Outlander's Most Hated Star Unrecognizable in Famous Soap
From soap star to sadist.
Summary
- Outlander fans know Tobias Menzies for his work as the detestable “Black” Jack Randall on the Starz drama.
- Before working on Outlander Menzies had appeared in dozens of movies and television shows.
- This includes a wild arc on one of television's longest-running medical soaps.
Outlander's Greatest Villain
When he was cast in the Starz historical romance Outlander, Tobias Menzies got a sweet double role. First, he appeared as Claire's husband Frank Randall, an English-born historian in the 20th century. Frank married Claire shortly before the Second World War broke out, and after the end of the war he and his wife took a second honeymoon to Scotland.
Randall was interested in researching the life of his ancestor Captain Jack Randall. However, their trip would not end well for the couple; Claire stumbled across some mysterious standing stones and found herself transported back to 1743.
Once back in time, Claire meets Captain Jack Randall himself – played once again by Tobias Menzies. But though Claire instinctively wants to trust the face that looks exactly like her husband, it doesn't take long before she and the audience figure out that Jack Randall is a brutal, sadistic man. For the next two seasons, he will relentlessly torment Claire and her new love, the highlander Jamie Fraser.
It Wasn't Always Like This
Jack Randall is a bloodthirsty and despicable character, and his obsession with Claire and Jamie leads to some of the most gut wrenching scenes in Outlander. Fans love to hate Randall, thanks largely to Menzies' committed performance. It's hard to watch the show and imagine him playing anyone else.
But Menzies wasn't always famous for playing the scum of the earth. Fans should recognize him for any number of other roles, including parts in Game of Thrones, Rome, and The Crown ( where he played Prince Philip with royal aplomb).
But it may tickle you to know that before any of these prestige projects, Menzies could be seen for eleven episodes on the British soap opera Casualty.
He Was A Casualty in Casualty
Casualty began in 1986 and is remarkably still on the air, making it the longest-running primetime medical drama series in history. It focuses on the lives and loves of the medical staff of the fictional Holby City Hospital.
In 1998, Menzies appeared on Casualty as (funnily enough) another character named Frank. Frank is the troubled son of the hospital's medical director Max Gallagher (Robert Gwilym), and he works hard to keep his heroin addiction a secret from his father.
After getting stabbed and needing to be operated on by his father, Frank decides to turn his life around. He disappears from the show for a while, only to reappear later clean and sober and working as a drug counselor.
Frank has lunch with his father, who tells him how proud he is that Frank has turned his life around. Of course, with a setup like that you know that tragedy is around the corner… and sure enough, Frank's work trying to prevent teens from getting into drugs puts him on the wrong side of some bad people. He ends up being killed and his body burned in the streets.
Soap operas, amiright?
Although Captain Jack is long dead (though it's a time-travel show, so never say never), it's still worth it to tune into the second half of Outlander's seventh season. New episodes will premiere in November.