Michael Rooker (born April 6, 1955) is an American actor and voice actor. He first rose to prominence for portraying the titular role in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), and is best known for starring as Merle Dixon in the AMC series The Walking Dead (2010–2013) and as Yondu Udonta in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). He is a recurring collaborator of Guardians of the Galaxy director and co-CEO of DC Studios James Gunn, appearing in all of his films to date including Slither (2006), Super (2010) and The Suicide Squad (2021). Wikipedia