Poe was born in Portola, California. He graduated from Pittsburg Senior High School in 1964 then from the University of San Francisco in 1967. He served in the US Army during the Vietnam War. Along with Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Mark Lenard, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Armin Shimerman and John de Lancie he is one of only a few actors to play the same character on three different Star Trek series. He played Gul Evek in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995). He recently appeared in A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre, 2006, as Ebenezer Scrooge, was in the San Diego cast of the new Broadway-bound musical, Cry-Baby.