{{short description|American actor}}
'''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''.
== Career == After graduating from Brown University, he worked on Wall Street as an options trader and risk arbitrageur.<ref name="ACGInterview">{{cite web|author=Adventure Classic Gaming|year=2006|url=http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/206|title=Dean Erickson Interview|accessdate=September 11, 2016}}</ref>
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<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Staff|title=1996 Premiere Awards|magazine=Computer Gaming World|volume=143|pages=55–67|date=June 1996|publisher=Ziff-Davis Publishing C.}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine |last1=Kollar |first1=Phil |year=2012 |title=Hunting Shadows: The Rise and Fall of Gabriel Knight |magazine=Game Informer |issue=229 |pages=98–99 }}</ref> 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".<ref name=":0" /> 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".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Dean Erickson - Interview - Adventure Classic Gaming - ACG - Adventure Games, Interactive Fiction Games - Reviews, Interviews, Features, Previews, Cheats, Galleries, Forums |url=http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/206/ |access-date=2023-07-20 |website=www.adventureclassicgaming.com}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /> He enjoyed the role and later said that if the ''Gabriel Knight'' series had continued using live action FMV, he would have done more.<ref name=":0" />
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''.<ref name="AmazonPage">{{cite web|author=Amazon|year=2022|url=https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dean-Erickson/author/B009H5FF36|title=Dean Erickson Amazon page|website=Amazon |accessdate=December 22, 2022}}</ref>
In 2010, he was elected to the Midcoast Maine Sports Hall of Fame.<ref name="Dean Erickson">[http://midcoastsportshalloffame.org/classof2010 Midcoast Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2010] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130415080513/http://midcoastsportshalloffame.org/classof2010 |date=2013-04-15 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.deanerickson.com Official Website] *{{IMDb name|0259039}} *[http://www.rivelazioni.com/persone/Dean_Erickson/ Dean Erickson profile]{{in lang|it}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Erickson, Dean}} Category:1958 births Category:American male stage actors Category:American male television actors Category:American male video game actors Category:American male voice actors Category:Living people Category:Brown University alumni
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