Ed Harris (Film director, Character actor, Screenwriter, Film producer, Actor)

Ed Harris was born and raised in New Jersey. He was the son of a travel agent and a chorus singer, and had two brothers, Robert and Paul. In high school, Harris was a star athlete playing varsity football at Columbia University with future United States Attorney General Eric Holder. After two years, he decided to move to New Mexico where he discovered his interest in acting. Two years later, he enrolled at the University of Oklahoma and after performing in several local theater plays, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1975.

Ed Harris began his career on the stage, playing an FBI agent in Thomas Rickman's play Baalam at the Pasadena Repertory Theatre in 1976, and Lot in the West Coast premiere of Tennessee Williams's play Kingdom of Earth (aka The Seven Descents of Myrtle). His first film role came in 1978 with Coma, starring Michael Douglas. Borderline (1980) marked his first major film part alongside Charles Bronson. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s he found steady work on television, appearing in episodes of Gibbsville (1975), Delvecchio (1977), The Rockford Files (1978), David Cassidy: Man Undercover (1978), The Seekers (1979), Barnaby Jones (1979), Paris (1980), Lou Grant (1979, 1980, and 1981), CHiPs (1981), Hart to Hart (1981), Cassie & Co. (1981), and American Playhouse (1984).

In 1983, Harris became a household name after portraying astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff. This was followed by the Robert Benton directed drama film Places in the Heart (1984) in which he met and married his wife Amy Madigan, the Jonathan Demme World War II biopic Swing Shift (1984), where he co-starred with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, the HBO film Sweet Dreams (1985), in which he played abusive husband Charlie Dick to Jessica Lange's Patsy Cline, and the Tony Award nominated role of Major Steve Arnold in the Ronald Harwood play Taking Sides (1986). In 1987, he acted in To Kill a Priest (1988), Jacknife (1989) and The Abyss (1989), all of which helped to build his reputation and standing in the industry.

In 1992, Harris starred in the acclaimed drama film Glengarry Glen Ross. His role as Dave Moss earned him the Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor. He followed this with other notable roles in The Firm (1993), Needful Things (1993), China Moon (1994), Nixon (1995), Apollo 13 (1995), The Truman Show (1998) for which he was nominated for his fourth Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, A Beautiful Mind (2001), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Gone Baby Gone (2007), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), Appaloosa (2008), Once Fallen (2010), The Way Back (2010) and Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010).

His performance as Jackson Pollock in the biopic Pollock (2000) directed and co-written by him, brought him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and he went on to receive admiration for his performances in The Hours (2002) and Empire Falls (2005) for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film respectively. In 2017, he appeared in Dean Devlin's sci-fi film Geostorm and the critically acclaimed Mother! (2017), as well as took over the role of Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway in November 2019.

1. Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Apollo 13 (1995), The Truman Show (1998), and The Hours (2002).

2. Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama for his role in Westworld (2016-2019).

3. Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for his role in Game Change (2012).

4. 3 Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his roles in The Laramie Project (2002), Empire Falls (2005) and Bessie (2015).

5. 4 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for his roles in Apollo 13 (1995), The Truman Show (1998), The Hours (2002) and Pollock (2000).

6. 2 Saturn Award for Best Actor for his roles in The Abyss (1989) and The Rock (1996).

7. 5 Independent Spirit Awards nominations for Best Supporting Male for his roles in The Abyss (1989), State of Grace (1990), Venus Beauty Institute (1999), Pollock (2000) and The Hours (2002).

8. National Board of Review Acting Award for his role in The Firm (1993).