Vernon Wells (actor)


Vernon George Wells is an Australian character actor. He began appearing on Australian television shows in the mid-1970s, such as Homicide, Matlock Police and All the Rivers Run. He is best known to international audiences for his role of Wez in the 1981 science fiction action film Mad Max 2 and Bennett in the military action film Commando.
After Mad Max 2, Wells began appearing in Hollywood films, such as science fiction comedies Weird Science and Innerspace. In the 2000s, Wells acted in the television series Power Rangers Time Force portraying the series' main villain Ransik. Since the 2010s and 2020s, he has been a staple in American action B-movies.
WWW vernongwells.comIG wells.vernon

Career

1970s

Wells worked in a quarry, then as a salesman, and then in theatre and rock bands. In the 1970s, he was selected by casting agents to appear in a theatre play, and he 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, a low-budget, erotic fantasy film.

1980s

Wells was cast as the homicidal biker Wez, in Mad Max 2, 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 henchman 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 opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando. 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 in Last Man Standing. Wells played a role in the [Knight Rider (1982 TV series)|] season 4 episode "Hills of Fire".

1990s and 2000s

In 1992, Wells appeared in one of the few roles in which he is not cast as a villain, in the short-lived 1992 television comedy series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys. The show was about a professor who accidentally enlarged three Sea-Monkeys to human-size, and then had to deal with their comical ineptness in the world. In 1993, Wells starred in the science fiction film Fortress with Christopher Lambert.
Many of Wells's roles 1990s and 2000s portrayed villains, as in the films Circuitry Man, Kick of Death, Starforce and Power Rangers Time Force. In the Power Rangers episodes, he played the role of Ransik, a mutant crime lord from the year 3000 who travels back in time to take over the world. In 2002, he reprised this role for the Power Rangers Wild Force/''Time Force two-part team-up episode "Reinforcements from the Future". Wells starred in the 2009 horror film Silent Night, Zombie Night''.
Wells also starred in an award-winning role in “Trouble Is My Business ”.
Grace, his current wife, is Japanese, and in 2015, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Commando production, he sent a congratulatory message video to his Japanese fans, partly in Japanese.
Wells lost his Pacific Palisades home, belongings and memorabilia in the Palisades Fire in January 2025.

Selected filmography

Video games

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNominated workResult
2014The Scare-A-Con Film FestivalBest Supporting ActorThrowbackWon
2020NYC Indie Film AwardsBest Actor7th RevelationWon
2020Rome Prisma Independent Film AwardsBest Supporting ActorFrostWon
2020Sydney Science Fiction Film FestivalBEST ACTOR Starspawn: OvertureWon
2021Film Invasion L.A.Best Actor in a Lead RoleKringle Time Won