Best Known As: The intense actor who wrote and starred in Pollock
Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris is often cast in the movies as a thoughtful tough guy with a steely stare. A veteran character actor and sometime lead, his best-known early movies include The Right Stuff (1983, as astronaut John Glenn), Places in the Heart (1984, starring Sally Field) and The Abyss (1989, directed by James Cameron). A dramatic actor known for onscreen intensity, he has received three nominations as a supporting actor, for Apollo 13 (1995, as flight director Gene Kranz), The Truman Show (1998, starring Jim Carrey) and The Hours (2002, with Meryl Streep). Harris also earned an Oscar nomination for best actor for his performance as painter Jackson Pollock in the 2000 film Pollock, which also marked Harris's debut as a director. His other films include Glengarry Glen Ross (1992, with Jack Lemmon), Absolute Power (1997, starring Clint Eastwood), Enemy at the Gates (2001, with Jude Law) and A History of Violence (2005, starring Viggo Mortensen). Harris is married to actress Amy Madigan, with whom he has worked many times, including in the films Places in the Heart, Alamo Bay (1985), the TV movie Riders of the Purple Sage (1996) and Pollock.
Career Highlights: The Right Stuff, Places in the Heart, The Truman Show
First Major Screen Credit: Borderline (1980)
Biography
Bearing sharp, blue-eyed features and the outward demeanor of an everyday Joe, Ed Harris possesses a quiet, charismatic strength and intensity capable of electrifying the screen. During the course of his lengthy career, he has proven his talent repeatedly in roles both big and small, portraying characters both villainous and sympathetic.
Born Edward Allen Harris in Tenafly, NJ, on November 28, 1950, Harris was an athlete in high school and went on to spend two years playing football at Columbia University. His interest in acting developed after he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he studied acting and gained experience in summer stock. Harris next attended the California Institute of the Arts, graduating with a Fine Arts degree. He went on to find steady work in the West Coast theatrical world before moving to New York. In 1983, he debuted off-Broadway in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love in a part especially written for him. His performance won him an Obie for Best Actor. Three years later, he made his Broadway debut in George Firth's Precious Sons and was nominated for a Tony. During the course of his career, Harris has gone on to garner numerous stage awards from associations on both coasts.
Harris made his screen debut in 1977's made-for-television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes. The following year, he made his feature-film debut with a small role in Coma (1978), but his career didn't take off until director George Romero starred Harris in Knightriders (1981). The director also cast him in his next film, Creepshow (1982). Harris' big break as a movie star came in 1983 when he was cast as straight-arrow astronaut John Glenn in the film version of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Twelve years later, Harris would again enter the world of NASA, this time playing unsung hero Gene Krantz (and earning an Oscar nomination) in Ron Howard's Apollo 13.
The same year he starred in The Right Stuff, Harris further exhibited his range in his role as a psychopathic mercenary in Under Fire. The following year, he appeared in three major features, including the highly touted Places in the Heart. In addition to earning him positive notices, the film introduced him to his future wife, Amy Madigan, who also co-starred with him in Alamo Bay (1985). In 1989, Harris played one of his best-known roles in The Abyss (1989), bringing great humanity to the heroic protagonist, a rig foreman working on a submarine. He did further notable work in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, and turned in a suitably creepy performance as Christof, the manipulative creator of Truman Burbank's world in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998). Harris earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work. The following year, he could be seen in The Third Miracle, starring as a Catholic priest who finds his faith sorely tested.
The new millennium found Harris' labor of love, the artist biopic Pollock, seeing the light of day after nearly a decade of development. Spending years painting and researching the modernist painter, Harris carefully and lovingly oversaw all aspects of the film, including directing, producing, and starring in the title role. The project served as a turning point in Harris' remarkable career, showing audiences and critics alike that there was more to the man of tranquil intensity than many may have anticipated; Harris was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his work. 2001 saw Harris as a German sniper with his targets set on Jude Law in the wartime suspense-drama Enemy at the Gates, and later as a bumbling Army captain in the irreverent Joaquin Phoenix vehicle Buffalo Soldiers. With his portrayal of a well known author succumbing to the ravages of AIDS in 2002's The Hours, Harris would recieve his fourth Oscar nominattion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Harris was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, the son of Margaret, a travel agent, and
Robert L. Harris, who sang with the Fred Waringchorus and
worked at the bookstore of the Art Institute of Chicago.[1] He has an older brother, Robert, and a younger brother, Spencer. Harris was
raised in a middle classPresbyterian
family.[2] He graduated from Tenafly High School in 1969, where he played on the football team, serving as the team's captain in
his senior year.[3][4] He was a star athlete in high school and competed in athletics at
Columbia University in 1969. Two years later his family moved to Oklahoma and he followed after having discovered his interest in acting in various theater plays. He enrolled
at the University of Oklahoma to study drama. After several successful roles in
the local theater, he moved to Los Angeles, California, and enrolled at the
California Institute of the Arts.
Harris has been married to actress Amy Madigan since 1983. They have a daughter named
Lily.
Harris has shown interest in directing. He made his debut in 2000 with Pollock,
as well as directing various plays. Harris has also starred in television adaptations of Riders of the Purple Sage (1996) and Empire
Falls (2005).
Harris also has an active stage acting career. Most notibly, he starred in the production of Neil LaBute's one-man play Wrecks at the Public Theater in New York
City.Wrecks premiered at the Everyman Theater in Cork, Ireland and then in the US at the Public Theater in New York.
Harris has been nominated for several major awards for this role.
Nominated: Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Jacknife (1990)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Apollo 13 (1996)
Won: Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, The Truman Show (1999)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, The Hours (2003)
Nominated: Best Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, Empire
Falls (2006)
Other Awards
2006 - At the San Francisco International Film Festival,
Harris received the Peter J. Owens Award,[5] which honors
an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity. A Flash of Green[6] was screened at the festival in his honor.
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