's Play 2 and Greetings, where he worked with Brian De Palma for the first time. He again worked with De Palma on Hi, Mom! and Home Movies, as well as Phantom of the Paradise, where he played flamboyant glam-rocker Beef. Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times remarked that Graham and Jon Lovitz were the only actors in Last Resort who were "exempt from the bad-accent stigma."

Television:

Graham was in the television special Super Vision (1976). He was in Just Friends as Leonard Scribner. Graham in was in six episodes of the twelfth season of the prime time soap opera Dallas as Fred Hughes. He was the voice of Franklin Sherman in the animated series The Critic as well as a recurring role as Dr. Norman Pankow on the sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

He portrayed two different characters within the Star Trek franchise: the alien hunter of Tosk on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and a member of the Q Continuum who adopts the name Quinn in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Death Wish". He was once considered, along with René Auberjonois and Andrew Robinson, for the role of Odo, which went to Auberjonois. Robinson was later cast as Elim Garak.

Stage:

Graham was a stage performer who was in the touring company The Second City. His performances in the 1986 improvisational show Sills & Company and the 1987 play Bouncers by John Godber were positively reviewed by the New York Times. Julio Martinez of Variety called Graham "eerily evocative" of Allard Lowenstein in Dreams Die Hard in 1995. Frank Rizzo of Variety wrote that Graham had "some of the best lines" in his performance as Father Charles Dunbar in The God Committee in 2004. He also played Julian in Communicating Doors in 1998.

Writer:

Graham wrote the teleplays for the episodes "Still Life" and "Opening Day" of the 1980s version of The Twilight Zone. He did not write "Welcome to Winfield", the only episode in which he appeared as a member of the cast. Graham worked as a writer on The Little Mermaid. Along with his brother, Sam, and Chris Hubbell, he co-wrote the Disney film The Prince and the Pauper.

Musician:

Graham was a longtime friend and songwriting collaborator of Bob Weir, guitarist and vocalist of the Grateful Dead. The two met in the 1970s and began writing together in the early 1980s. Their collaboration produced "Victim or the Crime", for which Weir supplied the initial chorus and Graham developed the lyrics. The song was recorded by the Grateful Dead for their 1989 album Built to Last and became part of the band's concert repertoire.

He also contributed lyrics to Weir's side project Bobby and the Midnites, including "(I Want to Live in) America" and "City Girls", both released in 1984. Following the Grateful Dead's dissolution in 1995, he continued collaborating with Weir through RatDog. In a 1999 interview with The New Yorker, Graham explained that he had accumulated a collection of unused lyrics while waiting for the Grateful Dead to record another album. He subsequently developed several songs with Weir for RatDog, including "Two Djinn", which he identified as his favorite of their collaborations.

Graham received songwriting credits on four tracks from RatDog's 2000 studio album Evening Moods: "Bury Me Standing", "Odessa", "Two Djinn" and "Even So". His contributions were primarily lyrical, with the music developed by Weir and other members of RatDog.

The collaboration continued into the 2000s, with Graham providing lyrics for additional RatDog compositions, including "Money for Gasoline" and "Just Like Mama Said". Graham co-wrote the song "Hard Times of America" with David Kraai, which was released on Kraai's album Back to When on June 12, 2026.

Graham married Deborah Cooper in 1982. They had two children together, Jack and Henry. He died of complications from lung disease on September 15, 2026, at the age of 77.