Anthony Heald

Anthony Heald, born August 25, 1944, in New Rochelle, New York, is an American character actor whose career spans Broadway, film, and television. He grew up in Massapequa, New York, and graduated from Michigan State University in 1970, having previously taught acting in Lansing, Michigan, for four years. He lives in Ashland, Oregon, with his wife Robin, daughter of violist Karen Tuttle, and their children Zoe and Dylan. Heald has converted to Judaism, his wife's faith, and regularly performs with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice during the 2010 season.

Heald's Broadway career ran from 1982 to 2014 and earned him a Theatre World Award in 1982. He received two Tony Award nominations for his stage work: one for playing Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in the 1988 musical Anything Goes and another for Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1995. His additional Broadway credits include The Marriage of Figaro, The Elephant Man, Inherit the Wind, and A Small Family Business. He also appeared in McNally's The Lisbon Traviata in 1989 and Lips Together, Teeth Apart in 1991.

In film, Heald is widely recognized for portraying Dr. Frederick Chilton, the jailer of Hannibal Lecter, in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Red Dragon (2002). He appeared in three adaptations of John Grisham novels, playing a villainous lawyer in The Pelican Brief (1993), an FBI agent in The Client (1994), and a psychiatrist in A Time to Kill (1996). His other film roles include a government agent posing as an acting student in Outrageous Fortune (1987), George Lazan in Postcards from the Edge (1990), and an FBI Mystique Interrogator in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).

On television, Heald played vice principal Scott Guber on David E. Kelley's Boston Public from 2000 to 2004 and held a recurring role as Judge Cooper on Kelley's The Practice and Boston Legal. He appeared in a prominent role as a troubled psychic in The X-Files episode "Closure" and made guest appearances on Miami Vice, Law & Order, the Cheers series finale, and its spin-off Frasier. Beyond acting, Heald has recorded a wide range of audiobooks, including The Pelican Brief, Jurassic Park, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Moby-Dick, Where the Red Fern Grows, works by Philip K. Dick, and numerous titles in the Star Wars audiobook library.