When he was a college student, he was a kind of a pseudo-hippie radical type who started campus riots. He caused the president of the university to suffer a heart attack. Six years later, he was a lawyer in the district attorney's office. Marsha Mason played one of his girlfriends, and Christopher Reeve played his enemy. And that was just his daytime career. His prime time career has been nonstop.

Wise is best known for his role as the murdered Laura Palmer's father, Leland, in "Twin Peaks." He played Liko in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation"episode "Who Watches the Watchers?" and later played Arturis in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Hope and Fear."

In 1995, Wise was reunited with "Twin Peaks" castmate Sherilyn Fenn in the NBC telemovie "Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story." He also starred as the Devil on the TV series "Reaper." In recent years, Wise has appeared on a number of political-themed television series and films. He appeared on "24" in 2006. In August 2006, Wise made a guest appearance in the Fox TV series "Bones" as the primary suspect of the first episode of the second season ("The Titan on the Tracks"), and in the pilot episode of "Burn Notice." On "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2007), Wise guest starred as the head of a company testing pesticides on little children. Wise has also guest starred in two episodes of "The Closer," as lawyer Tom Blanchard. He starred in "Charmed" as the upper-level demon Ludlow, who runs a school for the Source of All Evil in the episode "Lost and Bound." On the "Psych" episode "Dual Spires," he joined his fellow castmate Sherilyn Fenn in a spoof of "Twin Peaks."

Wise has appeared in several episodes of "Mad Men" as Ken Cosgrove's father-in-law, Ed Baxter. He was cast in the part of Robin Scherbatsky's father on "How I Met Your Mother" in December 2010 (after Eric Braeden declined to make a cameo appearance). Braeden (Victor on "Young and the Restless") was asked to reprise a role. He was set to go when, at the last minute, he backed out. Neil Patrick Harris (Barney) sent a twitter suggesting that Braeden was unhappy because the part was so small. Braeden replied "not true" and Harris apologized. And those are just his TV credits. His movie credits include "Good Night and Good Luck," "The Flock" as Robert Still, "One Missed Call," "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie" and "Big Ass Spider!"

Wise began taping at "Y&R" on Dec. 13. Steve Burton (Dylan) says working with him has been "awesome." His Ian Ward character is slated to hit television screens on Jan. 23. Ward's arrival, as they, say changes everything.

To find out more about Lynda Hirsch and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.