Talking TV and Philly With Long Bright River Actor John Doman
The Philly-born and -raised performer, who didn’t start acting until his 40s, has a pivotal role in the brand-new Peacock series.
Long Bright River actor John Doman at his Brooklyn home / Photograph by Emily Assiran
When you binge the new Kensington-set Peacock series Long Bright River, which debuts on March 13th, you’ll see a familiar face in every episode: the character actor John Doman. Here, he looks back on his Philly childhood and his time at Penn and in Vietnam, and explains why all of his characters are so damned serious.
Hi, John. Someone recently suggested that I interview Richard Gere in these pages, saying he’s from Philly. I looked him up — it’s true that he was born here, but his family moved when he was just a baby. And, frankly, there’s nothing “Philly” about Richard Gere. You, however, seem like a bona fide Philadelphian.
Oh, I’m bona fide all right. Very bona fide. I’ve lived in New York for 53 years, but Philly is in my blood, my roots.
I just realized that the very first Eagles hype video featured your unmistakable gritty voice, saying: “We are 44 to 6 and 4th and 26. We have enough miracles to be considered for sainthood. And if you lay it on the line — I mean really lay it on the line — we will make sure you never pick up a tab in this town again.”
It’s all so true.
Long Bright River is set in Kensington. Is it true that’s where you grew up?
Well, we started in an area of Fishtown just below Kensington, and then when I was 12, we moved up to Juniata, just above Kensington. When we moved to Juniata, we had a lawn, and I thought we were in the suburbs. [laughs] But we were always hanging out in Kensington.
What were those areas of Philly like when you were there?
This was in the ’50s. It was all very blue-collar. Mostly Irish with some Polish and German thrown in. The streets were teeming with kids, all of us baby boomers. We were all playing in the streets and on the sidewalks from the time we turned six.
Why move up to Juniata?
When my parents got married, they moved in with my great-grandfather on Palmer Street, saved their money, and then bought the house in Juniata. My father was a driver/salesman for a company that sold condiments to bars and restaurants, and my mother was a secretary for Ajax Metal at Frankford and Richmond.
Public school?
No. North Catholic, a typical all-boys Catholic high school. I wanted to go there to play football, really, which is what my father did there, and I was following in his footsteps. We had a lot of fun. And then Penn recruited me for football as a defensive end. I majored in English literature.
What drew you out of Philadelphia?
When I finished at Penn, I was about to be drafted into the Army. The Vietnam War was on. I didn’t want to get drafted into the Army, so I took the test for the Navy’s Officer Candidate School and passed. They put me on a waiting list and said while I was on the waiting list, I might still be drafted into the Army. [laughs] So I did OCS with the Marines instead. You go in as a private, do 10 weeks of OCS, and then you’re commissioned as a second lieutenant. I then became a company commander.
I’m assuming you saw battle?
Oh yes. I did one tour in Vietnam. It had its moments, that’s for sure. I was very fortunate.
Given that you’re a Vietnam vet as well as an actor, I have to ask you: There are so many movies about the Vietnam War, from Apocalypse Now to Full Metal Jacket to Hamburger Hill … I could go on. Which film actually got it right or came closest?
Platoon. Absolutely Platoon. That movie just really captured the confusion and chaos in a way that no other movie has.
Most of the actors I’ve interviewed picked up acting as kids or young adults, but I was surprised to learn that you didn’t start acting until you were in your 40s.
Yes, the only exposure I had to acting when I was young was when I was in high school. The priest directing the play wanted to get some football players involved, and I was cast as a spear carrier. I had one line. I was terrified. Acting really wasn’t on my radar at all until 1969.
On my way back from Vietnam, I stopped in San Francisco to see a friend. But then she was away when I got there. So here I was alone needing something to do. So I went to the movies. The first night, I saw Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. The second night, I saw Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Here you had this guy playing Ratso Rizzo on Friday and a preppy guy on Saturday. It blew me away. Just an amazing thing. And I knew I wanted to try it one day.
And one day was quite a bit later. You finish out with the Marines. You get your MBA at Penn State. And then you hightail it for New York to work in advertising.
My grandfather drove the overnight run in a tractor trailer from Philly to New York. One night when I was six, he said, “You’re coming with me.” You can’t imagine being a six-year-old in a tractor trailer and all of a sudden at three in the morning, bam, New York is all lit up on the horizon. I was totally fascinated and knew I wanted to be there one day. After grad school, a friend of mine was in the ad biz in New York and told me to come out. And I did.
Long Bright River actor John Doman in his Brooklyn neighborhood / Photograph by Emily Assiran
Granted, you were a decade or so after Mad Men, but still, how accurate was the series?
Oh, it was pretty accurate! This was in the ’70s, and it was kind of the hangover period from the Mad Men era. But some of those old guys were most certainly around.
And from the ad world to acting. How did that work?
I had in my head that I wanted to try acting by the time I was 45. So I got to be 42 and started taking some classes. I joined the board of a local theater company made up of veterans. Ostensibly, I did this to help them raise money. But my secret agenda was that a woman on the board was a producer. We became friends. I told her I wanted to try acting. She said, “Why don’t you talk to my friend?” (who was a manager). And I met with her friend and signed on. It started out with commercials for companies like AT&T, Hertz, and Avis. And I left the ad business for good in ’91.
What was your first major TV show?
Law & Order. I was a bailiff in the courtroom reading the charges.
So many actors have done the Law & Order thing. But I’m pretty sure you may hold the distinction of being the only actor who has done the original series as well as four spin-offs, from the one-season Trial by Jury to SVU, Criminal Intent, and, most recently, Organized Crime.
And they are all just so good. I enjoyed working on every episode that I was fortunate enough to get. I started in the Michael Moriarty days, before there was even a Lenny Briscoe on the show.
Okay, John, I have to ask you this. You’ve been a hard-nosed cop in more than a few things — most notably Major Rawls in The Wire. You’ve played scheming, violent mobsters on a few occasions, the one coming to mind right now being Carmine Falcone in Gotham. And who can forget your portrayal of a seriously corrupt pope in Borgia? Have you ever played anything, you know, light? Funny? Would you consider maybe a comedy at this stage of your life?
It’s true. I usually play very serious, hardcore roles, though sometimes there are funny moments in that serious stuff. Typecasting is great for an actor when they are just starting out, but then it’s a challenge and a curse. It’s so hard to break out of it. But I would love to do a comedy!
Alas, Long Bright River is decidedly not a comedy.
No. It’s set in Kensington amid the drug crisis. It’s a thriller about two sisters — my granddaughters — one of whom is a policewoman and the other is someone dealing with the ravages caused by the opioid crisis. She goes missing; there is a series of murders. Lots of twists and turns. As you probably know, it is based on the novel by Philadelphia author Liz Moore. People who enjoyed the novel are going to love the series. It’s much broader; there are new characters.
Speaking of characters, I couldn’t help but notice that the role you play in the show was actually a woman in the book, the sisters’ grandmother. Why the gender switch?
Well, you might need to ask Liz that, but what I suspect is that they needed a strong male character in the show. I actually wasn’t aware of the book before I got the job. [laughs] My agent showed me the script, and the fact that it was set in Kensington immediately got me interested. I read the book once I took the part.
I heard that your character in the show is a Mummer. Do we get to see you strut?
I might do the Mummers strut around the house. I wanted to teach my great-grandson on the show how to do it.
Unfortunately, while Long Bright River is set in Kensington, it was shot in New York, which I guess I’ll have to talk to the Greater Philadelphia Film Office about. But did you come to Kensington to do any research?
Yes. One of the other actors had never been to Philly, so I drove him down and we went all through Fishtown and Kensington, up to K&A. And we paid a visit to Penn’s campus and South Philly.
Did you do the proverbial tourist cheesesteak?
[Laughs] I’ve had enough cheesesteaks in my life, and I don’t eat red meat these days. I stopped, I guess, around 2019.
Hmmm. Interesting timing. Did this have anything to do with the fact that you married your second wife in 2019?
[laughs] That would not be a coincidence. Elizabeth is a vegetarian.
I just had a funny feeling. How did you meet?
Through the guy who owns the pet supply store in our neighborhood in Brooklyn. She had a dog, I had a cat, and he said, “You have to meet this woman,” and gave me her number. I called her. That was it!
I like it. Old-school. You just turned 80 in January. How does one celebrate an 80th birthday?
Quietly! [laughs]
Is acting something you plan to do until you can’t? Or do you and Elizabeth have plans to expatriate to a hut in Tahiti?
I don’t even think about retirement. I’ll keep doing this as long as I can remember my lines. It’s amazing and really consumes you in a way. When you really get into the work, it’s calling on a lot of good stuff. It’s going into your past, digging into your personal experiences to fill out the character. It’s a collaborative effort, and when you are fortunate enough to work with the right people, there is nothing more satisfying.
Made for TV: John Doman’s Biggest Roles
John Doman as Carmine Falcone in Gotham / Photograph via Fox/Getty Images
Law & Order
John Doman appeared in five episodes over as many seasons of the original version of the series, playing a different character each time. He’s also been in five episodes of SVU, one episode each of Criminal Intent and the short-lived Trial by Jury, and, most recently, four episodes of Organized Crime, in which his criminal-businessman character hires someone to poison his son’s ex.
The Wire
The critically loved HBO crime drama saw Doman as a cop for the entirety of its 60 episodes. Major Bill Rawls rises through the ranks over the years, eventually leading the Maryland State Police and making plenty of enemies along the way. He’s grumpy, belligerent, and downright mean to his employees.
John Doman as Bill Rawls on The Wire / Photograph by Paul Schiraldi/HBO
Gotham
As retired mob boss Carmine Falcone in the series based on the world of Batman, John Doman isn’t happy with the way the new guys play the mob game, declaring, “You can’t have organized crime without law and order.” He tries to retire to Florida, gets into a feud with Jim Gordon, and eventually dies thanks to a hit ordered by his own daughter, an assassination she blames on Penguin.
Borgia
Doman’s Catholic parents probably would have been thrilled to learn that their son would one day be cast in a starring role as a pope. But they might have had second thoughts when they learned it would be Pope Alexander VI, one of the most corrupt popes of all time. He’s downright devilish in this series, which ran for three seasons.
John Doman as Pope Alexander VI in Borgia / Photograph via Atlantique Productions/AppleTv
The Affair
In the Showtime series that was all about cheating spouses, John Doman had a recurring role as Bruce Butler, the father of lead character Helen Solloway (played by Maura Tierney, whom you got to know as Nurse Abby on ER). Solloway is a mother of four whose husband falls for a waitress at a diner. As for Butler, he’s a serial cheater too, and eventually leaves his longtime wife for a woman he was in love with decades prior. It’s a complicated show.
Published as “On the Record: Second Acts” in the March 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
