Timothy Bottoms

Timothy James Bottoms was born on August 30, 1951, in Santa Barbara, California, the eldest of four sons of Betty (née Chapman) and James "Bud" Bottoms, a sculptor and art teacher. He graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1970, where he developed acting and singing experience through theater productions. His three younger brothers, Joseph, Sam, and Ben Bottoms, also became actors.

Bottoms launched his screen career in 1971 with two significant films released the same year. He made his film debut as Joe Bonham in Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun, and appeared alongside his brother Sam in The Last Picture Show, playing Sonny Crawford. Both Bottoms and his co-stars Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges rose to prominence through the latter film. He reprised the role of Sonny Crawford in the 1990 sequel Texasville. In 1973, he starred in The Paper Chase as Harvard law student James Hart, a first-year student in conflict with the formidable Professor Kingsfield, played by John Houseman.

His other film appearances include Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973), The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974), Operation Daybreak (1975), A Small Town in Texas (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), Hurricane (1979), Invaders from Mars (1986), and Elephant (2003). Drawing on a physical resemblance to President George W. Bush and an ability to impersonate his voice, Bottoms portrayed Bush in three productions: the Comedy Central sitcom That's My Bush! in 2000 and 2001, a cameo in the family film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, and the TV film DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, one of the first dramatic works based on the September 11 attacks. On television, he also appeared in a recurring role during the first season of the FX series Dirt, playing Gibson Horne, the owner of the magazine where the main character Lucy Spiller, portrayed by Courteney Cox, worked.

In addition to performing, Bottoms co-produced the 1991 documentary Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas, a behind-the-scenes account of the making of The Last Picture Show and Texasville. He was also prominently featured in the Metallica music video for "One," which incorporated footage from Johnny Got His Gun. In 2023, he published a novel titled The Pier through Tall Tales Press, following a young boy's day of fishing and the people and situations he encounters.

Bottoms brought his stage work to Broadway in 1980, appearing in Fifth of July. He has been married twice: first to singer Alicia Cory in 1975, a marriage that produced one son before ending in divorce in 1982, and subsequently to Marcia Morehart in 1984, with whom he has three children.