Reginald VelJohnson Biography

Reginald VelJohnson (born Reginald VelJohnson, August 16, 1952) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing policeman characters such as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters, which ran from 1989 to 1998, and LAPD Sgt. Al Powell in the films Die Hard and Die Hard 2.

Early life

VelJohnson was born Reginald Vel Johnson on August 16, 1952 in Queens, New York, the son of Eve, a nurse, and Reginald Johnson, Sr., a hospital attendant. His father left the family, which included Reginald's brother Barry, when VelJohnson was 13 years old. Their mother subsequently married John Reilly. VelJohnson attended Benjamin N. Cardozo High School where he was classmates with George Tenet, and porn star Ron Jeremy. He later obtained a Bachelor of Arts from New York University. Before embarking on an acting career, he changed his name from Reginald Vel Johnson (his birth name) to Reginald VelJohnson. He later said he changed the spelling, "because I wanted a name people would remember."

Reported death

VelJohnson was the subject of an internet hoax when, on February 13, 2017, a website reported that the actor has passed away as a result of heart attack. The fact checking website Snopes.com proved the claim to be false and VelJohnson took to Twitter to show he was still alive and doing well.

Career

VelJohnson is known for playing police officers in films and on television. In Ghostbusters, he had a brief appearance as a Municipal Corrections Officer, and in Crocodile Dundee, he plays a limo driver. VelJohnson played Sgt. Al Powell in the 1988 film Die Hard and later reprised the character in the 1990 sequel Die Hard 2, for which he still received fourth billing. He also portrayed a yelling apartment resident for promoting Instant Lottery games for a Michigan Lottery commercial in 1988. VelJohnson also played a police officer alongside Tom Hanks in Turner & Hooch (1989). Johnson was cast as police officer Carl Winslow in the sitcom Family Matters alongside Jo Marie Payton, who played his wife Harriette Winslow; he starred on that show until 1998. He also had a minor role in the 2002 film Like Mike. VelJohnson reprised his role of Sgt. Al Powell in the GameCube video game title, Die Hard: Vendetta, also in 2002. In 2004, he took the title role in the off-Broadway show She all Dat! (playing "she"). Since the end of Family Matters, besides making a few guest appearances on TV shows, VelJohnson has done mostly theater work. He wrote a critically acclaimed series of short stories called Division Street. One of them, called Sunday Evening Haircut, was made into a short film in 2005, which starred VelJohnson himself, alongside Kiki Shepard. VelJohnson has also made guest appearances in several TV shows, including The Equalizer, Diagnosis: Murder, Twice in a Lifetime, Will & Grace, Monk, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Eve, Crossing Jordan, The Parkers, That's So Raven, Chuck, in which he reprises his role as Al Powell, and Bones.

In 2007, he appeared in the short films Reverse, Nerve Endings, and Time Upon A Once which were made during the reality show On the Lot. The following year he appeared as the "Sgt. Al Powell" character from the Die Hard series in an episode of NBC's Chuck entitled "Chuck Versus the Santa Claus", as the cousin of Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence). In 2010, VelJohnson started a recurring role as the principal on the Disney sitcom I'm in the Band and also Funnyordie.com's short HBO film entitled Just 3 Boyz starring Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and Zack Galifianakis. He has also appeared in the comedy film, The Formula, starring alongside Brandon Baker and Sasha Jackson.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Wolfen	Morgue Attendant	Credited as Reginald Vel Johnson
1984	Ghostbusters	Corrections Officer	Credited as Reggie Vel Johnson
1985	Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins	Ambulance Driver
1986	Crocodile Dundee	Gus
1988	Plain Clothes	Captain Graff
1988	Die Hard	Sgt. Al Powell
1989	Turner & Hooch	Detective David "Dave" Sutton
1990	Die Hard 2	Sgt. Al Powell
1991	'		Short film
1993	Posse	Preston
2000	Ground Zero	Burt Green
2002	Like Mike	Mr. Boyd
2005	Sunday Evening Haircut	O.C.	Short film Producer, writer
2005	Suits on the Loose	Brother Steedman
2005	Death to the Supermodels	Tom	Direct-to-video release
2006	Hidden Secrets	Norman Wexler
2007	Three Days to Vegas	Johnny
	Out at the Wedding	Dexter
2009	Steppin: The Movie	Mr. Shavers
2010	Jelly (film)	Joe Woods
2010	You Again	Mason Dunlevy
2012	Brother White	Hill
2012	Air Collision	Bob Abbot
2013	The Formula	Professor Millan
2014	12 Dog Days Till Christmas'	Probation Officer Art Stephenson
2018	Funny Story	Hank
2019	Easter	Alven Powell

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985-1988	'	N/A (1985) Harmon Hunter (1986) Arthur Williams (1988)	Episode: "Lady Cop" Episode: "Dead Drop" Episode: "Sea of Fire"
1988	227		Episode: "The Night They Arrested Santa Claus"
1989	Perfect Strangers	Carl Winslow	Episode: "Crimebusters"
1989-1998	Family Matters	Carl Winslow	215 episodes
1992	Tales from the Crypt	Hotel Guest	Episode: "Werewolf Concerto"
1993	Dream On	Santa	Episode: "Silent Night, Holy Cow:
1994	'	Dad (Voice)	Television movie
1994	One of Her Own	Det. Bob Hymes	Television movie
1996	Deadly Pursuits	Ed Conroy	Television movie
1998	Diagnosis: Murder	Dr. David Sinclair	Episode: "The Last Resort"
1999	'	Rev. Bennett	Episode: "Daddy's Going to Hell"
2000	Twice in a Lifetime	Dr. David Bryant	Episode: "Whistle Blower"
2001	'	Maurice Beaumont	Episode: "Lagniappe"
2002	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Dr. Phillip Kane	Episodes: "Face Lift" and "Gentle, Gentle"
2002	Crossing Jordan	Mr. Holden	Episode: "Someone to Count On"
2002	Will & Grace	Dr. Kaplan	Episode: "It's the Gay Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"
2003	'	Sterling Oglevee	Episode: "A Sterling Relationship"
2005	That"?s So Raven	Dikembe, The Ambassador	Episode: "The Royal Treatment"
2005	Ghost Whisperer	Danny Small	Episode: "Undead Comic"
2006	Eve	Rev. Everett	Episode: "Oh, Brother"
2006	Monk	Todd	Episode: "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion"
2007	On the Lot	Neighbor in 'Time Upon a Once'	Episode: "11 Cut to 10 & 10 Directors Complete"
2007	Bones	Dale Owens	Episode: "The Santa in the Slush"
2008	Chuck	Sgt. Al Powell	Episode: "Chuck Versus Santa Claus"
2009	'	Rodney Smith	Television movie
2009-2011	I'm in the Band	Principal/Superintendent Cornelius Strickland	Recurring role
2010	Funny or Die Presents	Christopher	Episode: "Just 3 Boyz"
2010	'	Ed	2 episodes
2010	Meet the Browns	Ernie Wilson	Episode: "Meet the Baby Daddy"
2011-2015	Hart of Dixie	Dash DeWitt	Recurring role
2011-2013	Mike & Molly	Brother Heywood	5 episodes
2012-2013	Tron: Uprising	Able	Recurring role
2012	General Hospital	Reverend Love
2012	The Mistle-Tones	Holly's dad	Television movie
2013	Real Husbands of Hollywood (Season 2)	Himself	Tisha and Duane
2014	Strike One	Judge Morris
2015	Clipped	Tommy (Buzzy's Husband)
2015	The Flight Before Christmas	Joe	Played husband of "Marie" (Jo Marie Payton, who also played Reginald's wife on Family Matters)
2016	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	Judge Melvoy	Episode: "McPoyle vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century"
2016	Girl Meets World	Officer James	Episode: "Girl Meets True Maya"
2016	Ray Donovan	Sherman Radley	Episode: "Norman Saves the World"
2017	Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero	Mr. Flannigan (voice)	Episode: "My Mischievous Son"
2018	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Himself	Episode: "Bachelor/ette Party"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Die Hard: Vendetta	Sgt. Al Powell	Voice and likeness only