Harry Connick, Jr.

Joseph Harry Fowler Connick Jr. was born on September 11, 1967, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was raised in the Lakeview neighborhood alongside his older sister, Suzanna. His father, Harry Connick Sr., served as the district attorney of Orleans Parish from 1973 to 2003 and also performed weekly gigs at French Quarter clubs. His mother, Anita Frances Livingston Connick, worked as a lawyer and judge in New Orleans before her death from ovarian cancer when Connick was thirteen. His father was a Roman Catholic of Northern Irish descent, and his mother was Jewish and originally from New York. His parents also owned a record store together.

Connick demonstrated musical ability from an early age, beginning keyboard lessons at age three and performing publicly by age five. At ten, he recorded with a local jazz band, and at nine he performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 Opus 37 with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. He later played a duet with Eubie Blake at the Royal Orleans Esplanade Lounge, performing "I'm Just Wild About Harry," which was recorded for a Japanese documentary titled Jazz Around the World. His formal musical development took place at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, where he studied under pianists Ellis Marsalis Jr. and James Booker. He attended Jesuit High School, Isidore Newman School, Lakeview School, and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts before attempting studies at Loyola University New Orleans. He subsequently moved to New York City, residing at the 92nd Street YMHA while enrolled at Hunter College and the Manhattan School of Music. There he met Columbia Records executive George Butler, who signed him to the label.

Connick's recording career gained significant momentum when director Rob Reiner selected him to provide the soundtrack for the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally..., starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. The soundtrack, which included standards such as "It Had to Be You" and "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," achieved double-platinum status in the United States and earned Connick his first Grammy Award, for Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance. His 1990 big-band album We Are in Love also went double platinum and brought him a second consecutive Grammy in the same category. His contribution to the Godfather III soundtrack, "Promise Me You'll Remember," received both an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award nomination in 1991. His 1991 album Blue Light, Red Light, on which he wrote and arranged all the songs, became his third consecutive multi-platinum release. His best-selling album in the United States is the holiday collection When My Heart Finds Christmas, released in 1993, which was the top-selling Christmas album that year. His highest-charting album overall is Only You, released in 2004, which reached number five in the United States and number six in Britain. As of 2019, Connick had sold over 30 million records worldwide, with 16 million in certified sales in the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which ranks him among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the country. He has earned seven top-20 U.S. albums and ten number-one U.S. jazz albums, holding the record for the most number-one albums by any artist in U.S. jazz chart history as of 2009. In total, he has won three Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards.

His film career began with a role as a tail gunner in the World War II film Memphis Belle in 1990. He played a serial killer in Copycat in 1995 and appeared as a fighter pilot in Independence Day in 1996 alongside Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. His first leading film role came in Hope Floats in 1998, directed by Forest Whitaker and co-starring Sandra Bullock. He also provided a voice for the animated film The Iron Giant in 1999. Subsequent film appearances include Basic in 2003 with John Travolta, Bug in 2006, P.S. I Love You in 2007 with Hilary Swank, New in Town in 2009 with Renée Zellweger, and Dolphin Tale in 2011 and its 2014 sequel, in which he played Dr. Clay Haskett. On television, he played Leo Markus, the husband of Grace Adler, on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace from 2002 to 2006. He has noted that his part-Jewish heritage influenced his portrayal of the Jewish character Leo. He later hosted his own television talk show.

Connick's Broadway career spans from 1990 to 2019 and encompasses both performing and writing. He wrote the book for Thou Shalt Not and appeared in An Evening with Harry Connick Jr. and His Orchestra, The Pajama Game, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Harry Connick, Jr. - A Celebration of Cole Porter, among other productions. His work in The Pajama Game earned him a Theatre World Award in 2006.