Jeff McCarthy

Jeff McCarthy is an American actor and director born on October 16, 1954, in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in Santa Maria near the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, where he studied and performed for several seasons during the 1970s. He subsequently completed a master's program in acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and became a company member there.

McCarthy's Broadway career spans from 1981 to 2013. He made his Broadway debut in 1983, stepping into the role previously played by Robert Westenberg opposite Anthony Quinn in Zorba. In November 1986, he originated the role of Bob Freelander in Smile, the musical by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Ashman. From 1995 to 1997, McCarthy portrayed the Beast in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, later returning to the role for a limited engagement running from February through April 2004. He also participated in a workshop for Disney's stage adaptation of The Little Mermaid, playing King Triton. In 1997, he joined the original Broadway cast of Side Show, playing Terry, with the cast recording released on Sony Music. McCarthy created the role of Officer Lockstock in Urinetown when the production opened on Broadway in September 2001, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. He played Dubhdara in The Pirate Queen, which opened on Broadway in April 2007. In 2008, 2009, and 2011, he played Billy Flynn in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago. In 2012, he took on the title role in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical at Madison Square Garden.

Beyond Broadway, McCarthy has maintained an extensive regional theater career, performing at institutions including the Guthrie, Long Wharf Theater, Arena Stage, Barrington Stage, ACT San Francisco, and the Denver Center Theater, among others. His regional credits include the title roles in Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George, Fagin in Oliver!, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, Don Quixote and Miguel de Cervantes in Man of La Mancha, King Arthur in Camelot, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, and Frank Abagnale, Sr. in Catch Me If You Can. He is an associate artist at the Barrington Stage Company. His touring credits include Javert in Les Misérables, the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Billy Flynn in Chicago, and the title role in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical. In March 2016, he created the role of Lola Cola in the bluegrass musical Southern Comfort at the Off-Broadway Public Theater. In February 2017, he originated the title character in Jeffrey Sweet's Kunstler at the Off-Broadway 59E59 Theaters, subsequently reprising the role at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in May 2017.

McCarthy's screen career began in 1985 with a guest appearance on the CBS series The Equalizer, playing a waiter in the season one episode "The Lock Box." He returned to the series in 1986 in the episode "Breakpoint," playing Gary Speer opposite Tony Shalhoub. He has since appeared in more than thirty television productions, including Freddy's Nightmares and Matlock, both in 1989. In 1990, he played Roga Danar in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Hunted," and in 1995 he appeared as the unnamed chief medical officer of the USS Voyager in the Star Trek: Voyager pilot episode "Caretaker." Additional television credits include Cheers, In the Heat of the Night, LA Law, Designing Women, Law & Order, two appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ed, Love Monkey, The Good Wife, Elementary, and Madam Secretary. In 2006, he played Albert Schweitzer in the PBS television film Albert Schweitzer: Called to Africa. In 2011, David Letterman created a recurring segment in which McCarthy played a politician announcing a presidential run on the Late Show. McCarthy also portrayed the Nature Documentary Voice in a first-season episode of the Apple TV+ series Severance in 2022.

His film work includes Holtzgang in RoboCop 2 (1990), Young Bill Simmons in Eve of Destruction (1991), Agent Anderson in Rapid Fire (1992), a pilot in Cliffhanger (1993), and a role in Andrew Wagner's Starting Out in the Evening (2007) alongside Frank Langella. He played Mark in Consent (2010) opposite Kate Burton. In 1995, Chuck Jones selected McCarthy to voice Michigan J. Frog in Another Froggy Evening, a sequel to the 1955 cartoon One Froggy Evening, and McCarthy subsequently voiced the character as the spokesphibian for the WB Television Network.

As a director, McCarthy has helmed stage productions including Danny and the Deep Blue Sea for the 29th St Project in New York City, The Glass Menagerie for the University of New Hampshire, and Urinetown for the University of Oklahoma. In 2016, he co-wrote, directed, and edited the short film Keepsake with his brother Jim McCarthy, featuring his daughter, actress Juliet Perrell McCarthy.