James Remar

James Remar, born William James Remar on December 31, 1953, in Boston, Massachusetts, is an American actor whose career has spanned stage, film, and television for more than four decades. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Elizabeth Remar, who worked in mental health affairs for the state of Massachusetts, and Roy Remar, an attorney of Russian-Jewish descent whose wife was of Irish descent and English birth. Remar has three sisters and two brothers.

Remar left high school at age 15, spending a period afterward attending what he described as an alternative school before traveling across the United States and briefly playing guitar in a rock band. He eventually returned home, completed high school, and decided against attending college. At age 20, after being laid off from work as a roofer, he resolved to pursue acting, giving himself three years to establish a career. An early role came in Florida, where he was cast in a state production of Cross and Sword. He subsequently studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, though he was not invited to continue after his first year. He went on to perform at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and landed the role of Kenickie in a touring production of Grease before making his film debut in On the Yard.

His stage work brought him to Broadway between 1976 and 1979, with credits that include Bent and Grease. Those years on Broadway coincided with the early development of a screen career that would come to define his public profile. His film breakthrough arrived with The Warriors (1979), directed by Walter Hill, in which he portrayed the violent gang member Ajax. He reteamed with Hill for 48 Hrs. (1982), playing the murdering sociopath Albert Ganz. Both performances established Remar as a go-to presence for antagonist roles. He also portrayed real-life 1930s gangster Dutch Schultz in The Cotton Club (1984). Against type, he starred in Windwalker (1980) as the young Cheyenne Windwalker, delivering his dialogue in the Cheyenne language, and appeared in Cruising (1980) as a gay man. That same year he had a cameo in the Western The Long Riders (1980). He was originally cast as Corporal Hicks in Aliens (1986) but was replaced by Michael Biehn after an arrest for drug possession, though footage of Remar filmed from the back appears in the released film.

Subsequent film roles included Jack Duff in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Quill in The Phantom (1996), and Raiden in Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997), taking over the role from Christopher Lambert. He played two unrelated characters, Ace Speck and Butch Pooch, in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012), and appeared as Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson in Oppenheimer (2023), a performance that contributed to the film's ensemble winning a SAG Award in 2024. He is also cast as General Francis Shaw in It: Welcome to Derry, released on HBO in 2025.

On television, Remar became widely recognized for playing Richard Wright, the on-again, off-again boyfriend of Kim Cattrall's character, in Sex and the City from 2001 to 2004. His most sustained television role came on Showtime's Dexter, where he co-starred from 2006 to 2013 as Harry Morgan, the adoptive father of the title character. The performance earned him a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised the role of Harry Morgan in Dexter: Resurrection, which premiered in 2025. Additional television credits include recurring appearances on Jericho, a guest role as Giuseppe Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries in 2010, and a starring role as Peter Gambi across all four seasons of Black Lightning from 2018 to 2021. He also played Frank Gordon in Gotham from 2016 to 2019 and has a recurring role on The Rookie as Tom Bradford. Voice work has included Vilgax in Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and the Autobot Sideswipe in Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Since 2009, Remar has provided voice-over work in advertising for Lexus luxury cars.

Remar married Atsuko Remar in 1984. They have two children, and Remar speaks conversational Japanese.