Louis Herthum didn't join the iconic '80s and '90s mystery series Murder, She Wrote until well into its historic run, but still made an impression as Deputy Andy Broom, a young member of the sheriff's office in Cabot Cove who helped Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher solve many a case across his 23 appearances. Herthum's career has continued well beyond that series ending in 1996, while his off-camera life has included engaging in a bit of his own detective work in an attempt to solve a real-life family tragedy. Keep reading to learn where his career has taken him and to see him now at age 66.
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Post-Murder, She Wrote, Herthum appeared in small roles in more than two dozen movies—mostly low-budget productions, though he also appeared in the Oscar-nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Brad Pitt. But he but found his greatest success as a guest actor on television.
Over the decades, he's been cast in episodes of Columbo, JAG, Breaking Bad, The Mentalist, CSI (both the original series and the Miami spinoff), Criminal Minds, Sleepy Hollow, True Detective, Chicago Med, Hawaii Five-O, Lucifer, and Hacks.
Herthum recurred in the western crime drama Longmire, playing Omar, a skilled hunter and romantic foil for Katee Sackhoff's Vic. He also appeared in nine episodes of the Netflix thriller What/If.
Over the years, Herthum has become a regular fixture of the prestige TV era, appearing in high-profile roles in several HBO series. After one-episode appearance in Treme (from The Wire creator David Simon) he was cast in the horror drama True Blood, playing werewolf JD Carson in seven episodes of the fifth season.
A few years later, he was cast in a small but pivotal role in the first season of the existential murder mystery True Detective, opposite Matthew McConaughey. A native of Baton Rouge, Herthum used his native Louisianan expertise to nab the role. "I went into that audition daring them not to cast me," the actor said in a 2020 interview with Podcasting Them Softly. "I knew that one was mine. I knew I could bring a more authentic Louisiana character to life, especially using a Cajun accent for the character."
More recently, he played the artificial intelligence Peter Abernathy, "father" to Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores, in 10 episodes of the sci-fi drama Westworld, joining the regular cast for the series' second season.
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Shortly after Murder, She Wrote ended in 1996, Herthum made the move behind the camera, forming the production company Ransack Films. His first film as a producer was 1997's Favorite Son, filmed in his hometown of Baton Rouge. Herthum also starred in the film, which follows a successful actor who returns to his hometown and a strained relationship with his brother.
Ransack Films has also produced a handful of other films—most with Herthum in the cast—as well as a documentary and a short film.
Even more than his success as an actor, Herthum's life has been shaped by a tragedy that befell his family when he was 16 years old. In 1972, the future star's two older sisters, Diane (18) and Denise (20) were murdered, alongside Denise's 31-year-old boyfriend Jack Smith. The crime became known as the Tanglewood murders, after the apartment complex in which the bodies were found, and it remains unsolved to this day.
After police failed to make any arrests in the case, Herthum began to investigate on his own, hiring detectives to track down leads and petitioning the Miami-Dade Police Department to reopen the case. They finally did, in 2012, though thus far without success.
"I'll never let it go," Herthum told the Daily Mail in 2020. "It's not in my DNA to let anything go, especially something like this. My sisters were two extraordinary human beings, beautiful, sweet girls. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it's not something you ever get over."
Herthum, who is married and has a teenage daughter, remains very close with his surviving sister, Claire Major, who he has referred to as his "best friend" on Instagram.
Herthum's arc on Westworld clearly made an impression on the producers and vice versa. When it came time to cast their new Prime Video series The Peripheral, based on the sci-fi novel by William Gibson, executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy sought the actor out to join the cast.
"They exceed expectations all the time," Herthum said, speaking to Popternative about his second time working with Nolan and Joy. "For the people that know John and Lisa's work, they know to expect something that's kinda gonna blow your mind."
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