Peter Gallagher

Peter Killian Gallagher, born August 19, 1955, in New York City, is an American actor whose career spans Broadway, film, and television. The youngest of three children born to Mary Ann (née O'Shea), a bacteriologist, and Thomas Francis Gallagher, Jr., an advertising executive, Gallagher grew up in Armonk, New York, and is of Irish Catholic background. He attended Tufts University, where he participated in theatrical productions including Stephen Sondheim's Company and sang with the all-male a cappella group the Beelzebubs. He subsequently trained at the William Esper Studio and with acting coach Mira Rostova.

Gallagher's Broadway career spans from 1972 to 2024 and includes productions such as Left on Tenth, On the Twentieth Century, the musical A Country Girl, Funny Girl, and Noises Off. He appeared alongside Glenn Close in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing on Broadway and earned a Theatre World Award in 1983. Among his most prominent stage roles is Sky Masterson in the 1992 Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls. From February 13 through July 5, 2015, he played Oscar Jaffe in the Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century, missing several performances in late February due to illness. In 2024, he returned to Broadway in Left on Tenth, a play based on the life of Delia Ephron.

Gallagher made his feature film debut in Taylor Hackford's The Idolmaker before gaining wider recognition through Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies, and videotape in 1989. His subsequent film work includes Bob Roberts (1992), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), While You Were Sleeping (1995), American Beauty (1999), Mr. Deeds (2002), and Palm Springs (2020). In The Player he portrayed a figure posing a career threat to Tim Robbins's studio executive character; in While You Were Sleeping he played the comatose fiancé of Sandra Bullock's character; and in American Beauty he appeared as a real estate salesman conducting an affair with Annette Bening's character.

On television, Gallagher is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen, a Jewish public defender and corporate lawyer, on the Fox drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007. In honor of that role, he hosts an annual ceremony called the Sandy Cohen Awards, or the Sandys, which grants a scholarship to a UC Berkeley law student pursuing a career as a public defender. His other recurring television roles include Deputy Chief William Dodds on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Stacey Koons on the Showtime series Californication, Nick on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie across four seasons from 2018 through 2022, and Arthur Campbell on Covert Affairs. In 2020, he played Mitch Clarke, a character with progressive supranuclear palsy, in the first season of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, later reprising the role in the second season and the special Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas. In 2021, he appeared in Grey's Anatomy as Dr. David Hamilton.

In 2005, Gallagher released the album 7 Days in Memphis on the Sony BMG label, which included a studio recording of his performance of "Don't Give Up On Me," originally recorded by Solomon Burke, a song that had been featured in an episode of The O.C. That same year, Tufts University presented him with the P.T. Barnum Award for exceptional work in media and entertainment, and in 2007 the university gave him its Light on the Hill award, presented to notable alumni who have demonstrated ambition, achievement, and active citizenship.

Gallagher is married to Paula Harwood and has two children, James and Kathryn. His daughter Kathryn is an actress and singer.