William H. Macy

William Hall Macy Jr. was born on March 13, 1950, in Miami, Florida, and was raised in Georgia and Maryland. His father, William Hall Macy Sr. (1922–2007), earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal for piloting a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber during World War II, later operating a construction company in Atlanta before taking over an insurance agency in Cumberland, Maryland. His mother, Lois (née Overstreet; 1920–2001), was a war widow whose first husband died in 1943. Macy graduated from Allegany High School in Cumberland in 1968 and initially studied veterinary medicine at Bethany College in West Virginia before transferring to Goddard College in Vermont, where he studied under playwright David Mamet and graduated in 1972. He subsequently studied theater at HB Studio in New York City.

Following his graduation from Goddard, Macy originated roles in several Mamet plays, including American Buffalo and The Water Engine. He moved to New York City in 1980, where he accumulated credits in more than fifty Off Broadway and Broadway productions. Among his earliest screen appearances was a small role in the 1980 film Somewhere in Time, for which he was billed as W.H. Macy to avoid confusion with actor Bill Macy. He also appeared as a turtle named Socrates in the 1984 direct-to-video film The Boy Who Loved Trolls, played a hospital orderly in a fourth-season episode of Kate & Allie, and portrayed an assistant district attorney in the first produced episode of Law & Order. His Broadway career spanned from 1988 to 2008 and included the drama Our Town as well as Speed-the-Plow. He joined Speed-the-Plow on January 13, 2009, replacing Jeremy Piven, who had departed the production in December 2008 due to health problems, with Norbert Leo Butz covering the role in the interim.

Macy's professional relationship with David Mamet extended prominently into film. He appeared in a number of pictures that Mamet wrote or directed, among them House of Games (1987), Things Change (1988), Homicide (1991), Oleanna (1994) — in which he reprised a stage role he had originated — Wag the Dog (1997), State and Main (2000), and Spartan (2004). His breakthrough in mainstream cinema came with his portrayal of Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo (1996), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Subsequent film roles included Boogie Nights (1997), Air Force One (1997), Magnolia (1999), Mystery Men (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001), Bobby (2006), Thank You for Smoking (2005), Room (2015), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), and The Running Man (2025). In 2007, he starred in Wild Hogs alongside John Travolta, a film that grossed over $168 million despite receiving a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. He made his directorial debut with the independent drama Rudderless, featuring Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Huffman, Selena Gomez, and Laurence Fishburne, and later directed The Layover (2017), a road trip comedy starring Alexandra Daddario and Kate Upton.

On television, Macy played Dr. David Morgenstern on ER from 1994 to 2009 and had a recurring role on Sports Night from 1999 to 2000, with both performances earning him Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. In 2002, he wrote and starred in Door to Door, winning an Emmy for both writing and acting. From 2011 to 2021, he starred as Frank Gallagher on the Showtime series Shameless, a role for which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2014. Throughout his career, Macy has accumulated two Emmy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, nominations for five Golden Globe Awards, a Drama Critics' Circle Award nomination, and two Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Beyond performing, Macy serves as director-in-residence at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, where he teaches a method called Practical Aesthetics. A book on the technique, A Practical Handbook for the Actor, is dedicated to both Macy and Mamet. He is a national ambassador for the United Cerebral Palsy Association and serves as a spokesperson for Woody Creek Distillers in Basalt, Colorado, which produces a signature whiskey bearing his name. An avid woodturner, he has appeared on the cover of Fine Woodturning's special edition Wood Turning Basics and was featured in the April 2015 issue of American Woodturner. He also plays the ukulele and developed an interest in riding motorcycles following the production of Wild Hogs. Macy and actress Felicity Huffman, who dated on and off for fifteen years, married on September 6, 1997, and have two daughters together.