DAVID STRATHAIRN
Name: David Russell Strathairn
Born: 26 January 1949 San Francisco, California
David Russell Strathairn (born January 26, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated
American film, television, and stage actor.
Strathairn was born in San Francisco, California, the son of a physician. He
is of Scottish ancestry through his paternal grandfather, Thomas Scott
Strathairn (a native of Crieff, Perthshire), and Native Hawaiian ancestry
through his paternal grandmother, Lei. Strathairn attended Redwood High
School in Larkspur, California and graduated from Williams College in
Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1970. He studied at the Ringling Brothers and
Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Florida and briefly worked as a
clown in a traveling circus.
He is married to Logan Goodman Strathairn, a nurse. They have two sons and live
in the mid-Hudson Valley area of upstate New York, near Poughkeepsie. Their son
Tay, an actor and musician who plays jazz piano, appeared in John Sayles's films
Eight Men Out (as "Bucky") and Lone Star (as "Young Sam").
Strathairn's best-known film roles include his portrayals of the title character
in Harrison's Flowers (2000); the wisecracking blind techie in Sneakers (1992);
Joe St. George in Dolores Claiborne (1995); Theseus, Duke of Athens, in the 1999
version of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and corrupt baseball player Eddie Cicotte
in 1988's Eight Men Out.
Strathairn is often regarded as a character actor, appearing in supporting roles
in many independent and Hollywood films. In this capacity, he has co-starred in
Twisted as Ashley Judd's psychiatrist; in The River Wild as Meryl Streep's
husband; as Tom Cruise's jailbird brother in The Firm; and as Kim Basinger's
pimp in L.A. Confidential.
He has worked frequently with his Williams College classmate and director John
Sayles, beginning with his film debut in Return of the Secaucus 7, and including
the films Passion Fish, Matewan, Limbo, Lone Star and City of Hope, for which
Strathairn won the Independent Spirit Award. Alongside Sayles, he played one of
the Men in Black in the 1983 film The Brother from Another Planet
Strathairn's television work includes a wide range of roles: "Moss", the
bookselling nebbish on the critically-acclaimed The Days and Nights of Molly
Dodd; Captain Keller, the father of Helen Keller in the 2000 remake of The
Miracle Worker; and a far-out (both figuratively and literally) televangelist in
Paradise, the pilot episode for a TV series on Showtime that was not successful.
Strathairn also had a recurring role on the hit TV drama The Sopranos.
In 2005, Strathairn played the leading role of famed CBS newsman Edward R.
Murrow in the biopic Good Night, and Good Luck, which explored Murrow's clash
with Senator Joseph McCarthy over McCarthy's Communist "witch hunt" in the 1950s.
Strathairn received Best Actor Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and
Academy Award nominations for his performance.
Among Strathairn's recent films are: We Are...Marshall, a 2006 film about the
resurrection of Marshall University's football program after the 1970 plane
crash that killed most of the team; and Hereafter, set in the aftermath of the
2004 Sumatran tsunami, directed by Michael Patwin (in pre-production).
Strathairn plays the lead role opposite Andrew Walker in the 2007 independent
film, "Steel Toes", a film by David Gow (writer/co-director/producer)and Mark
Adam(co- director/DOP/editor). The film is based on Gow's stage play "Cherry
Docs", in which Strathairn starred at its American Premiere at The Wilma Theatre
in Philadelphia.
Strathairn also played a lead role opposite Matt Damon in the summer 2007 film
The Bourne Ultimatum and appeared in Paramount Pictures' children's film The
Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) as Arthur Spiderwick.
Name: David Russell Strathairn
Born: 26 January 1949 San Francisco, California
David Russell Strathairn (born January 26, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated
American film, television, and stage actor.
Strathairn was born in San Francisco, California, the son of a physician. He
is of Scottish ancestry through his paternal grandfather, Thomas Scott
Strathairn (a native of Crieff, Perthshire), and Native Hawaiian ancestry
through his paternal grandmother, Lei. Strathairn attended Redwood High
School in Larkspur, California and graduated from Williams College in
Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1970. He studied at the Ringling Brothers and
Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Florida and briefly worked as a
clown in a traveling circus.
He is married to Logan Goodman Strathairn, a nurse. They have two sons and live
in the mid-Hudson Valley area of upstate New York, near Poughkeepsie. Their son
Tay, an actor and musician who plays jazz piano, appeared in John Sayles's films
Eight Men Out (as "Bucky") and Lone Star (as "Young Sam").
Strathairn's best-known film roles include his portrayals of the title character
in Harrison's Flowers (2000); the wisecracking blind techie in Sneakers (1992);
Joe St. George in Dolores Claiborne (1995); Theseus, Duke of Athens, in the 1999
version of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and corrupt baseball player Eddie Cicotte
in 1988's Eight Men Out.
Strathairn is often regarded as a character actor, appearing in supporting roles
in many independent and Hollywood films. In this capacity, he has co-starred in
Twisted as Ashley Judd's psychiatrist; in The River Wild as Meryl Streep's
husband; as Tom Cruise's jailbird brother in The Firm; and as Kim Basinger's
pimp in L.A. Confidential.
He has worked frequently with his Williams College classmate and director John
Sayles, beginning with his film debut in Return of the Secaucus 7, and including
the films Passion Fish, Matewan, Limbo, Lone Star and City of Hope, for which
Strathairn won the Independent Spirit Award. Alongside Sayles, he played one of
the Men in Black in the 1983 film The Brother from Another Planet
Strathairn's television work includes a wide range of roles: "Moss", the
bookselling nebbish on the critically-acclaimed The Days and Nights of Molly
Dodd; Captain Keller, the father of Helen Keller in the 2000 remake of The
Miracle Worker; and a far-out (both figuratively and literally) televangelist in
Paradise, the pilot episode for a TV series on Showtime that was not successful.
Strathairn also had a recurring role on the hit TV drama The Sopranos.
In 2005, Strathairn played the leading role of famed CBS newsman Edward R.
Murrow in the biopic Good Night, and Good Luck, which explored Murrow's clash
with Senator Joseph McCarthy over McCarthy's Communist "witch hunt" in the 1950s.
Strathairn received Best Actor Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and
Academy Award nominations for his performance.
Among Strathairn's recent films are: We Are...Marshall, a 2006 film about the
resurrection of Marshall University's football program after the 1970 plane
crash that killed most of the team; and Hereafter, set in the aftermath of the
2004 Sumatran tsunami, directed by Michael Patwin (in pre-production).
Strathairn plays the lead role opposite Andrew Walker in the 2007 independent
film, "Steel Toes", a film by David Gow (writer/co-director/producer)and Mark
Adam(co- director/DOP/editor). The film is based on Gow's stage play "Cherry
Docs", in which Strathairn starred at its American Premiere at The Wilma Theatre
in Philadelphia.
Strathairn also played a lead role opposite Matt Damon in the summer 2007 film
The Bourne Ultimatum and appeared in Paramount Pictures' children's film The
Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) as Arthur Spiderwick.