John Benjamin Hickey

John Benjamin Hickey is an American actor and director born on June 25, 1963, in Plano, Texas, where he graduated from Plano Senior High School in 1981. He studied theater at Texas State University–San Marcos from 1981 to 1983 before earning a bachelor's degree in English from Fordham University in 1985. His Broadway career spans from 1995 to 2019.

Hickey made his Broadway debut in 1995 originating the role of Arthur in Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion!, a performance he reprised for the 1997 film adaptation. In 1998, he took on the role of Clifford Bradshaw in the Broadway revival of Cabaret, a production that earned the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. That same year he starred in the independent film Finding North. He returned to Broadway in 2002 to play Reverend John Hale in the revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

His Broadway work continued with the 2009 revival of Mary Stuart, in which he portrayed the Earl of Leicester, followed by the 2011 revival of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, where he played Felix Turner. That performance earned him the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play as well as a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance, both in 2011. He also starred in Six Degrees of Separation during his Broadway tenure.

Beyond the stage, Hickey built a substantial screen career. His film credits include supporting roles in The Ice Storm (1997), The Anniversary Party (2001), Flightplan, Flags of Our Fathers, Freedom Writers, Then She Found Me, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He portrayed American novelist and playwright Jack Dunphy in the 2006 Truman Capote biographical film Infamous. His television work includes appearances on Alias, Law & Order, Brothers & Sisters, In Plain Sight, Law & Order: Los Angeles, and Modern Family, as well as a recurring role as Philip Stoddard on the sitcom It's All Relative. From 2010 to 2013 he appeared on The Big C, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for the series' final season, subtitled Hereafter. He subsequently starred as scientist Frank Winter in the drama series Manhattan, which ran for two seasons and 23 episodes before concluding on December 15, 2015.

In 2015, Hickey appeared Off-Broadway at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre in Peter Parnell's Dada Woof Papa Hot. In 2018, he created the role of Henry Wilcox in Matthew Lopez's The Inheritance, a play inspired by E.M. Forster's novel Howards End, premiering at London's Young Vic before transferring to the West End. He directed the 2022 Broadway revival of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, a production originally scheduled to begin previews in March 2020 before being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The production subsequently transferred to the West End for a limited engagement at the Savoy Theatre from January to April 2024. On September 30, 2021, he was cast as Father Callahan in Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema's adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot.

Hickey is gay and has been partnered with screenwriter and television producer Jeffrey Richman since 2003.