Terry Kinney gave life to Tim McManus on the HBO series Oz.  He depicted the idealistic manager of Emerald City, a unit in the Oswald Maximum Security Prison, who seemingly had a fair share of positive and negative traits.  While he believed in justice, morality and the goodness of people, he was also overly idealistic, self-righteous and naïve.  He also had multiple sexual relationships with several staff members.  Throughout the series, he aimed to make his unit an ideal prison where people of all groups can learn and live together.  Unfortunately, his vision to rehabilitate the prisoners to make them better citizens eventually became cloudy when a mysterious substance was released into the facility, causing everyone to evacuate Oz. Later this year, the 53-year-old actor will be gracing the big screen with a drama and will be returning to the small screen with a new series in 2008.

In the movie Turn the River, the former Oz actor plays Markus, joining lead star Famke Janssen as a mother who goes to extreme efforts to raise money playing cards and pool in order to save his son from his disturbed father.  The movie taps on humor, drama and the tragic reality surrounding a person's backfiring plans despite the best intentions.  The film is directed by Chris Eigeman and pending for release this year.

Subsequently, Terry Kinney will be marking his return on television with a series called Canterbury's Law.  This legal drama centers on a female defense attorney (Julianna Margulies) who is willing to bend the law to protect the wrongfully accused.  The former Oz actor is set to play Zach Williams for an unknown number of episodes.

In addition to Oz, Terry Kinney became part of films like House Hunting, The Game of Their Lives and Runaway.  Most recently, he was featured as a guest star on Queens Supreme as Andrew Grigg.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of Wire Images)