Marco St. John

Marco St. John, born Marco John Figueroa Jr. on May 7, 1939, in New Orleans, Louisiana, is an American actor whose career has spanned Broadway, film, and television. He spent part of his childhood connected to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where his family had long-standing roots, and attended both Ocean Springs High School and Gulfport High School. His family was involved in local historical and cultural activities, including participation in reenactments of the 1699 French landing at Fort Maurepas in Ocean Springs. St. John later studied at Fordham University in New York City, where he initially considered pursuing a law degree before committing to acting. He subsequently trained in classical and Shakespearean performance at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before returning to New York to begin his professional stage career.

St. John's Broadway career extended from 1964 to 1975 and encompassed more than eleven productions. His stage credits include The Glass Menagerie, Forty Carats, Weekend, The Unknown Soldier and His Wife, and War and Peace, among others. He performed opposite Julie Harris in Forty Carats during his Broadway tenure. Beyond New York, he played Hamlet at the San Diego Shakespeare Festival, demonstrating the classical training he had pursued in London.

His screen career brought him roles in several notable films. He portrayed the truck driver in the 1991 film Thelma and Louise, a performance that became among his most widely recognized, with press coverage noting the contrast between the character and his off-screen personality. Additional film credits include Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, in which he played Sheriff Cal Tucker, as well as Tightrope, Hard Target, The Package, and State of Grace. On television, St. John portrayed Dr. Paul Stewart on the soap opera As the World Turns and appeared in recurring and guest roles on In the Heat of the Night, Walker Texas Ranger, Homicide, Major Dad, The Equalizer, and Mike Hammer.

Alongside his performing career, St. John worked as a theater producer and cultural organizer on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He founded the Mississippi Repertory Theater Company, which operated from 1979 to 1982 and brought professional actors and directors to the region. After approximately twenty years, he announced plans to revive the company, with the revival intended to open with a production of The Lion in Winter at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, directed by Richard Harden. In 1980, he starred in The Gospel of St. Mark, a one-man stage production adapted from a Broadway presentation originally performed by Alec McCowen, staged in Mississippi. St. John also portrayed Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in the annual reenactment of the 1699 French landing at Fort Maurepas in Ocean Springs, continuing his family's tradition of involvement in local historical preservation. By the 1990s and early 2000s, he resided primarily in Ocean Springs while continuing to work in film and television productions in Louisiana and elsewhere, and during that period he designed and helped construct a home in Ocean Springs.