Routinely cast in young, yuppie roles, James Spader made his breakthrough performance in the indie film sex, lies and videotape in 1989. His portrayal of sexually troubled Graham won him the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award that year.
Spader was born February 7, 1960, in Boston, MA, the son of teachers. He went to Phillips Academy in Andover, but dropped out in 11th grade. He did all kinds of menial work before he landed his first feature film role, Endless Love, in 1981. After a few other forgettable parts, he stood out in Pretty in Pink (1986), then in Baby Boom and Wall Street (both in 1987). After sex, lies and videotape, Spader starred in Bad Influence and White Palace, opposite Susan Sarandon (both in 1990), True Colors (1991), Storyville (1992), Bob Roberts (1992), Wolf, Stargate and Dream Lover (all in 1994). In 1996, he made the controversial film Crash, also starring Holly Hunter. After a string of more and less successful movies over the next five years, Spader was highly praised for his role as E. Edward Grey in Secretary (2002).
He portrayed Daniel Ellsberg in a TV production of The Pentagon Papers (2003). David E. Kelley cast him as attorney Alan Shore in the nearly completely revamped cast of the popular TV series The Practice in 2003, a role that won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (2004). He took the role to the spin-off series, Boston Legal, winning another two Emmys and a Satellite Award.
Spader has two children from his ex-wife, Victoria.
Big screen star James Spader's turn as Alan Shore on television's The Practice and Boston Legal earned him consecutive Emmys in 2004 and 2005. Spader has been in the movies since the 1980s, a decade in which he became known for playing wicked preppies and yuppies in movies such as Pretty in Pink (1986), Less Than Zero (1987) and Wall Street (1987, with Michael Douglas). He won a Best Actor award at Cannes for his performance as a voyeur in Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies and videotape (1989), laying the foundation for a career as a sexy oddball. Never quite the leading man the critics expected, Spader has nonetheless had a successful career as a character actor and quirky protagonist. His movies include Bad Influence (1990, with Rob Lowe), Stargate (1994, with Kurt Russell), the film version of J.G. Ballard's Crash (1997, with Holly Hunter) and Secretary (2002, with Maggie Gyllenhaal). In 2003 he joined the cast of the television series The Practice, then continued to play the same character in the show's spin-off, Boston Legal (2004, with William Shatner).
Career Highlights: sex, lies, and videotape, Stargate, Less Than Zero
First Major Screen Credit: The New Kids (1985)
Biography
Often noted for his comment that he enjoys working in all of his films -- as long as he doesn't have to see any of them -- actor James Spader may have missed out on seeing a few good performances in some pretty memorable films.
Though descended from a long line of scholars and professors, Spader, in ironic contrast to his theatrical image as the definitive terminal yuppie, dropped out of Phillips Andover prep school to pursue a career as an actor. Forsaking his formal education, Spader instead decided to focus his attention on acting by studying at the Michael Chekhov school in New York, while also working a variety of odd jobs to support himself until he found success as a thespian. Making his debut in the 1978 comedy Team Mates, Spader began the slow process of gaining more frequent work with roles of increasing substance. Spader's first role came in Franco Zeffirelli's soft-core teen melodrama Endless Love (1981) (also notable as the debut of another young unknown actor named Tom Cruise. After a brief, mid-'80s stint in teen exploitation including Tuff Turf and The New Kids (both 1985), Spader gained mainstream recognition with his first fore in yuppiedom as Molly Ringwald's insincere suitor in Pretty in Pink (1986). Over the course of the next few years, Spader would refine his slimy persona to perfection in Wall Street (1987) and Less Than Zero (1987), and take an interesting turn as a possible serial killer in the Jack the Ripper thriller Jack's Back (1988), but it was the end of the decade that brought the defining role in Spader's career.
Though his role in independent filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's voyeurism-obsessed sex, lies and videotape did little to propel his persona into more likeable territories, it showed an actor with considerable talent who wasn't afraid to take risks, winning him the Best Actor award at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. Spader's dark portrayal of the ominously seductive videophile struck a chord in audiences and critics alike and turned him into a household name. The '90s found Spader expanding his yuppie image into more sympathetic territory with roles in White Palace and Bad Influence (both 1990), and he continued his likeable trend in the first of the mega-budget Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich collaborations, Stargate (1994), before reverting back as Jack Nicholson's manipulative lycanthropic rival in Mike Nichols' imaginative satire Wolf (1994). Controversy soon followed with David Cronenberg's widely panned study of fetishistic alienation Crash (1996), and Spader has worked steadily since, with roles in Supernova (2000) and Speaking of Sex (2001). With the release of Secretary (2002), Spader once again found himself in the favor of art house audiences for his portrayal of a demanding lawyer who hires a recently released mental patient for the eponimous duty. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Spader was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of teachers Jean and Todd Spader.[1] During his early education, he attended The Pike School (where his mother taught art) and enrolled in the Brooks School (where his father taught) for one year in North Andover, Massachusetts. Spader later transferred to Phillips Academy, but dropped out of school in the eleventh grade to pursue acting at the Michael Chekhov School in New York City.[2] Before becoming a full-time actor, Spader held a variety of jobs including being a yoga instructor, busboy, truck driver, stable boy, and railroad-car loader.[2]
From 2004 to 2008, Spader starred as the lead character Alan Shore in the TV series Boston Legal, in which he reprised his role from the TV series The Practice. Spader won the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy Award for his portrayal of Alan Shore in 2004 on The Practice and won it again in 2005 and 2007 for Boston Legal.[3] Spader has become one of the few actors to win consecutive Emmy Awards for playing the same character on two different series (another being co-star William Shatner as Denny Crane). Spader also won the Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical for Boston Legal in 2006.
His latest assignment is Race, a play written and directed by David Mamet, in which he will star alongside Richard Thomas and Kerry Washington. It opens on December 6, 2009[5] at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.[6]
Personal life
Spader met his first wife, Victoria Kheel, a decorator, while working in a yoga studio, after he moved to New York in the 1980s. They married in 1987 and have two sons, Elijah and Sebastian. Spader filed for divorce from Kheel in 2004 and currently has plans to marry his girlfriend (and his former co-star), Leslie Stefanson,[7] with whom he had a child in September 2008.
Spader is known to his friends as "Jimmy," loves to cook, has very poor eyesight, and likes to point out that even though his characters can be sleazy at times he is actually a nice, friendly guy in real life.[8]
