By SP

He was introduced in the third season of The L Word as Henry, a single father who had met Tina Kennard during a swimming lesson at the pool in Bette and Tina’s house. By the end of the last season, Henry and Tina were living together as Tina was trying to process the sudden return of her interest in men.

If you were trying to figure out why Henry’s face seemed so familiar, then the answer is because he consistently as a recurring guest or a regular on many TV series, sitcoms and made for TV movies.

According to a small biographical sketch on the yahoo.movies website, Steven Eckholdt, who plays Henry, “debuted on TV with a small role in the 1985 NBC TV movie Between the Darkness and Dawn.”

Since then he appeared in numerous television series, including short-lived WIOU (CBS), family drama Life Goes On (ABC), ill-fated Grapevine (CBS), final season of L.A. Law (NBC), comedy series It’s like, you know… (ABC), as well as in feature films such as “About Last Night”, “Wrath”, and “Message in the Bottle”.

Among his other noticeable TV sitcom appearances, according to his biography on wchstv.com, we can add his recurring roles “as ‘the guy who broke up Ross and Rachel’ on Friends (1997, 2004); as Ellen’s old boyfriend in the infamous ‘coming out’ episode of Ellen (1997); and as ‘the guy with the funny laugh’ on Wings (1993).”

All in all, Steven Eckholdt appeared in almost 60 different TV series and feature films and also in 50 television commercials.

There is an interesting issue that was mentioned in an article “What is the appeal?” (April 2006) on leegoldberg.typepad.com website. The author of the article brought up the idea that Steven Eckholdt is one of those actors “that the networks continually cast as TV series leads – despite the fact that the shows these guys star in consistently bomb … Eckholdt has just been cast as one of the stars of the CBS pilot Split Decision despite a string of bombs like Half & Half, My Big Fat Greek Life, Grapevine, and It’s like You Know. He's apparently the kiss-of-death for any series...but the networks keep going back to him again and again. What is it about him that makes him so darn castable?”

This article got several replies and one of them from a poster name Tami, might be one answer that can very well apply to Steven Eckholdt:

“I'm not sure if you're being serious but few, if any, of those shows linked to those actors could be considered good. More popular actors are offered the better written shows and, sadly, the average to poorly written shows is what the other actors end up with. The audience isn't stupid and when a show sucks in concept and/or execution even the likeability of its leads can't save it.”

In fact, majority of Steven Eckholdt’s characters are likable nice guys. For example, in It's Like, You Know... (1999), as we read in his biography on wchstv.com, Steven Eckholdt’s character, Robbie “is a self-made millionaire transplanted from New York to L.A.”

As Eckholdt describes his character in the same biography, “At times, Robbie is glib and opportunistic, but all in all he is a nice guy – and he has happily succumbed to the temptations of L.A.”

His character on The L Word, Henry, is another nice guy and let’s hope that he won’t become “the kiss-of-death” for the series.

Facts about Steven Eckholdt (from yahoo.movies and wchstv.com)

1985 Appeared in the NBC TV-movie drama Between the Darkness and the Dawn

1986 Had bit parts in About Last Night and The Wraith

1988 Acted in the Molly Ringwald vehicle “For Keeps”

1988 Played Robert Stethem, an American casualty of a terrorist attack, in the fact-based NBC telefilm The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story

1988 Starred as the adult incarnation of a boy who speed ages as part of a scientific experiment in the Disney Sunday Movie 14 Going on 30 (ABC)

1989 Featured in the little-seen teen adventure film “The Runnin’ Kind”

1991 Guest starred in a recurring role in the CBS newsroom drama WIOU

1992 Had a recurring role as the love interest of elder daughter Paige on the ABC’s family drama Life Goes On

1992 Was a regular on the short-lived CBS series Grapevine, featuring tales of modern relationships as seen through the eyes of three gossiping friends

1993 Played Robert Wilson, resident good girl Jane’s new boyfriend, in a recurring role on the nighttime soap Melrose Place (Fox)

1994 Had a recurring role on the final season of the NBC legal drama L.A. Law

1995 Was a regular on the short-lived drama The Monroes (ABC), playing the son with political ambitions in a Kennedy-esque family

1999 Played Robin Wright Penn’s ex-husband in the romance “Message in a Bottle”

1999 Starred as self-made millionaire Robbie in the ABC series It's like, you know...

2000 Featured in the revised version of Grapevine (CBS); played a different character than in the 1992 version

Began career acting in TV commercials

Paired with Corey Parker in a series of Budweiser beer commercials

Married to actress Kirsten Getchell and resides in Los Angeles