John Slattery

John M. Slattery Jr. was born on August 13, 1962, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Joan Mulhern Slattery, a retired accountant, and John "Jack" Slattery, a leather merchant. One of six children, Slattery is of Irish descent and was raised Catholic. As a child, he harbored ambitions of becoming a baseball player. He attended Saint Sebastian's School in Newton, Massachusetts, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Catholic University of America in 1984.

Slattery built his stage career across more than two decades of Broadway appearances, from 1993 to 2016. His theatrical credits include The Front Page, Betrayal, Rabbit Hole, and Laughter on the 23rd Floor. His stage work earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play in 1998.

On television, Slattery first gained attention in the early 1990s through the drama series Homefront, in which he played union organizer Al Kahn. Subsequent lead roles came in Maggie, Jack and Bobby, and neXt. He also accumulated a substantial list of recurring television appearances, including roles on Sex and the City as politician Bill Kelley, Judging Amy as Michael Cassidy, Ed as principal Dennis Martino, and Will and Grace as Sam, Will Truman's brother. He portrayed Senator Walter Mondale in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon and political adviser Tommy Flannigan in the HBO series K Street. Beginning in March 2007, he appeared on Desperate Housewives as Victor Lang, Gabrielle Solis's second husband, a role he continued until the character's death in Season 4. Additional recurring television work includes 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Veep, Modern Love, Mrs. America, and The Good Fight.

Slattery's most prominent television role came with the AMC drama series Mad Men, in which he played advertising executive Roger Sterling from 2007 to 2015. The performance earned him four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, two Critics' Choice Television Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. His wife, actress Talia Balsam, whom he married in 1998, also appeared on the series as his character's screen wife, Mona.

His film career spans a wide range of roles. Early screen work included a small part as a teacher in Sleepers and the role of Paul Moore in Mona Lisa Smile. He appeared as a government promoter in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and as CIA official Henry Cravely in Charlie Wilson's War. In The Adjustment Bureau, he played Richardson, a mid-level agent within a mysterious paranormal organization. He was cast as Bert Miller in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and portrayed Howie in the film adaptation of Rabbit Hole. In 2015, Slattery portrayed journalist Ben Bradlee Jr. in Spotlight, the Academy Award-winning film about the Boston Globe's investigation into clergy abuse. That same year, he appeared as Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Ant-Man, a role he had originated in Iron Man 2 in 2010 and would reprise in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame. Additional film credits include Reservation Road, The Adjustment Bureau, and Churchill. In 2025, he portrayed Burton C. Andrus, the commandant overseeing the prison housing Nazi war criminals during the post-World War II Nuremberg trials, in the film Nuremberg.

In 2013, Slattery co-wrote and directed his debut feature film, God's Pocket, an adaptation of Pete Dexter's 1983 novel of the same name, co-written with Alex Metcalf. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired for distribution by IFC Films. Beyond acting and directing, Slattery has narrated audiobook editions of Don DeLillo's Falling Man, Stephen King's Duma Key, and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

Slattery and Talia Balsam have one son together and reside in SoHo, Manhattan.