Why Starlight's Dad In The Boys Season 5 Looks So Familiar
Spoilers for Season 5 Episode 4 of "The Boys" follow.
Back in Season 4 of "The Boys," Hughie (Jack Quaid) reconnected with his absentee mother Daphne (Rosemarie DeWitt). Now, in Season 5, his girlfriend Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) gets her chance to talk things out with her estranged father, Rick (Tim Daly).
Daly is a prolific TV actor, having led the main cast of airline-set sitcom "Wings" from 1990 to 1997. He starred as Dr. Peter Wilder on "Grey's Anatomy" and its spin-off "Private Practice" from 2007 to 2012, and played the husband of a Hillary Clinton-esque Secretary of State on "Madam Secretary" from 2014-2019. "The Boys" is another notch on that resume.
As we learn in this episode, Rick left Annie and her mother Donna (Ann Cusack) when Annie was little after growing disillusioned with raising Annie to be a superhero. He never reached out because he both didn't want to discourage Annie's dream or lie to her. In the years he's been out of his daughter's life, a lot has changed.
When Annie was a kid, Rick was a payphone repairman, so it's fitting that he has a daughter who can absorb electrical power. Now, he's a deputy sheriff — the kind of person tasked with enforcing Homelander's (Antony Starr) regime, which Annie fights against. Plus, Annie discovers she has a half-brother, Mason (Callum Shoniker), who's a fanboy for Vought superheroes. While "The Boys" Season 5 was written before the 2024 presidential election, Annie's subplot this episode echoes the all-too-real awkwardness of visiting conservative family members.
Speaking of family, Tim Daly comes from an acting dynasty. He's the son of actor James Daly, and both his sister Tyne Daly and his son Sam Daly are also actors. In 2025, he also married his "Madam Secretary" co-star Téa Leoni.
Before Tim Daly was on The Boys, he was Superman
On "The Boys," Tim Daly plays a normal man in a world of superheroes. Ironically, he once played the greatest superhero of all, starring as Clark Kent/Superman on "Superman: The Animated Series" from 1996 to 2000. Daly took the role without understanding the true significance of Superman, but you wouldn't know it from his performance.
Daly did not return as Superman for the spin-offs "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited," with George Newbern taking over the role. At the time, Daly had scheduling conflicts as he was starring in a TV remake of "The Fugitive." However, he's since returned to play Superman in several animated films and remains a fan-favorite in the role. In 2021, Daly argued that optimistic television like "Ted Lasso" meant the world was ready for another hopeful Superman like the one he played. Given the success of James Gunn's sunny "Superman" in 2025, he was right.
While I love Daly as the Man of Steel, his best performance is unlucky screenwriter J.T. Dolan in "The Sopranos." The part even got Daly an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2007.
J.T. meets Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) in rehab. Chris senses a mark (and is likely jealous of J.T. living his own dream of screenwriting), so he befriends J.T. to get him to relapse into gambling and drugs. J.T. winds up indebted to Chris, who eventually conscripts him to write his mafia-themed slasher film "Cleaver." J.T. is the butt of a joke by the universe, and Daly plays his slide from fear to fatally reckless exasperation at mobsters with comic excellence.
"The Boys" is streaming on Prime Video.