Career
Theater
Howard's stage work has been extensive and spans five decades. Following his training at ACT, he spent three seasons at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in the mid-1970s, appearing in productions including The Front Page and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.1 His Off-Broadway credits include works by Shel Silverstein and Sam Shepard.
Regional theater brought him a range of Shakespearean leads: Prospero in The Tempest, Hamlet, and Macbeth, performed at venues including the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival.1 At the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey he also performed alongside his wife, actress Donna Bullock, in Much Ado About Nothing.1
His Broadway credits include Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, All My Sons, Inherit the Wind, and Gore Vidal's The Best Man.1 Howard has also performed in concert, including a collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Rachmaninoff's The Bells.
Film
Howard's most iconic film role came when he was cast as Bub in George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985), working under the screen credit Howard Sherman.2 Bub is a zombie subjected to behavioral experiments by a scientist trying to reawaken human cognition: the character does not speak but communicates entirely through gesture, expression, and bodily movement. Romero considered Howard one of the best zombie performers in the production.2 Two production photographs of Howard as Bub appeared on Topps Fright Flicks trading cards number 3 and number 30, cementing Bub's place in horror collectible history.3
Other film credits include Casualties of War (1989), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989, as a hitman), Ricochet (1991), and Eulogy (2004, as a funeral director).2
Television
Howard's television career has yielded several recurring and notable roles. He portrayed Lex Luthor across 17 episodes of the syndicated series Superboy from 1989 to 1992, a casting that led directly to further DC Comics work.1 The same producers later brought him back to voice the mutating industrialist Derek Powers and his radioactive alter ego Blight across Batman Beyond from 1999 to 2001.1
In 1993 he appeared in the Seinfeld episode "The Junior Mint" as the character Roy, one of that series' many memorable one-episode parts.1 He played Dr. Dietz in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand in 1994.1 Further guest appearances include Star Trek: The Next Generation and Law and Order.2
Voice Acting
Howard developed a substantial parallel voice-acting career. He voiced the villain Van Pelt in 21 episodes of the animated Jumanji series from 1996 to 1997, and Steppenwolf in Superman: The Animated Series in 1996.1 His most sustained voice role was Derek Powers/Blight in Batman Beyond (1999-2001).1 He also contributed to the video game Red Dead Redemption.2
Ghostbusters
Extreme Ghostbusters
Howard provided a guest voice in the Extreme Ghostbusters episode "The Luck of the Irish" (Season 1, Episode 21, production number 114), which aired on November 3, 1997.4 The episode was written by Brooks Wachtel and directed by Frank Squillace.4 Its plot centers on a leprechaun released during the renovation of an Irish society house who uses a shillelagh to trap victims inside a "pot of gold," with the Extreme Ghostbusters ultimately stopping the creature during the St. Patrick's Day Parade. The specific character Howard voiced in the episode is not documented in available production records.
Personal Life
Howard married actress Donna Bullock in May 1988.1 They have one daughter, Hannah Sherman.1 The couple have performed together on stage, most notably in Much Ado About Nothing at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.
