Best Known As: Detective Mike Logan on TV's Law & Order
Actor Chris Noth is known mostly for his two television roles: Detective Mike Logan on Law & Order and Mr. Big on Sex and the City. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Noth has balanced screen work with stage work since the early 1980s. An original cast member of Law & Order, he played Logan for five seasons (1990-95), then spent six seasons as Sarah Jessica Parker's sometime boyfriend on Sex and the City (1998-2004). Noth has also appeared in TV movies and in small roles in feature films, including Cast Away (2000, starring Tom Hanks) and The Glass House (2001, starring Leelee Sobieski). But he'll be forever associated with his television roles, especially since joining the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in 2005 (as Mike Logan) and appearing in the 2008 feature film Sex and the City (as Mr. Big).
Career Highlights: Cast Away, Sex and the City: Sex and the City, My One and Only
First Major Screen Credit: Jakarta (1988)
Biography
A veteran of film and television, Chris Noth is probably best known for his work on Law and Order and HBO's Sex and the City, the latter of which featured him as the charming but terminally untrustworthy Mr. Big, erstwhile boyfriend/bad habit of the series' heroine, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker).
Hailing from Madison, WI, where he was born November 13, 1954, Noth moved around a lot throughout his childhood, living in England, Yugoslavia, and Spain. Returning to the States, he studied with the storied acting coach Stanford Meisner before being accepted into the prestigious Yale School of Drama.
Noth got his start on the stage and in television performing at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, CT, and appearing in productions with theater companies across the country, including the Manhattan Theater Club and Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum. Working in television beginning in 1982, he did a number of shows before breaking into film with small parts in Off Beat (1986) and the Diane Keaton comedy Baby Boom (1987).
Noth's big break came in 1989, when he was chosen to play Det. Mike Logan on Law and Order. Noth portrayed the young policeman for five seasons, winning both critical nods and fans, many of whom were saddened when his Law and Order contract was not renewed in 1995.
Noth continued to work on television and did minor work in films such as Naked in New York (1994) before getting his next big break in the form of Sex and the City (1998). As Big, he was one of the few male characters who could hold his own in the presence of the series' strong female protagonists, played by Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, and Kristin Davis. The show proved to be an enormous critical and commercial hit, in the process winning Noth more fans and more work; in addition to his role on the series, he could be seen on the big screen, appearing opposite Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt in Cast Away (2000) and in the 2001 Leelee Sobieski thriller The Glass House. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Noth, the youngest of three sons, was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Jeanne Parr, a former CBS news reporter, and Charles Noth, an insurance salesman.[1] Noth's father died when he was nine. During his childhood, Noth traveled with his mother and brothers throughout the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, and Spain.
Noth made his film debut in 1988 in the low-budget Jakarta. He also had small parts in films such as Smithereens (1982) and Baby Boom (1987), and on TV series such as Hill Street Blues and Another World. In 1988, he filmed a pilot for the legal/police drama series Law & Order. In 1990, NBC began airing the show, which slowly gained recognition from critics and fans.[2] Noth was fired from the show in 1995. Personality differences between Noth and L&O creator/executive producer Dick Wolf settled down long enough to film a TV movie, Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (1998).
Noth returned to prime-time television in 1998 when he took the role of Carrie Bradshaw's enigmatic on-again, off-again boyfriend "Mr. Big" on HBO's Sex and the City.[2] Noth played the role for six years, during which he also appeared in a small role as Helen Hunt's husband in the hit film Cast Away (2000) and starred in a Broadway revival of The Best Man. In 2001, he played an FBI agent on a three-episode arc of Crossing Jordan, re-uniting him with Law & Order co-star Jill Hennessy. In 2005, Noth returned to the role of Mike Logan on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, joining the show in its fifth season following a guest appearance on a fourth-season episode.[2] On this spin-off of the original Law & Order, Noth's detective team alternates episodes with Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe's characters. On June 26, 2008, it was announced that Noth was leaving the series, and actor Jeff Goldblum was joining the cast.[3] It is believed he will guest-star in a 9th season episode of the series.
Noth in 2009 became the spokesperson for Biotherm Homme. He is the face of the new Force Supreme line of anti-aging products.
Personal life
Noth is part owner of The Cutting Room, an intimate music venue in New York City that opened in late 1999. His co-owner is Steve Walter.[5][6][7][8] Noth met his fiancée Tara Lynn Wilson while she was working at The Cutting Room; the two had a boy (Orion Christopher Noth) in January 2008.[9]He also owned the semi-private club The Plumm with actor Jesse Bradford, Noel Ashman, and others.
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