Ed Harris

Edward Allen Harris was born on November 28, 1950, at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Tenafly. His father, Robert L. Harris, sang with the Fred Waring chorus and worked at the bookstore of the Art Institute of Chicago; his mother, Margaret, worked as a travel agent. Harris has an older brother, Robert, and a younger brother, Paul. He graduated from Tenafly High School in 1969, where he captained the football team in his senior year, and went on to play varsity football at Columbia University, where he was a teammate of future United States Attorney General Eric Holder. When his family relocated to New Mexico, Harris followed and discovered an interest in acting through local theater productions. He enrolled at the University of Oklahoma to study drama and later trained at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1975.

Harris launched his professional career on the stage. In 1976, he appeared in the world premiere of Thomas Rickman's play Baalam at the Pasadena Repertory Theatre, and that same year performed in the West Coast premiere of Tennessee Williams' Kingdom of Earth at the same venue. His first film appearance came in 1978 with a minor part in the suspense film Coma, followed by his first major film role in Borderline in 1980. In 1981, he played the lead in George A. Romero's Knightriders, and the following year had a supporting role in Romero's Creepshow. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Harris maintained a steady presence on television, with appearances on series including Lou Grant, where he played Warren from 1979 to 1981, The Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, and Hart to Hart, among others.

His film profile rose considerably in 1983 when he portrayed astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff. The following year, he co-starred in Robert Benton's Places in the Heart, during the production of which he met and married actress Amy Madigan. Also in 1984, he appeared alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in Jonathan Demme's Swing Shift, and in 1985 played Charlie Dick opposite Jessica Lange in the HBO film Sweet Dreams. In 1987, Harris portrayed 19th-century American William Walker, who appointed himself President of Nicaragua, in the film Walker, and that same year appeared in the HBO thriller The Last Innocent Man.

Harris's Broadway career spans 1986 to 2018. His first major Broadway recognition came in 1986 for his performance in George Furth's play Precious Sons, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play, won the Theatre World Award, and took home the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play. A decade later, in 1996, he returned to Broadway to star as Major Steve Arnold in Ronald Harwood's Taking Sides. He subsequently appeared on Broadway in To Kill a Mockingbird as well.

Harris received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of NASA Apollo Mission Control Director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13 in 1995. Three additional Oscar nominations followed: a second Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Truman Show in 1998, a Best Actor nomination for his directorial debut Pollock in 2000, in which he also starred as artist Jackson Pollock, and a fourth nomination, again for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as Richard Brown in The Hours in 2002. His performance in The Truman Show also earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. An earlier Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor had come in 1989 for his role in Jacknife.

Among his many other film credits are Glengarry Glen Ross, The Firm, Nixon, The Rock, A Beautiful Mind, Enemy at the Gates, A History of Violence, Gone Baby Gone, Snowpiercer, Mother, The Lost Daughter, Top Gun: Maverick, and Love Lies Bleeding. Harris also directed and starred in Appaloosa in 2008. On television, he starred as Miles Roby in the 2005 HBO miniseries Empire Falls, earning both a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. His portrayal of John McCain in the 2012 HBO film Game Change won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. From 2016 to 2022, he starred as William, also known as the Man in Black, in HBO's Westworld, a role that brought him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.