Matt Mulhern

Matt Mulhern is an American actor, historian, writer, director, and novelist whose career spanned over three and a half decades, beginning in the mid‑1980s and concluding in 2015. Born on July 21, 1960, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he grew up in the New Jersey suburbs, attending Pascack Hills High School in Montvale before pursuing a rigorous training in performance at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, where he earned a BFA in Acting in 1982 under the mentorship of William Esper. His breakout stage role came as Joseph Wykowski in Neil Simon’s Tony‑winning Biloxi Blues, a performance that opened doors to film and television work. Mulhern’s early screen credits include the cult classic One Crazy Summer and the war‑drama Extreme Prejudice, while his most recognizable TV role was Lieutenant Eugene “Gene” Holowachuk on the popular CBS series Major Dad (1989‑1993). He also made memorable guest appearances on Law & Order franchises, Third Watch, Fringe, CSI, and held a recurring part as Lt. John Stackhouse on FX’s Rescue Me. Onstage he continued to hone his craft, starring in productions such as The One‑Armed Man at Ensemble Studio Theater, Surviving Grace at Union Square Theater, and touring nationally as Biff in Death of a Salesman opposite Hal Holbrook. In addition to acting, Mulhern turned his creative energies to directing and screenwriting, helming the indie film Walking to the Waterline (in which he also performed) and Duane Hopwood, a 2005 feature praised by Roger Ebert as one of the year’s best. He authored the novel Crossing Open Spaces (2009) and later pursued academic interests, earning an MA in history from City College‑CUNY in 2019 and currently working toward a PhD in history at Fordham University. Mulhern resides north of New York City with his wife Karen and their two sons, including Jack, and remains a respected figure for his versatile contributions to film, theater, literature, and historical scholarship.