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James Cromwell

, Actor
James Cromwell
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  • Born: 27 January 1940
  • Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
  • Best Known As: Farmer Hoggett in the movie Babe

James Cromwell played kindly Farmer Hoggett in the 1995 movie Babe, winning an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor for the role. Cromwell was already a veteran character actor who had begun working in television in the early 1970s. He played Archie Bunker's friend Stretch Cunningham on the sitcom All In the Family and made dozens of guest appearances in shows like M*A*S*H (with Alan Alda) and Three's Company (with Suzanne Somers). He made his feature film debut in the 1976 spoof Murder by Death and worked steadily in character roles until his 1995 breakthrough in Babe. The tall, avuncular Cromwell followed up with a memorable role as a dirty police captain in director Curtis Hanson's L. A. Confidential (1997, starring Russell Crowe). He also appeared in The General's Daughter (1999, starring John Travolta) and played prison wardens in The Green Mile (1999, starring Tom Hanks) and The Longest Yard (2005, with Adam Sandler). He has continued to work steadily on TV, most notably with recurring roles in the medical drama E.R. and the HBO series Six Feet Under.

Cromwell has appeared several times on shows in television's Star Trek franchise, and he co-starred in the 1996 theatrical feature Star Trek: First Contact... Cromwell played President Lyndon Johnson in the 2002 TV movie RFK, Prince Philip in the 2006 film The Queen (with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II), and William Randolph Hearst in the 1999 TV movie RKO 281 (with Liev Schreiber as Orson Welles).

 
 
Actor:

James Cromwell

  • Born: Jan 27, 1940 in Los Angeles, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Babe, L.A. Confidential, The People Vs. Larry Flynt
  • First Major Screen Credit: All in the Family: Archie Is Missing (1974)

Biography

Long-time character actor James Cromwell has spent much of his career on stage and television, only occasionally appearing in feature films until the early '90s, when his film work began to flourish. The tall, spare actor first became known to an international audience with his role as the taciturn but kindly Farmer Hoggett, the owner of a piglet that wants to be a sheepdog, in the smash hit Babe (1995). His work in the film earned Cromwell an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as well as numerous opportunities for steady work in Hollywood.

The son of noted director John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson, he originally aspired to become a mechanical engineer, attending both Vermont's Middlebury College and the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). But after a summer spent on a movie set with his father, the acting bug bit, and Cromwell decided to become an actor. He started out in regional theater, acting and directing in a variety productions for ten years, and he was a regular performer at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Cromwell made his television debut in the recurring role of "Stretch" Cunningham on All in the Family in 1974, and he subsequently spent the rest of the decade and much of the 1980s on television, as a regular on such shows as Hot L Baltimore and The Last Precinct. Cromwell also appeared in such miniseries as NBC's Once an Eagle and in such made-for-television movies as A Christmas Without Snow (1980).

Cromwell made his feature film debut in the comedy Murder By Death (1976). His film work was largely undistinguished until Babe; following the film's success, he began appearing in more substantial roles in a number of popular films, including The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996), in which he played Charles Keating; Star Trek: First Contact (1996), which cast him as the reluctant scientist responsible for Earth's first contact with alien life forms; and L.A. Confidential (1997), in which he gave a marvelously loathsome performance as a crooked police captain. Adept at playing nice guys and bottom-dwelling scum alike, Cromwell next earned strong notices for his portrayal of a penitentiary warden in The Green Mile (1999). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

 
Wikipedia: James Cromwell
For Doris Duke's first husband, see James H.R. Cromwell.
James Cromwell
Image:James Cromwell.jpg
James Cromwell at the LA premiere of Paramount's The Sum of All Fears
Birth name James Oliver Cromwell
Born January 27 1940 (1940--) (age 67)
Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.A.
Other name(s) Jamie Cromwell
Occupation actor
Years active 1975–present
Spouse(s) Anne Ulvestad (1976—1986)
Julie Cobb (1986—2006)
Parents John Cromwell
Kay Johnson

James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940), sometimes credited as Jamie Cromwell, is an Oscar, Emmy and SAG award-nominated American film and television actor.

Early life

Cromwell was born in Los Angeles, California and was reared in Manhattan, New York to actor, director and producer John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson.[1] His father was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.[2] He was educated at The Hill School, Middlebury College and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He studied engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He went into the theater (like both his parents) doing everything from Shakespeare to experimental plays.

Career

Early career

He began work in television in the mid-1970s (notably Stretch Cunningham on All in the Family and a lead character in Hot L Baltimore), made his film debut in 1976 in Neil Simon's classic detective spoof Murder by Death, and goes back to the stage periodically. In his recurring role as Mr. Skolnick, father of Lewis Skolnick, he is one of only four actors to appear in all four Revenge of the Nerds comedy films from 1984 through 1994 opposite Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong and Larry B. Scott. He also played a similar role in the film Explorers, where he was a German scientist who was the father of River Phoenix's character, also very much into science as was Lewis Skolnick. In 1983 film The Man With Two Brains, he had a brief role as a German real-estate agent whom Steve Martin bumps in the head with a cat carrier.

1990s

His notable film roles in the 1990s include his Academy Award nominated performance as Farmer Arthur Hoggett in Babe (1995) and Captain Dudley Liam Smith in L.A. Confidential (1997). This was a breakout role for the actor, which made him bankable in Hollywood. He also played Dr. Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and the Star Trek: Enterprise pilot "Broken Bow" (the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" later reused some of the First Contact footage).[3] He has appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, though not as Cochrane (his appearances on these shows predated his role in First Contact). These episodes were "The Hunted", "Birthright, Part I and II" and "Starship Down". He completed the decade in his supporting role as the general in The General's Daughter (1999) alongside John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe.

2000s

He co-starred in the last two seasons of the HBO drama series Six Feet Under, where he portrayed George Sibley, Ruth Fisher's geologist husband and was nominated for SAG awards for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2005 and 2006. He then starred alongside Helen Mirren who plays HM Queen Elizabeth II in the Oscar-winning The Queen where he portrays Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He guest starred in the sixth season of 24 where he protrayed Phillip Bauer, father to main character Jack played by Kiefer Sutherland. He recently played the major role of James Tyrone in the Druid Theatre Company's production of Eugene O'Neill's dramatic play Long Day's Journey Into Night, which is playing in October 2007 in the Gaiety in Dublin as part of the theatre festival to rave reviews.[4] Other roles where he had supporting or guest star roles include Bishop Lionel Stewart in the seventh season of ER (2001), U.S. President Robert "Bob" Fowler in The Sum of All Fears with Ben Affleck, former President D. Wire Newman in The West Wing episode The Stormy Present, Dr. Alfred Lanning, creator of modern robots and inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics in I, Robot with Will Smith and as the warden in the remake of The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock.

Personal life

Height

Cromwell is known for his unusually tall stature; he stands at 6 ft 7 in (approx. 201 cm). His height, however, has not prevented him from becoming a prolific character actor, featuring in a wide variety of major or supporting roles.

Controversies

He has long been an advocate of progressive and liberal causes. In the late 1960s he was a member of "The Committee to Defend The Panthers", a group organized to defend 13 members of the Black Panther Party who had been imprisoned in New York and were eventually released. In a 2004 interview with CNN.com, Cromwell praised the Panthers.[5] Cromwell became a vegetarian in 1974 after seeing a stockyard in Texas and experiencing the "smell, terror and anxiety." He became an ethical vegan after playing the character of Farmer Hoggett while filming the movie Babe in 1995. Cromwell frequently speaks out on issues regarding animal cruelty for PETA, namely the treatment of pigs.

Awards nominated

Oscar

Emmys

SAG

Filmography

Films

Television

References

  1. ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/cromwell.htm
  2. ^ http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Co-Du/Cromwell-John.html
  3. ^ http://www.trektoday.com/news/270405_02.shtml
  4. ^ http://www.gaietytheatre.ie/shows/LongDaysJourneyIntoNight.htm
  5. ^ Black Panther, drunk priest, kind farmer. CNN.com (18 June 2004). Retrieved on 2007-03-23.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Revenge of the Nerds Series

Films: Revenge of the Nerds (1984) | Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987) | Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation (1992) | Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (1994) Cast: Robert Carradine | Curtis Armstrong | Larry B. Scott | James Cromwell

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Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the James Cromwell biography from Who2.  Read more
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