Trained as a stage actor and dancer, Abbott began his career with such companies as the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He also honed his craft at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco before relocating to L.A. in 1980. Among his many stage credits are "Fiddler on the Roof", "The Cherry Orchard" and "Tamara".
Abbott began acting in films playing a murderous college student who in a game involving guns substituted with real bullets in "Tag: The Assassination Game" (1982). He again had homicide on his mind as a drifter who seduces a bored farm wife (Lori Singer) and kills her husband (Anthony Edwards) in the interesting but uneven "Summer Heat" (1987). In "Bad Dreams" (1988), he was cast as a psychiatrist who becomes enmeshed in the personal affairs of a patient. The inevitable "The Bride of Re-Animator" (1990) saw Abbott reprise his role as Dan Cain. While not completely successful, the gory sequel generates its share of thrills and owes much to James Whale's far superior "The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). Abbott nicely acquitted himself as the seemingly good guy caught up in a nightmare. More recently, he co-starred with Nicole Eggert and Richard Grieco in the direct-to-video sci-fi thriller "The Demolitionist" (1996).
Key roles on TV have included Jake Hale Jr., a member of the core family in the 1982 CBS historical miniseries "The Blue and the Gray", a burn victim befriended by another patient (Glynnis O'Connor) in "Why Me?" (ABC, 1984) and was featured alongside Leslie Ann Warren in "Baja Oklahoma" (HBO, 1988). Abbott assumed the role of Judge Nicholas Marshall on "Dark Justice" in 1992 when the show moved its production base from Barcelona, Spain, to L.A. More recently, he starred as the clueless boyfriend of a crime fighter (Joan Severance) in the Showtime thriller "Black Scorpion" (1995) and was alongside Delta Burke in the pilot "Melanie Darrow" (USA Network, 1998).