Sherman Howard

Sherman Howard is an American actor born on June 11, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois. He is widely recognized for playing the zombie Bub in George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985) and for portraying Lex Luthor on the television series Superboy from 1990 to 1992. He also provided the voice of Derek Powers, also known as Blight, in the animated series Batman Beyond from 1999 to 2001.

Howard launched his theatrical career at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in 1971, where he was a member of the repertory company. His roles there included Glendenning in David Storey's The Contractor, the archangel Gabriel in Nagle Jackson's The Mystery Cycle, James in Harold Pinter's The Collection, and Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice, as well as appearances in both Antony and Cleopatra and Caesar and Cleopatra. He subsequently joined the resident company at the Actors Theatre of Louisville for three seasons during the mid-1970s, taking on roles in productions including The Runner Stumbles, The Front Page, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and the European tour of Marsha Norman's Getting Out, in addition to playing Lucius in Jon Jory's Andronicus: A Space Musical. During this period he also appeared as Archie in Tom Stoppard's Jumpers in the premiere season of Chicago's Northlight Theatre Company.

His off-Broadway work includes Shel Silverstein's The Crate and The Lady or the Tiger Show, Sam Shepard's Geography of a Horse Dreamer at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and I'm Not Rappaport at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Howard appeared in Titus Andronicus and Tell Out My Soul at The Public Theater and in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest at the Pecadillo Theatre. He most recently appeared in the title role of Bauer by Lauren Gunderson at 59 E 59th Street in New York City.

Howard's regional stage career has been extensive. At the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey he played Prospero in The Tempest, King Henry in The Lion in Winter, Spooner in No Man's Land, Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard, Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, and the title roles in both Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo and Luigi Pirandello's Henry IV. He also appeared there as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing opposite his wife, actress Donna Bullock, who played Beatrice. He took on the title role of Hamlet at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival and the title role of Macbeth at the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. Additional regional credits include the title role in Sheridan at the La Jolla Playhouse, The Price at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Nine Armenians at the Intiman Theater in Seattle, The Player in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and The Second Mrs. Wilson at George Street Playhouse under the direction of Gordon Edelstein.

On Broadway, Howard appeared in four productions between 2007 and 2012: Inherit the Wind, All My Sons, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and Gore Vidal's The Best Man. Beyond the stage, Howard has performed in concert hall settings. During the 2013–14 season he appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Sergei Rachmaninoff's The Bells, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. He portrayed Prospero in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's presentation of Jean Sibelius' The Tempest Suite, conducted by Jacque Lacombe, and has performed Richard Strauss's Enoch Arden with concert pianist David Kaplan at Bargemusic in Brooklyn and with Metropolis Ensemble in Manhattan.

Howard has been married to actress Donna Bullock since May 1988. They have one daughter, Hannah Sherman.