Now the skier-turned-actor who spent his teen-age years in Vancouver, British Columbia, returns to the Northwest in a heavy-duty TV role that could well make Greenwood a household name somewhere other than the Greenwood household.
The Oregonian 8/15/95Greenwood’s emotional accessibility (even though he’s most familiar as St. Elsewhere’s cad resident) makes his paranoia less political than that of The Prisoner or The X-Files.
With a solid lead in Greenwood and spooky direction from Poltergeist's Tobe Hooper, Nowhere Man could go somewhere.
Newsday 8/22/95
Entertainment Weekly 8/25/95 Bruce Greenwood (St. Elsewhere’s memorable heel Dr. Griffin) lends credibility to this new psychological drama series. Greenwood’s character is a successful photographer one moment, a pariah denied by all who know him the next. Who’s behind this nefarious plot? Does it strain believability past caring? Actually, no -- thanks to Greenwood, whose powerful yet controlled portrayal overcomes the plot’s occasional lags and far-fetched twists.
TV Guide 8/26/96 Greenwood's Veil is a primary asset here, a character you'll want to keep your eyes on. Well, young women will, anyway, if they're allowed.
The Houston Chronicle 8/27/95
To be sure, Nowhere Man can't touch [The Fugitive's] sensational special effects or the villainy of Tommy Lee Jones (although Greenwood is as good a hero as Harrison Ford). But what makes this one of the new season's best pilots is the way that Hooper and Greenwood constantly upset an audience primed by the conventions of television and movies such as The Fugitive to believe that its hero is sane and utterly innocent.
Boston Globe 8/27/95 Bruce Greenwood, as Veil, may well become the hardest-working man in show business. He's in almost every scene, looking frenzied and emotionally wrought as his character attempts to find out why he has been chosen as the nowhere kind of guy. Actually, it's easy to understand why Greenwood was chosen: The Canadian native is perfect for the demanding role, which requires massive doses of emotional overload.
The Sunday Oregonian 8/27/95 Greenwood is brilliant as the terrified hero.
The Toronto Star 8/28/95 Bruce Greenwood, whose best TV role to date was the slacker doctor in the latter years of St. Elsewhere, plays Thomas Veil, and his strong portrayal goes a long way toward making this 90-minute pilot both likeable and watchable.
Daily News 8/28/95 The drama series also has an appealing anchor in Bruce Greenwood (St. Elsewhere, Exotica) as the hero-on-the-run.
Daily Variety 8/28/95 Bruce Greenwood (Exotica) as the hero-on-the-run is an appealing anchor for the drama series.
Variety 8/28/96 I'm sold. I've never lost anything more interesting than a set of keys, so I'll gladly give Greenwood's resourceful character a few weeks at least to remember where he left his life.
San Francisco Chronicle 8/28/95 It's not only suspenseful and mystifying but also challenging and tantalizing, initially offering viewers a single, obtuse clue to the ordeal that is frustrating Veil, who is ably played by Bruce Greenwood.
Los Angeles Times 8/28/95 Greenwood's voluminous list of credits as a movie-of-the-week bad guy (not to mention his stint as self-absorbed Dr. Griffin on St. Elsewhere) has made him one of the least trustworthy actors on TV, but that serves him well here, providing that little bit of doubt necessary to make things pleasingly perverse: Did Veil somehow bring this on himself?
San Francisco Examiner 8/28/95 Greenwood, who starred as Dr. Seth Griffin on St. Elsewhere, is an appealing anti-hero who puts Oliver Stone to shame in the conspiracy theorist department.
Satellite Orbit 9/95 On the plus side, this is the most appropriate role ever for Greenwood, who's always had a dangerous, squirrely look about him. Nobody else may admit to it, but Greenwood sure knows Thomas Veil.
The Toronto Sun 9/2/95 He's a real Nowhere Man; Exotica's Greenwood excellent in sinister premise.
The Edmonton Journal 9/3/95 A psychically beleagurered photographer is also at the center of Nowhere Man, an unusually frightening and well-acted thriller on the UPN network. Thomas Veil (Bruce Greenwood) returns to his table at a restaurant to discover that his wife has vanished and everyone in his life suddenly doesn’t know him. His identity has been erased and the show tracks his efforts to regain it.
Time 9/11/95 Greenwood is convincing as the symbolically named Veil: It's a physically and emotionally demanding role, he is the only recurring character, and he is in every scene.
Vancouver Sun 9/18/95 UPN Entertainment president Mike Sullivan, who gave the go-ahead to Nowhere Man, thinks viewers are connecting with "Veil's strength, his spirit, the embattled humanity of this guy." Maybe so. But Greenwood's rugged good looks and boyish charm certainly haven't hurt.
TV Guide 11/4/95 Greenwood has mainly played pretty-boy scoundrels in his long TV career (St. Elsewhere, too many USA cable movies) and his snotty edge serves him well here; you can't help wondering if maybe Veil deserves this.
Salon 11/12/95 Greenwood is a compelling lead and Hertzog's a powerful writer, so let's hope they've got plans for their nowhere man to go somewhere soon.
Newsday 11/27/95 When Veil -- ably played as a nervous, edgy but self-reliant everyman by Vancouver actor Bruce Greenwood -- recoils at the expression -- "disenfranchised?!" -- Paul shrugs. "I'm not fond of $2 words either," he says, "but disenfranchised is the best we could come up with."
Vancouver Sun 11/27/95 [Larry] Hertzog banged out the pilot in no time, and had his lead the moment Bruce Greenwood (Exotica, St. Elsewhere, Knots Landing) walked in to audition. "It wasn't so much that he read the lines perfectly, because to be honest, he didn't," said Hertzog. "It was a combination of his physical presence, his strength, and he had this incredible vulnerability. We had a bit of a hero here." With his square-jawed sensitivity, Greenwood does manage to embody Hertzog's simple message: "Nowhere Man is an exploration of how difficult it is to hold onto a sense of integrity, and a real sense of yourself, when the world around you offers no validation," says Hertzog. "Fundamentally, every single person on the face of this earth is alone. I think Nowhere Man drives right down to that bone."
Mr. Showbiz Scoop 11/29/95 Greenwood portrays Veil as a man who is scared silly, but unwilling ever to give up -- paranoiac as hero, both hunter and hunted. Very clever. Very 1990s.
Canadian TV Guide 12/2/95 Greenwood is the only regular on the series and he's just right as the average-guy-trapped-in-an-incredible-situation. His Veil is smart enough to keep a step ahead of "them," yet he is also vulnerable. He's a guy who's lost his life and it hurts.
Science Fiction Weekly ?/?/95 Star Bruce Greenwood just gets better, quite a feat considering he's usually playing his lines to walls, phone booths and air as the man without an identity or a friend.
Newsday 1/2/96 Nowhere Man is more than an X-Files clone, though. It is one of the better new shows of the season, partly because Mr. Greenwood is convincingly understated, and partly because each week's twisty plot seems to take him closer to solving his puzzle.
The New York Times 2/26/96
Nowhere Man