Mark Arnott

Mark Arnott is an American actor and martial artist whose career has spanned film, television, and stage. He attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire as a member of the class of 1972, though he took time away from his studies to travel and to build two Harlequin Dinner Theaters, one in Rockville, Maryland and one in Atlanta, before graduating with the class of 1975. Dartmouth awarded him a Marcus Heiman Award, which provided a grant enabling him to study with Stella Adler in New York City.

Arnott's earliest recorded film appearance was as Jeff Andrews in Return of the Secaucus 7, the debut feature film directed by John Sayles. His first Equity stage role came in 1978, when he played Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame at Joe Papp's Public Theater in New York. His stage work extended across Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theaters, and included the first American production of Simon Gray's The Common Pursuit. He originated the role of Peter in the first two productions of Craig Lucas's Prelude to a Kiss, and appeared in the American premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business, which brought him to Broadway in 1992.

On television, Arnott appeared in a recurring role as Mark on the NBC series Cheers, and had roles on NYPD Blue, The Bernie Mac Show, Joan of Arcadia, and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.

A 5th Degree Black Belt in American Kenpo Karate, Arnott published a series of instructional books on the discipline in 2009 and teaches at Arnott Kenpo in Pasadena, California. He married Jane Carr in 1987; the couple divorced in 1995. He remarried in 2009 to Melissa Chase.