Beau Starr
American actor (born 1944)

Beau William Starr (September 1, 1944 – April 24, 2026) was an American actor who starred in film and television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 horror film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; he reprised his role in the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.
Early life
Beau William Starr was born in Queens, New York City, on September 1, 1944. His younger brother is actor Mike Starr. Before Starr became an actor he was a professional football player known as Bill Starr. Primarily a tight end, he played college football for the Hofstra Pride and was signed by the New York Jets, with whom he served on the taxi squad for three seasons. He later played in the Canadian Football League with the Montreal Alouettes and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Career
In 1980, Starr acted in the play The Set-Up at The American Theatre of Actors.
Starr's well-known television role was in the 1990s Canadian television series Due South as Lieutenant Harding Welsh of The Chicago Police Department. He also starred in the 1980s television series Rituals, Bizarre and True Blue.
“Beau Starr” enters the record as american actor (born 1944). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Beau, Starr and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Beau Starr” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Beau, Starr and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q813336. VIAF identifies the subject as 49435351. The Library of Congress control number is no2012032585. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 2026, 1988 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “Beau Starr” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.