Cast

CAST

Sandrine Holt can been seen in the several movies including Dance Me Outside, Black Robe, and Rapa Nui. She plays Li Ann Tsei. Li Ann was adopted by the Tang family who are part of the Hong Kong mafia. She and Mac were together in Hong Kong but when she believed him to be dead, she met and became engaged to Victor. Presently, she and Victor have put off wedding plans because Li Ann realized she was not ready for marriage when she had to act as Mac's wife on a case.

Image of Sandrine Holt courtesy of Stomp Tokyo Video Reviews. Visit them and read their review of John Woo's Once A Thief 1996 TV movie.

Ivan Sergei was in the movie Dangerous Minds and the recently released movie The Opposite of Sex with Lisa Kudrow, Lyle Lovett and Christina Ricci. In Once a Thief, he plays Mac Ramsey. Mac is also a former member of the Tang crime family who is now working for a "shadowy government agency". When he discovered Li Ann had moved on with her life and had a fiancé, he was determined to get her back. He believes that it is only a matter of time before she sees the light and returns to him.

Nicholas Lea is of course best know for his role as the loveable Alex Krycek aka ratboy on The X-Files. He plays Victor Mansfield who is an ex-cop that has joined the team of ex-thieves working for the government. There is serious tension between he and Mac because they both love the same woman. This makes working together very difficult for all of them.

For once I have more info on the actor than the character. This was written by a friend of Howard Dell's named Brian Gosse. (Thank you so very much, Brian).

"Howard is actually from Belleville, Ontario. He is the second of 4 Dell children, with an older brother and two younger sisters. I met him when I moved there and started high school at Bayside Secondary School. When I started at Bayside I quite literally knew nobody there, and Howard, who was already well known and very popular kind of took me under his wing and made me feel welcome. We became very close friends, since we were both very athletic, and spent most of our time in the gym, playing basketball. We even went to All-Pro Basketball Camp together the summer before grade 13.

Howard was probably the best all around athlete in the Bay of Quinte area, excelling in basketball, football and track & field. He was also an accomplished musician and singer. After high school we went to different universities, but still hung out together in the summers, playing basketball in the Quinte Summer Basketball League, golfing, camping, and generally having a good time.

By the time Howard graduated from McMaster University he was an accomplished athlete. He competed for Canada in the decathlon, and in training for this, he met up with Canadian bobsledders. They convinced him that his combination of strength and speed were ideal for bobsledding and he ended up joining the team. He competed on the Canadian Bobsled Team internationally for a few years, including in the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988. After a near fatal crash (I believe in St. Moritz) where he nearly bled to death, Howard retired from bobsledding. Still, never one to quit, Howard
recovered, kept in fantastic shape, and was offered a chance to play football in the Canadian Football League. Howard went on to play a few seasons for the Toronto Argonauts and the Ottawa Rough Riders.

Not long after that, Howard ended up moving to Los Angeles and getting involved in acting. We talked a few times on the phone, but he moved around and in the last few years we lost contact. I hope this information is of use, or at least interest to you. If you want to know more, let me know, I've could tell many a tale from "the old days".

Let me close by saying that Howard Dell is one of the most special people I ever met. I cherished the times we spent together, whether it was shooting hoops at the gym, throwing a football in the backyard, or coaching a kids soccer team together. He always made me feel good about myself, and my abilities, even though he was better than me. He never got big headed despite his talents, and he always treated people as equals, even though he was not always treated the same by them."

John Woo is the executive producer of the TV show Once A Thief. He directed the 1996 made for TV movie of the same name as well as the original 1991 movie. He is best known for his works as director for the movies:

The Young Dragons, 1973
A Better Tomorrow, Heroes Shed No Tears, 1986
The Killer, 1989
Bullet in the Head, 1990
Once a Thief, 1991
Hard-Boiled, 1992
Hard Target, 1993
Broken Arrow, 1996
Face/Off, 1997

I can't possibly give the man justice on my web site so here is a link to one of the best John Woo web sites I have seen.

Red on White: A John Woo Page

I'm sure any information you would like on John Woo can be found there.

James Allodi plays the paranoid Nathan Muckle. He is a true believer in conspiracy theories and his beliefs are strengthened by the things he witnesses in the agency where he works as a librarian. Allodi has had roles in various TV shows and had a small part in the recent movie Good Will Hunting.

Jennifer Dale plays the Director of the trio working for the shadowy government agency. She has been in numerous movies and TV shows including Papertrail and Whale Music.

Greg Kramer is Murphy, one of the agency's "cleaners". There isn't much about him at the IMDB so I've put a different link here instead.

Greg Kramer

Vicky Pratt plays Jackie Janczyk, a thief-turned-government-employee. The Janczyk's were a crime family which Jackie became the boss of when her father died. She was caught by the trio and then ended up working with them.

Julian Richings makes up the other half of the agency cleaner duo. He plays Camier.