It would be impossible to end Friday the 13th and my Where Are They Now? Friday the 13th series without checking in on one of the many actors to portray Jason Voorhees! Tom Morga was born in November of 1941 in the state of California. Sporadically he served as in actor in mainstream television, most notably as featured bit part in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and recurring, but different roles as featured extras on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” from 1991-1994 and “Star Trek: Voyager” from 1995-1996. His latest acting gig was a guest spot on an episode of “Castle in 2010.”
Tom played Jason Voorhees in the opening attack/murder scene in 1985’s Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning. In this small role, he – as Jason – appears to murder two grave robbers in a cemetery, but it ultimately turns out to just be the nightmare of Tommy Jarvis.
So, where is Tom Morga now?
Before and well after Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning, Morga was a very accomplished stuntman. He worked in many films including The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), Star Trek: Wrath of Kahn (1982), Star Trek: Search for Spock (1984), Ghostbusters (1984), Friday the 13th 5: A New Beginning (1985), Police Academy 2 (1985), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), Jaws: The Revenge (1987), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), The Rookie (1990), Child’s Play 3 (1991), Wayne’s World (1992), Army of Darkness (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Independence Day (1996), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Dr. Doolittle 2 (2001), Spiderman (2002), Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), The Toolbox Murders (2004), National Treasure (2004), Dead Air (2009), and “Big Time Rush” in 2010. He served each movie as either a stunt coordinator, stunt man, or stunt rigger.
Not only is it amazing that Tom Morga was working in the stuntman industry into his 70s, but it’s extremely noteworthy to mention that he’s worked in the majority of the major old-school franchises including Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jaws, Halloween, Child’s Play, and Evil Dead. Even more noteworthy, Tom is the only person to appear as Jason Voorhees, Leatherface and Michael Myers! There will simply never be anyone like him again!
