Vernon Wells (actor)

Vernon George Wells (born 31 December 1945) is an Australian actor. He is best known to international audiences for his role of Wez in the 1981 science fiction action film Mad Max 2 and also Bennett in the military action film Commando.

Early life
Wells was born in Rushworth, Victoria, Australia. He is the son of Eva Maude (née Jackson) and Michael Wells. When he was older, Wells worked in a quarry, then as a salesman, and then in theatre and rock bands.

Career
In the 1970s, he was selected by casting agents to appear in a theatre play, and started to appear in Australian TV commercials, print advertisements, local Australian TV shows such as Homicide and Matlock Police and historical TV mini-series like Against The Wind, Sara Dane and All The Rivers Run.

His first cinema appearance was a minor role in Felicity (1979), a low budget, erotic fantasy film.

Wells was cast as the homicidal biker Wez, in Mad Max 2 (1981), filmed around Silverton near Broken Hill in outback New South Wales, Australia. It is the role for which he is probably best known to international audiences, as Wells portrays a psychotic, post-apocalyptic gang leader who relentlessly pursues hero Max Rockatansky, before meeting a spectacular death at the film's finale.

Hollywood beckoned for Wells, and he spoofed his mad biker role in the popular 1985 teen comedy Weird Science, written and directed by John Hughes and produced by Joel Silver. Wells so impressed Silver with his work in that film that he was immediately secured for the role of Bennett, who double-crosses Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985). A film, in which, he famously 'let off some steam'. When first approached for the role in Commando, Wells was in Australia working on the feature film, Fortress, based on the real life Faraday School kidnapping, in a starring role opposite Rachel Ward. Wells appeared as Roo Marcus inLast Man Standing (1987).

Finally he began to appear in horror movies in 1989, when he appeared in the movie Enemy Unseen. Since then he has appeared in other 8 movies of this type, including the 2009 horror film Silent Night, Zombie Night while also appearing in other films and series mainly playng the villain.