John Doe

When punk rock began in the mid-1970s, Illinois-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter John Nommensen Duchac adopted the snappier moniker John Doe and formed the band X with his girlfriend (later wife) Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer D.J. Bonebrake. Arguably the most creative band on the L.A. punk scene, X chronicled their rise with an excellent feature-length documentary, "X: The Unheard Music," released in 1986. That film proved that Doe was a good-looking, charismatic frontman, and as his band was drifting apart following Doe and Cervenka's divorce, he began a sideline career as an actor. Early in his acting career, Doe alternated small roles in Oliver Stone's "Salvador" and the Patrick Swayze action favorite "Road House" with meatier parts in small indies like Wayne Wang's "Slam Dance" and Allison Anders's "Border Radio." His supporting role as J.W. Brown--father of Winona Ryder's Myra Gale Brown--in the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic "Great Balls of Fire!" was followed by his first starring role opposite the Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz in the quirky indie "Roadside Prophets." As Doe began to re-focus on his music career, his acting roles stayed numerous, but became smaller. Aside from a reunion with Anders in her rock-&-roll comeback story, "Sugar Town," and a recurring part as Jeff Parker, the father of Shiri Appleby's Liz Parker on the sci-fi series "Roswell," Doe has largely limited himself to guest roles and cameos.