Craig T. Nelson

Craig Theodore Nelson, born on April 4, 1944, in Spokane, Washington, is an American actor whose career has spanned comedy, film, television, and the Broadway stage. The son of Vera Margaret Nelson, a dancer, and Armand Gilbert Nelson, a businessman, he attended Lewis and Clark High School, where he competed in football, baseball, and basketball. He went on to study at Central Washington University before transferring to Yakima Valley College, where a drama teacher named Mr. Brady sparked his interest in acting. He subsequently earned a scholarship to study drama at the University of Arizona. In 1969, Nelson left school and relocated to Hollywood, initially working as a security guard at a soap factory before transitioning into comedy writing.

Nelson launched his entertainment career as a comedian, becoming an early member of The Groundlings improv and sketch comedy troupe. Alongside Barry Levinson and Rudy De Luca, he formed a comedy team that performed regularly at The Comedy Store and appeared on The Tim Conway Comedy Hour in 1970. In 1973, he stepped away from stand-up and spent several years in Montgomery Creek, California, working as a janitor, plumber, carpenter, surveyor, and high school teacher in Burney before returning to acting.

His film career began in earnest with a role as a prosecuting attorney opposing Al Pacino in the 1979 film And Justice for All, co-written by Levinson. He followed that with Captain William Woodbridge in Private Benjamin and Deputy Warden Ward Wilson in Stir Crazy, both in 1980. Nelson then took on the role of Steve Freeling in Poltergeist in 1982, reprising it in Poltergeist II: The Other Side in 1986. In 1983 alone, he appeared in Silkwood, directed by Mike Nichols; played the football coach of Tom Cruise's character in All the Right Moves; and appeared in director Sam Peckinpah's final film, The Osterman Weekend. Subsequent film credits included Major Reeves in The Killing Fields, Peter Dellaplane in Action Jackson, Chief Howard Hyde in Turner and Hooch, Ed Peters in Ghosts of Mississippi, and Alex Cullen in The Devil's Advocate. Later film work included The Family Stone, Blades of Glory as an ice skating coach, The Proposal, The Company Men, and Book Club.

On television, Nelson first starred in the short-lived ABC series Call to Glory from 1984 to 1985. He achieved wide recognition playing college football coach Hayden Fox in the ABC sitcom Coach from 1989 to 1997, a role for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; he also directed multiple episodes of the series. He then starred as Washington, D.C. police chief Jack Mannion in the CBS drama The District from 2000 to 2004, and played a prison warden in the NBC sitcom My Name Is Earl in 2007. A three-episode guest arc on CSI: NY from 2008 to 2009 cast him as an antagonist to Gary Sinise's character. From 2010 to 2015, Nelson starred as family patriarch Ezekiel Braverman in the NBC drama Parenthood. Beginning in 2019, he joined the cast of Young Sheldon as Dale Ballard, a local sports store owner, baseball coach, and recurring romantic interest, continuing the role through 2024 and carrying it into the spin-off Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage, which began in 2024.

Nelson provided the voice of Bob Parr, also known as Mr. Incredible, in Pixar's The Incredibles in 2004 and returned for the sequel Incredibles 2 in 2018. He also reprised the role in the video games Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure and the Disney Infinity series.

In 1998, Nelson appeared on Broadway in the play Ah, Wilderness!, adding a stage credit to his extensive screen work.

Outside of acting, Nelson is an avid motorsports competitor. He first raced in the 1991 Toyota Celebrity Long Beach Grand Prix, finishing ninth. In 1992, he co-founded Screaming Eagles Racing with John Christie, competing in IMSA events with a Toyota-engined Spice SE90 in 1994, a Lexus-engined Spice SE90 in 1995, and a Ford-engined Riley and Scott Mk III in 1996 and 1997. He is also a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan and sang the National Anthem at Lambeau Field on January 5, 2025. Nelson has been married twice, first to Robin McCarthy, with whom he has three children, and later to Doria Cook-Nelson, a freelance writer, karate instructor, tai chi teacher, and former actress. Early in his career, Nelson struggled with alcohol and substance addiction.