David Strathairn

Early life and education

David Russell Strathairn was born on January 26, 1949, in San Francisco, California. He is of Scottish descent through his paternal grandfather, Thomas Scott Strathairn, a native of Crieff, and of Native Hawaiian and Chinese ancestry through his paternal grandmother, Josephine Lei Victoria Alana.

Strathairn attended Redwood High School in Larkspur, California. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1970. At Williams, he met fellow actor Gordon Clapp; and (after graduation) another Williams alumnus, director John Sayles, with whom he has collaborated on a number of projects.

Strathairn studied clowning at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Florida, and briefly worked as a clown in a traveling circus.

Career

Strathairn is a character actor, appearing in supporting roles in many independent and Hollywood films. In this capacity, he has co-starred in Twisted as a psychiatrist; in The River Wild as a husband; and in Blue Car as a teacher. Other notable film roles include his portrayals of baseball player Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out (1988); Col. Craig Harrington in Memphis Belle (1990); Whistler, the wisecracking blind techie, in Sneakers (1992); convict Ray McDeere in the legal thriller The Firm (1993); abusive husband Joe St. George in Dolores Claiborne (1995); Pierce Patchett, a millionaire involved in the seedy side of 1950s Los Angeles in L.A. Confidential (1997); Theseus, Duke of Athens, in the 1999 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and the title character in Harrison's Flowers (2000)

He has frequently worked with his Williams College classmate and director John Sayles. He made his film debut in Sayles' Return of the Secaucus 7, and appeared in his films Eight Men Out, Passion Fish, Matewan, Limbo, and City of Hope, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award. Alongside Sayles, he played one of the "men in black" in Sayles' 1983 film The Brother from Another Planet.

Strathairn's television work also 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; Capt. Frederick Benteen, a U.S. 7th Cavalry officer under General Custer's command in Son of the Morning Star; 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 had a recurring role on the hit television drama The Sopranos. Strathairn starred in the Miami Vice episode "Out Where the Buses Don't Run."

Strathairn was nominated for an Academy Award for his stirring portrayal of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 biographical film Good Night, and Good Luck. The film explored Murrow's clash with Senator Joseph McCarthy over McCarthy's Communist witch-hunts in the 1950s. Strathairn also received Best Actor Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nominations for his performance.

Strathairn appeared in We Are Marshall, a 2006 film about the rebirth of Marshall University's football program after the 1970 plane crash that killed most of the team's members; and Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti as a fictionalized version of himself, who enlists a company's services to deep freeze his soul, directed by Sophie Barthes. In 2006 he did a campaign ad for then congressional candidate (now Senator) Kirsten Gillibrand. He reprised his role as Edward R. Murrow in a speech similar to the one from Good Night, and Good Luck, but was altered to reference Gillibrand's opponent John Sweeney.

Strathairn plays the lead role 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 for its American premiere at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia.

He played a role in Paramount Pictures' children's film The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) as Arthur Spiderwick. Strathairn appeared in the American Experience PBS anthology series documentary, The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a biography of the physicist. He first played Oppenheimer in the 1989 CBS TV movie Day One.

In 2009, Strathairn performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. It was adapted from the historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

In 2010, Strathairn won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his portrayal of Dr. Carlock in the HBO television film Temple Grandin. For that role, he also won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

He played William Flynn, an FBI agent dealing with anarchism in 1920s New York City, in No God, No Master. He starred as Dr. Lee Rosen on Syfy's series Alphas.

In 2018–19, Strathairn appeared on the third and fourth seasons of SyFy's The Expanse as Klaes Ashford.

In 2020, Strathairn was one of the few professional actors in the Oscar-winner Nomadland, directed by Chloé Zhao. He appears alongside his son Tay, the first time they have acted together on screen since 1988's Eight Men Out when Tay was just eight years old.

Strathairn starred in the 2023 film Remember This, based on the stage play about the life of Polish diplomat and war hero Jan Karski who brought evidence of the Holocaust to Western governments during WW2. The film is executive-produced by Eva Anisko and directed by Jeff Hutchens and Derek Goldman.

The following year, he portrayed Bill Carruthers, creator of the popular game show Press Your Luck in The Luckiest Man in America, based on an actual incident involving a contestant on the show.

Theater

Strathairn is also a stage actor and has performed over 30 theatrical roles. He performed several roles in stage plays by Harold Pinter. He has played Stanley in two consecutive New York Classic Stage Company (CSC) productions of Pinter's 1957 play The Birthday Party, directed by Carey Perloff (since 1992 artistic director of the American Conservatory Theater), in 1988 and 1989; the dual roles of prison Officer and Prisoner in Pinter's 1989 play Mountain Language (in a double bill with the second CSC Rep production of The Birthday Party); Edwin Booth in a workshop production of Booth! A House Divided by W. Stuart McDowell alongside Maryann Plunkett at The Players in 1989; Kerner, in Tom Stoppard's Hapgood (1994); and Devlin, opposite Lindsay Duncan's Rebecca, in Pinter's 1996 two-hander Ashes to Ashes in the 1999 New York premiere by the Roundabout Theatre Company.

In 2015, Strathairn appeared in Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard with Mary McDonnell at People's Light theater in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He lent his voice talents to an adaptation in the form of a radio play of Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in October 2020.

Strathairn played Jan Karski in the one-man play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, written by Clark Young and Derek Goldman. The play is an original production by The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. In 2021, Strathairn garnered critical acclaim for a production of Remember This at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Strathairn narrated a biographical video to introduce Barack Obama before his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Personal life

Strathairn married Logan Goodman in 1980. They have two children, Tay and Ebby. Strathairn's son Tay Strathairn was keyboardist for the band Dawes.

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Music videos

Awards and nominations

References

References

1. "Say How: S". [[National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped]].
2. Rose, Mike. (January 2, 2023). "Today's famous birthdays list for January 26, 2023 includes celebrities Sasha Banks, Ellen DeGeneres".
3. Pine, Dan. (2022-07-13). "'Remember This': David Strathairn delivers 'tour de force' performance – J.". J..
4. (August 11, 2009). "Secret Scottish Roots Of Best Actor Nominee". [[Sunday Mail (Scotland).
5. (January 27, 2006). "David Strathairn Finds the Spotlight".
6. James Ambroff-Tahan. (2022-07-18). "S.F. native David Strathairn plays Jan Karski in "Remember This"".
7. Crean, Ellen. (2006-02-16). "The Nominees: David Strathairn – CBS News".
8. "Charlie Rose interview, 1999".
9. Full biography of [https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019124/bio "David Strathairn"], ''[[Yahoo!]] Movies'', Copyright 2007, accessed August 7, 2007.
10. Crean, Ellen. (March 1, 2006). "The Nominees: David Strathairn". [[CBS News]].
11. (October 3, 2006). "A 'Good Luck' Charm in Race For Congress".
12. "Credits {{!}} The People Speak".
13. "David Strathairn to Headline Syfy's Alpha". TVGuide.com.
14. (May 17, 2018). "David Strathairn Joins The Expanse Season 3". Syfy.
15. Petski, Denise. (July 14, 2017). "'The Expanse': David Strathairn Cast in Key Role in Syfy Space Drama Series". Deadline.
16. Performance revs. by Susan Hollis Merritt, "The Birthday Party" ([[Classic Stage Company. CSC]] Repertory Theatre, New York, April 17, 1988, April 12, 1988 – May 22, 1988) and Bernard Dukore, "The Birthday Party" (CSC Repertory Theatre, New York, April–May 1988), ''The Pinter Review'' 2.1 (1988): 66–70; 71–73. (Cover photograph features Strathairn in his role as Stanley.)
17. [http://www.haroldpinter.org/plays/frn_bdayparty_us89.shtml 1989 CSC production], ''HaroldPinter.org'' (official site), accessed August 7, 2007.
18. Susan Hollis Merritt, "A Conversation with [[Carey Perloff]], Bill Moor, [[Peter Riegert]], [[Jean Stapleton]], and David Strathairn: After Matinee of ''[[Mountain Language]]'' and ''[[The Birthday Party (play). The Birthday Party]]'' by [[Classic Stage Company. CSC]] Repertory Ltd., Bruno's, New York, Nov. 12, 1989", ''The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1989'' (TPR) (Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1989) 59–84 (interview); cf. performance rev. by Francis Gillen, "[[Mountain Language]], [[The Birthday Party (play). The Birthday Party]]" ''TPR'' 93–97. (Cover photograph features Strathairn and Stapleton in their roles as a prison Officer and the Elderly Woman in ''Mountain Language''; his other role, the Prisoner, is the Elderly Woman's son.)
19. "History of the Bristol Riverside Theatre".
20. "David Strathairn Biography (1949-)".
21. Performance revs. by Katherine H. Burkman, "''[[Ashes to Ashes (play). Ashes to Ashes]]'' in New York: [[Roundabout Theatre Company]] at the Gramercy Theatre, March 30, 1999" and by Susan Hollis Merritt, "''Ashes to Ashes'' in New York: Roundabout Theatre Company, Gramercy Theatre, New York, April 3, 1999", ''The Pinter Review: Collected Essays 1997 and 1998'' (Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1999) 154-59.
22. "People's Light Presents an Elegant Production of THE CHERRY ORCHARD – Theatre Sensation".
23. "Season Archive – People's Light".
24. "It Can't Happen Here". Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
25. (November 5, 2021). "Review: In 'Remember This' at Chicago Shakes, David Strathairn tells a devastating story of the man who warned the Allies of the Holocaust". [[Chicago Tribune]].
26. link. (December 7, 2008 . Retrieved August 29, 2008.)
27. "Logan Goodman - Biography".
28. Fernandez, Alexia. (April 7, 2020). "Meryl Streep's Daughter Grace Gummer Files for Divorce from Musician Tay Strathairn".
29. Roach, Pemberton. "Dawes Biography". [[AllMusic]].
30. McNary, Dave. (June 30, 2016). "Brenton Thwaites, David Strathairn Starring in 'An Interview with God'".
31. (November 15, 2016). "Further casting announced for epic new BBC One drama McMafia". BBC.
32. Petski, Denise. (2025-05-06). "‘A Man On The Inside’ Rounds Out Season 2 Cast With Constance Marie, Gary Cole, Sam Huntington, 8 More".
33. "The 78th Academy Awards (2005) Nominees and Winners". [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] (AMPAS).
34. "Brokeback emerges as a BAFTA winner".
35. "David Strathairn - Golden Globes". [[Golden Globe Awards]].
36. "2010 Primetime Emmy Awards".
37. "2012 Primetime Emmy Awards".
38. "The 4th Screen Actors Guild Awards".
39. "The 12th Screen Actors Guild Awards".
40. "The 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards".