Dean Erickson (born December 5, 1958, Maine) is an actor, writer, and the founder and CEO of Bionic Capital LLC, a registered investment advisory firm. He is best known for playing Gabriel Knight in The Beast Within and Eric, Daphne's love interest and Café Nervosa waiter, in Season 1 of Frasier.
After graduating from Brown University, he worked on Wall Street as an options trader and risk arbitrageur. [1]
After six years he became an actor. He starred in several lesser Shakespearean productions and later guest starred in a few episodes of Frasier as a waiter called Eric who became a love interest for Daphne in the first season.
His best known role may be starring as Gabriel Knight in the award-winning [2] FMV video game The Beast Within. The role of Gabriel Knight was re-cast, since Jensen felt Tim Curry, who voiced Knight in Sins of the Fathers, did not look the part. [3] Dean Erickson took the part, and delivered a take on the character markedly different from Curry's. Erickson explained that "there was no way I was going to do Tim Curry, because... you know, Tim Curry is Tim Curry. He was a little more animated or maybe you could say over the top. What he was doing called for that. What I was doing called for something a little more down to earth and grounded". [3] He clarified that "[Curry] only voiced a character and, due to the nature of animation, voices often need to be more over-the-top, because they have to impart more of everything without the visual aspect of a real, live person on screen". [4] To prepare for the role, Erickson intensely studied films with Southern characters and voice tapes of Southern dialects in order to make his accent sound natural. [4] He enjoyed the role and later said that if the Gabriel Knight series had continued using live action FMV, he would have done more. [3]
He later turned his focus to writing. He has published a mystery novel, No One Laughs at a Dead Clown, under the name DC Erickson, and a self-help book, Choose Your Story, Choose Your Life. [5]
In 2010, he was elected to the Midcoast Maine Sports Hall of Fame. [6]
Dean Erickson (born December 5, 1958, Maine) is an actor, writer, and the founder and CEO of Bionic Capital LLC, a registered investment advisory firm. He is best known for playing Gabriel Knight in The Beast Within and Eric, Daphne's love interest and Café Nervosa waiter, in Season 1 of Frasier.
After graduating from Brown University, he worked on Wall Street as an options trader and risk arbitrageur. [1]
After six years he became an actor. He starred in several lesser Shakespearean productions and later guest starred in a few episodes of Frasier as a waiter called Eric who became a love interest for Daphne in the first season.
His best known role may be starring as Gabriel Knight in the award-winning [2] FMV video game The Beast Within. The role of Gabriel Knight was re-cast, since Jensen felt Tim Curry, who voiced Knight in Sins of the Fathers, did not look the part. [3] Dean Erickson took the part, and delivered a take on the character markedly different from Curry's. Erickson explained that "there was no way I was going to do Tim Curry, because... you know, Tim Curry is Tim Curry. He was a little more animated or maybe you could say over the top. What he was doing called for that. What I was doing called for something a little more down to earth and grounded". [3] He clarified that "[Curry] only voiced a character and, due to the nature of animation, voices often need to be more over-the-top, because they have to impart more of everything without the visual aspect of a real, live person on screen". [4] To prepare for the role, Erickson intensely studied films with Southern characters and voice tapes of Southern dialects in order to make his accent sound natural. [4] He enjoyed the role and later said that if the Gabriel Knight series had continued using live action FMV, he would have done more. [3]
He later turned his focus to writing. He has published a mystery novel, No One Laughs at a Dead Clown, under the name DC Erickson, and a self-help book, Choose Your Story, Choose Your Life. [5]
In 2010, he was elected to the Midcoast Maine Sports Hall of Fame. [6]