Christopher McDonald

Christopher McDonald is an American actor born on February 15, 1955, in Waterloo, New York, and raised in Romulus, New York, where he and his siblings grew up in a household led by his mother Patricia, a nursing professor and real estate agent, and his father James R. McDonald, an educator and high school principal. Of Irish descent and a practicing Catholic, McDonald graduated from Romulus Central School in 1973 before earning a degree from Hobart College in Geneva, New York, where he played football and soccer and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society. He met actress Lupe Gidley in 1989 during a theatre production in New Mexico, and the two married in 1992 and have four children together. His younger brother, actor and singer Daniel McDonald, died of brain cancer on February 15, 2007, McDonald's 52nd birthday.

McDonald built a prolific screen career frequently cast in villainous and antagonistic roles. His earliest film credits include Grease 2 (1982), in which he played "T-Birds" member Goose McKenzie, and Breakin' (1984), Where the Boys Are '84 (1984), and The Boys Next Door (1985). He appeared opposite his former fiancée Geena Davis — to whom he had been engaged in the mid-1980s until 1985 — as her husband Darryl Dickinson in Thelma & Louise (1991). In 1994 he starred in Terminal Velocity as an aggressive Russian mafia villain and replaced Robert De Niro in the Midnight Run franchise, playing Jack Walsh in three films: Another Midnight Run, Midnight Runaround, and Midnight Run for Your Life. That same year he portrayed real-life game show host Jack Barry in Quiz Show. His most widely recognized film role came in 1996 with the sports comedy Happy Gilmore, in which he played professional golfer Shooter McGavin, a character he reprised in the 2025 sequel Happy Gilmore 2. Additional film credits from this period include Celtic Pride (1996), House Arrest (1996), Flubber (1997), Leave It to Beaver (1997) — in which he played Ward Cleaver — and the animated feature The Iron Giant (1999), for which he provided the voice of government agent Kent Mansley. He played Tappy Tibbons in Requiem for a Dream (2000) and appeared in supporting roles in Grumpy Old Men (1993), The Perfect Storm (2000), Broken Flowers (2005), Rumor Has It (2005), The House Bunny (2008), and About Last Night (2014). In 2017, the direct-to-video film The Crash, which McDonald had begun filming in October 2013 under the title A Conspiracy on Jekyll Island, was released.

McDonald has portrayed a number of prominent real-life figures across film and television. He played mountaineer Jon Krakauer in the ABC film Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997), sportscaster Mel Allen in the HBO film 61* (2001), baseball player Joe DiMaggio in ESPN's The Bronx Is Burning (2007), U.S. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty in HBO's Boardwalk Empire (2010–2012), Texas Revolution soldier Henry Karnes in History Channel's Texas Rising (2015), and Clinton lawyer Robert S. Bennett in FX's Impeachment: American Crime Story (2021).

On television, McDonald served as a series regular on Walter & Emily (NBC, 1991–1992), Good Advice (CBS, 1993–1994), Family Law (CBS, 1999–2002), Cracking Up (FOX, 2004), and Harry's Law (NBC, 2011–2012). He made recurring appearances on Veronica's Closet and North Shore, and guest appearances on programs including Cheers, Matlock, Knight Rider, The Sopranos, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Home Improvement, and the Law & Order franchise, among others. In 2021 he joined the cast of the HBO Max series Hacks as Las Vegas casino owner Marty Ghilain, a role that earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2022. He also appeared in the Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe series Secret Invasion (2023) as Skrull council member Chris Stearns.

McDonald's voice work includes the role of Jor-El in Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, an older version of Superman in Batman Beyond, and Kent Mansley in The Iron Giant. He also substituted for Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007) and contributed to the Thomas Nelson audio Bible production The Word of Promise (2009), in which he played the role of Luke.

McDonald's Broadway career spans from 1996 to 2016. His credits include Chicago, Lucky Guy, and The Front Page, in which he appeared as Murphy at the Broadhurst Theater when the production opened in late 2016. Originally from New York, New York, McDonald made an early television appearance in 1978 as a contestant on The Dating Game, and in 2023 appeared in the music video for country duo The Reklaws' song "Honky Tonkin' About" alongside Drake Milligan.