Eric Stoltz

Eric Cameron Stoltz, born September 30, 1961, in Whittier, California, is an American actor, director, and producer whose career has spanned film, television, and the Broadway stage. His father, Jack Stoltz, worked as an elementary school teacher, and his mother, Evelyn, was both a violinist and a schoolteacher. Stoltz grew up in American Samoa and Santa Barbara, California, and has two sisters. He enrolled at the University of Southern California as a drama student but left before completing his degree. After relocating to New York in 1981, he studied acting under Stella Adler and Peggy Feury.

Stoltz's early performing experience included joining a repertory company in the 1970s that staged ten productions at the Edinburgh Festival. He returned to the United States in 1979 and made his television debut in 1978 as Steve Benson in the adaptation of Erma Bombeck's The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank. His feature film career began with a minor role in Cameron Crowe's Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, which initiated a lasting professional relationship between the two; Stoltz subsequently appeared in Crowe's The Wild Life (1984), Say Anything... (1989), Singles (1992), and Jerry Maguire (1996). He was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future before being replaced by Michael J. Fox five weeks into production, after creative differences with director Robert Zemeckis over the tone of the film.

His performance as Rocky Dennis in the 1985 biographical drama Mask earned Stoltz a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. He went on to appear in Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), and in 1989 starred in The Fly II, which grossed approximately $38.9 million worldwide. Throughout the 1990s, his film credits included Memphis Belle (1990), The Waterdance (1992), Killing Zoe (1993), Little Women (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994) — for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male — Rob Roy (1995), Kicking and Screaming (1995), Grace of My Heart (1996), Anaconda (1997), and Mr. Jealousy (1997), the latter of which he also produced. He also produced Bodies, Rest & Motion (1993) and Sleep with Me (1994). In 2000, he starred opposite Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth, based on Edith Wharton's novel, and in 2004 appeared in The Butterfly Effect.

On Broadway, Stoltz performed between 1988 and 2004, appearing in Two Shakespearean Actors, The Three Sisters, Sly Fox, and Our Town. His portrayal of George Gibbs in the 1989 Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town earned him a Tony Award nomination as Featured Actor as well as a Theatre World Award that same year. A broadcast of that production on Great Performances: Live from Lincoln Center received a 1989 Emmy nomination. Off-Broadway, he appeared in The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie, and Arms and the Man.

Stoltz maintained an active television presence throughout his career. He had a recurring role on Mad About You as Helen Hunt's character's ex-boyfriend across five episodes between 1994 and 1998, and spent a year on Chicago Hope in 1994. He appeared in the television films Inside (1996), directed by Arthur Penn, and The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999), alongside Helen Mirren. From 2001 to 2002, he recurred on ABC's Once and Again as the English teacher-poet August Dimitri, and directed an episode of the series in 2002. He received a Daytime Emmy nomination for directing the cable film My Horrible Year! (2001), and directed the highest-rated episode of Law & Order in 2005, titled "Tombstone." He also directed episodes of the drama series Quarterlife beginning in 2007, directed and appeared in episodes of Grey's Anatomy, and starred as Daniel Graystone in the science fiction series Caprica. Stoltz directed 12 episodes of Glee between 2010 and 2014, including the episode "Nationals." Beginning in 2014, he served as producing director of the CBS political drama Madam Secretary, later becoming one of its four executive producers alongside Morgan Freeman and Barbara Hall, and directed more than ten episodes while also appearing in several as Téa Leoni's brother, Will Adams. He received the Indie Supporter Award at the 1998 Los Angeles Film Festival.

Beyond acting and directing, Stoltz contributed essays to the anthologies City Secrets: New York and Life Interrupted by Spalding Gray, and appears on the children's audio recording Philadelphia Chickens. He married singer Bernadette Moley in 2005, and the couple have one daughter. He was previously in a relationship with Bridget Fonda from 1990 to 1998. Stoltz is a vegetarian.