Here's Why You May Recognize The Hunting Party Guest Star Jesse Bradford
Actor Jesse Bradford just added playing a marital murderer in The Hunting Party to his long his of acting credits.
Another day, another chance for The Hunting Party’s dream team of trained professionals to find the dangerous criminals who escaped from the black-ops government prison facility known as the Pit.
Season 1, Episode 7, “Mark Marsden,” revolves around the titular killer Mark Marsden, portrayed by actor Jesse Bradford. He's also known as “The Widower,” a nickname earned after killing three women he’d previously been married to.
Marsden's life of crime began when he was 15 years old and his girlfriend dumped him, leaving him with so much anger that he drowned her two weeks later and embarked on a journey to make sure he was never rejected again.
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And if you recognize this marital murderer, then you aren’t the only one. Here’s everything you need to know about actor Jesse Bradford and what you might recognize him from.
What movies & TV shows has Jesse Bradford starred in?
This isn’t the first time Bradford's taken on a character in the criminal underworld. In fact, over the course of his career, he’s played both a victim and a killer.
In the horror-thriller Dead Awake, Bradford plays the role of Evan, the loving boyfriend of a woman named Beth who dies under questionable circumstances. This leads him and his late girlfriend's twin sister Kate Bowman (Jocelin Donahue) to figure out what really happened. During their quest, Evan is attacked by the murderous monster, but by the end of the film, he manages to make it out alive.
Bradford later portrayed Neal Conlan, a successful author and professor who was found not guilty of murder in Magnum P.I. However, was revealed in the episode (Season 2, Episode 6, "Lie, Cheat, Steal, Kill") that he was in fact a killer who'd murdered his female students in order to steal their work and pass it off as his own.
His other notable characters include starring as love interest Cliff Pantone in the cult 2000s film Bring It On and a reoccurring role as White House intern Ryan Pierce in NBC’s The West Wing.
Jesse Bradford’s character in The Hunting Party is lovestruck
The Hunting Party viewers get their first glimpse of Marsden in a flashback from his wedding night with his third wife Dorothy. After a champagne toast, his bride soon begins choking, and after she collapses to the floor, Marsden picks her up and submerges her in the hotel tub.
Now in the present, he’s reportedly kidnapped a random woman, but Pit prison guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie) identifies the abductee as Carol Miller, a former employee at the Pit.
The rest of the team gets briefed on Marsden’s history of kills, learning that his first wife died from a balcony fall, his second from an aneurism in her sleep, and the third from the drowning shown at the beginning of the episode.
Before being sentenced to the secretive prison, Marsden was hospitalized for narcissistic and borderline personality disorder, signaling to the team that its crucial they capture him and save his hostage.
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As it turns out, though, Carol Miller isn’t a hostage at all. She’s in love with him, and after their workplace romance in the prison, wants to get married to him.
During the couple’s trip to their wedding venue, Miller grows increasingly unsettled by Marsden, especially after learning he killed one of the bridal shop employees who helped pick out her dress and injured another. Feeling apprehensive, she vents about her relationship issues on an online discussion forum.
This is how FBI agent Rebecca “Bex” Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh) makes contact with the soon-to-be bride, warning her to not go through with the marriage. With the help of intel officer Jennifer Morales (Sara Garcia), she sends Miller recordings of all of Marsden's previous wedding ceremonies, in which he uses the same script when talking to each woman.
And, after he recited the same exact message to her at the altar, Miller gets cold feet. As she tries to escape from him, the team steps in, with Bex ultimately shooting Marsden dead before he has a chance to attack.
Catch new episodes of The Hunting Party when they premiere on Monday on NBC at 10/9c. Episodes are available to stream on Peacock the next day.
