Michael T. Weiss

The darkly handsome, square-jawed Michael T. Weiss found small screen fame as the star of "The Pretender" (NBC, 1996-2000), playing Jarod, a character who takes on the guise of various professionals as a vigilante for justice. A native of Chicago who studied at the Second City workshop while in high school, he first found success landing the role of Dr. Mike Horton on the long-running NBC soap "Days of Our Lives" soon after his 1984 graduation from USC. While appearing on the daytime drama, Weiss moonlighted in primetime as a potential son-in-law hand-picked by Rue McClanahan in "Take My Daughters, Please" (NBC, 1988). After nearly six years on "Days," Weiss left to pursue other options and landed a role in the NBC miniseries "The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake" (NBC, 1990), before joining the series remake of "Dark Shadows" (NBC, 1991) in the role of Joe Haskell. Weiss then appeared on the short-lived summer series "2000 Malibu Road" (CBS, 1992), as a high school friend of Jennifer Beals who finds himself accused of rape.

In features, the actor debuted in the direct-to-video release "Howling IV: The Original Nightmare" (1988). His most spotlighted film role to-date has been as Steve, the HIV-positive man who wants to have a relationship with Steven Weber's celibate "Jeffrey" (1995). Weiss also delivered a strong turn as the drug-addicted stepfather of Reese Witherspoon in "Freeway" (1996), a B-movie version of "Little Red Riding Hood."