Paul McCrane

The Musician Who Survived the Acid

Paul McCrane is more than the actor who was dunked into a vat of toxic acid in Detroit in Paul Verhoeven. Before that, he was a skinny kid with an acoustic guitar who wrote a generational anthem.

In 1980, he recorded Fame, and his song Is It Okay If I Call You Mine? reached the hit charts across half the world. But McCrane never wanted to be a pop star or chase the easy applause of teen fans.

No one expected a folk musician to end up as the most hated villain in medical television.

The industry quickly typecast him in roles as troubled or physically punished men. In 1987, he played Emil Antonowsky in RoboCop, and his on-screen death became one of the bloodiest of the decade. That scene required hours of prosthetic makeup to simulate skin melting off his bones.

That capacity for physical suffering ended up being his best working tool.

The Surgeon Who Lost His Arm

The big change came with the white coat. In 1997, he joined the cast of ER to bring the character Dr. Robert Romano to life. He was a despicable character with a sarcasm that bordered on sociopathic.

The writers decided to punish him in an almost biblical way for years. First they cut off one of his arms with a helicopter blade, and later he was crushed to death by another aircraft that fell on his ambulance. McCrane played Romano for 126 episodes before his character was permanently written out of the story.

Television gave him the money, and film gave him a bizarre kind of immortality.

But while he was insulting his co-workers on the NBC show, he started watching what went on behind the monitors. In 2002 he directed his first episode of the series and discovered he was more interested in running the set than in the spotlights.

Life Behind the Camera

His move behind the camera was no whim from a bored actor. McCrane trained as a meticulous, efficient technician who knew how to speak the producers' language. In 2011 he won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor for his role in Harry’s Law, but by then he was already a sought-after director.

And she did it without making a fuss.

Starting in 2015, his name appeared in the directing credits of shows such as Empire, The Good Fight, and Star. He preferred the security of a career built on technical reliability and meeting deadlines.

In 2022, he appeared as an actor in the series The Offer, playing Jack Ballard. That same year, he directed several episodes of the production All Rise for the OWN network.

By 2024, he had racked up more than 50 directing credits on American television productions.