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William H. Macy

 
AnswerNote: William H. Macy
 
Macy, William H.
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Emmy Award-winner William H. Macy is an actor, director and writer. He attended Bethany College in West Virginia in the veterinary medicine program but he soon switched to theater. He transferred to Vermont's Goddard College, where he studied under playwright David Mamet. Upon graduation, Macy joined Mamet's Chicago theater troupe, and, with him, founded the St. Nicholas Theatre Company. In 1975, the troupe staged Mamet's American Buffalo with Macy playing "Bobby," the youth who serves as a kind of witless apprentice to two hapless thieves. He continued to perform with the company until 1978 when he moved to New York to further his career. There Macy acted on and off-Broadway and began appearing on television. Macy found success in off-Broadway shows, including a Mamet-directed Twelfth Night (1980-81) and A. R. Gurney's The Dining Room (1982), and he and Mamet also co-founded the Atlantic Theatre Company, where Macy has both acted and directed. By the time the actor finally reached Broadway portraying "Howie Newsome" in the 1988 all-star revival of Our Town, Mamet had already used him in small roles for his House of Games (1987) and Things Change (1988), and in a larger role as a doomed police detective in Homicide (1991). After starring onstage as a college professor accused of sexual harassment by a female student in Mamet's Oleanna (1992), he reprised the role in Mamet's 1994 film version.

In 1994, after having guest-starred in a number of TV series, Macy won the part of "Dr. David Morgenstern," the hospital chief of staff on E.R., a part he would hold for four years. In the meantime, he won several supporting screen roles, but his big screen role breakthrough only came in 1996 playing duplicitous car salesman "Jerry Lundegaard" in Joel and Ethan Coen's Fargo, which won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Success continued the following year when he landed roles in three feature films, Wag the Dog, Air Force One and Boogie Nights. He finished the decade with a wide range of supporting roles in such diverse films as A Civil Action, Pleasantville, Happy, Texas, Mystery Men and Magnolia.

Macy co-wrote one of his best parts in 1999, that of a movie critic who turns out to be a philandering, larcenous murderer in TNT's A Slight Case of Murder. His fourth TV movie scripted with Steven Schachter cast him opposite wife Felicity Huffman, and he later took a recurring role as a ratings expert on her ABC series Sports Night. He was back with Mamet for State and Main (2000), playing a libidinous Hollywood director on location in Vermont. He also acted that year in a London revival of American Buffalo, this time taking the larger, and older role of "Teach." Recent films that have brought Macy continued acclaim include Welcome to Collinwood, The Cooler, Stealing Sinatra, Seabiscuit, Thank You for Smoking, Bobby and Wild Hogs. In 2003, he won two Emmy Awards — for lead actor and co-writer of Door to Door. He also was nominated for three Golden Globe awards, in 2003 for Door to Door, in 2004 for Seabiscuit and in 2005 for The Wool Cap.

Born William Hall Macy on March 13, 1950, in Miami, FL., Macy married Felicity Huffman in 1997. The couple has two daughters.

Last updated: March 16, 2009.

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Who2 Biography: William H. Macy, Actor
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  • Born: 13 March 1950
  • Birthplace: Miami, Florida
  • Best Known As: The shifty, inept car salesman in the movie Fargo

The reliable actor and sometimes writer-producer William H. Macy worked steadily on stage and screen for more than 15 years before breaking out in the Coen brothers' 1996 movie Fargo (with Frances McDormand). Macy got his acting start at Vermont's Goddard College as a student of playwright David Mamet's. In the early 1970s he joined Mamet and others in founding the St. Nicholas Theater Company in Chicago, and Macy was one of the original actors in Mamet's American Buffalo. During the 1980s Macy was based in New York, where he helped co-found the Atlantic Theater Company and worked on stage and in commercials and television productions. By the late 1980s his film career was taking off and he quickly became known as a reliable supporting player, appearing in films by directors such as Woody Allen (1987's Radio Days and 1992's Shadows and Fog) and Macy's old friend David Mamet (1987's House of Games and 1991's Homicide). Macy also showed up in TV movies and had a recurring role in TV's E.R. Since winning an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor for his performance in Fargo, he's found steady work in quality projects, from big-budget movies and independent films to TV productions such as the Bill Porter story, Door to Door. (Macy won Emmys for acting and writing for that movie.) His feature films include Boogie Nights (1997, with Mark Wahlberg), Mystery Men (1999, with Ben Stiller), The Cooler (2003, with Alec Baldwin), and Sahara (2005).

Macy married actress Felicity Huffman, later the star of TV's Desperate Housewives, in 1997.

 
Actor: William H. Macy
Top
  • Born: Mar 13, 1950 in Miami, Florida
  • Occupation: Actor, Writer, Director
  • Active: '90s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Boogie Nights, Fargo, Magnolia
  • First Major Screen Credit: Lip Service (1988)

Biography

William H. Macy came to acting by way of Bethany and Goddard Colleges. At the latter school, Macy studied under playwright David Mamet, with whom he would be frequently associated throughout his career. After college, Macy was a member of Mamet's theater troupe, the St. Nicholas Company. The actor performed in a number of productions, many of them written by Mamet, until 1978 when he left the company and headed to New York. Some of his earliest work there included commercial voice-overs, such as the now infamous "Secret: Strong enough for a man, but PH balanced for a woman."

Macy also continued his theater work, forming the Atlantic Theatre Company with Mamet in 1985 and acting in Broadway and off-Broadway shows. In addition, he worked in television and began doing feature films, debuting in '80s Foolin' Around. He continued to act in supporting roles throughout the decade, appearing in such films as Mamet's directorial debut, House of Games (1987) and Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987). In 1991, he won a more substantial role, in Mamet's Homicide, and subsequently began to find work in more well-known films, including Benny and Joon and The Client.

Macy finally got a shot at a leading role with his turn in Mamet's Oleanna. He won positive notices and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his portrayal of a professor accused of sexual harassment. More acclaim followed with his starring role as a hapless car salesman in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's Fargo (1996), for which he garnered a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. The next year, Macy's star rose a little higher, thanks to his work in three high-profile films, Wag the Dog, Air Force One, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. He was similarly lauded for his versatility through work in such films as Psycho and Pleasantville, and in 1999 he continued his winning streak as an unconventional superhero in Mystery Men, a gay sheriff in Happy, Texas, and a member of the ensemble cast of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia.

Despite the fact that Macy drew praise for his turn as a reluctant hit man in the 2000 drama Panic, the film went largely unseen, and his next substantial role found him running from dinosaurs in Jurassic Park III. As always Macy continued to intercut his more commercial efforts with such decidedly non-mainstream fare as Focus and Stealing Sinatra. Surprisingly, it was just such work that netted Macy some of his most glowing reviews. Case in point was a memorable performance as a disabled traveling salesman in the 2003 drama Door to Door; a role that earned its convincing lead an Emmy. After sticking to the small screen with the Showtime miniseries Out of Order, Macy went wide with the theatrical hit Seabiscuit and the breathless Larry Cohen-scripted thriller Cellular. That same year, the actor would continue to nurture a succesful ongoing collaboration with famed writer/director David Mamet in the widely-praised but little-seen crime drama Spartan. Macy has also continued to do television work, appearing on such series as Spencer, Law & Order, and ER. For his role in the 2004 made for television drama The Wool Cap (which also found him teaming with writer Steven Schachter to adapt a story originally written by Jackie Gleason), Macy was nominated for multiple awards including a Best Actor at the Golden Globe and an Emmys.

In 2005, Macy returned to home turf with the Mamet-scripted thriller Edmond, directed by Stuart "Reanimator" Gordon. The picture reunited the actor and director, who originally collaborated in the early eighties on the stage version of the playwright's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. Adapted from Mamet's 1982 one-acter, Edmond dramatizes the descent of a seemingly normal man (Macy) from sanity to unbridled psychosis. While Edmond didn't exactly bomb critically or commercially after its July 14, 2006 premiere, it fell below the bar of previous Mamet efforts on two levels: first, the studio opened it to decidedly more limited release than Mamet's directorial projects over the previous several years (such as Spartan and Heist), thus ensuring that fewer would see it, and it also suffered from somewhat lackluster reviews. Surprisingly, those who did complain of the work attacked Mamet's script in lieu Gordon's direction. Variety's Scott Foundas observed, "The problem is that, too often, we don't fully understand what motivates Edmond, and many of Mamet's efforts toward explanation -- that life is one big shell game, that we're all latent racists at heart -- feel like specious armchair philosophizing."

Macy produced that same year's Transamerica, and graced the cast of Jason Reitman's hearty satire Thank You For Smoking, with a funny turn as senator and anti-tobacco promulgator Ortolan Finistirre. At around the same time, he also voiced a crooked, baseball bat-swiping security guard in that year's family friendly animated feature Everyone's Hero. Meanwhile, audiences geared up for Macy's contribution to the ensemble of actor-cum-director Emilio Estevez's semi-fictional, Altmanesque docudrama Bobby, which recounts the events that preceded RFK's assassination by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel. As the hotel manager, Macy joins a line-up of formidable heavyweights: Helen Hunt, Elijah Wood, Harry Belafonte, Martin Sheen, Estevez himself, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, and many others. The picture had journalists and moviegoers across America whispering 'Oscar contender' long before its initial release on November 22, 2006. Shortly after production wrapped, Macy made headlines in mid-late 2006 for a comment that involved his allegedly berating Bobby co-star Lindsay Lohan's on-set behavior, in reference to her constant tardiness.

Meanwhile, the trades reported the everpresent Macy's involvement in two 2007 features: the animated Bee Movie (with a lead voice by Jerry Seinfeld), about a honeybee who decides to sue mankind for its use of honey, and Wild Hogs, a farce with Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and John Travolta as a trio of Hell's Angels.

In 1997, William H. Macy married Felicity Huffman, with whom he appeared in Magnolia. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
 
Filmography: William H. Macy
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Spartan

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Seabiscuit

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Welcome to Collinwood

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Door to Door

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It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie

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Jurassic Park III

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Focus

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Panic

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Wikipedia: William H. Macy
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William H. Macy

Macy during the Writer's Guild strike in Los Angeles, November 2007
Born William Hall Macy, Jr.
March 13, 1950 (1950-03-13) (age 59)
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1971–present
Spouse(s) Felicity Huffman (1997-present)

William Hall Macy, Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though he has appeared in summer action films as well.[1] Macy has described his screen persona as "sort of a Middle American, WASPy, Lutheran kind of guy... Everyman".[2]

Contents

Early life

Macy was born in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Georgia and Maryland. His father, William Hall Macy, Sr., was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal for flying a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in World War II; he later ran a construction company in Atlanta and worked for Dun & Bradstreet before taking over a Cumberland, Maryland-based insurance agency when Macy was nine years old. His mother, Lois, was a war widow who met Macy's father after her first husband died in 1943; Macy has described her as a "Southern belle".[3][4] Macy has a half-brother, Fred Merrill, from his mother's first marriage.

Macy describes himself as a "jokester", though he was relatively shy until high school. After his brother taught him to play guitar, he sang a song in a talent show, much to the crowd's approval. He later ran for class president, though he had a poor academic record. After graduating in 1968[1] from Allegany High School in Cumberland, Maryland, he participated in the anti-war hippie movement, and took copious amounts of drugs, including marijuana and LSD. Macy studied veterinary medicine[1] at Bethany College of West Virginia. By his own admission, a "wretched student," he transferred to Goddard College and became involved in theatre where he performed in ensemble productions of Threepenny Opera, Midsummernight's Dream and a wide variety of contemporary and improvisational pieces. That is where he first met David Mamet. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, after graduating in 1971 and got a job as a bartender to pay the rent. Within a year he and David Mamet, among others, founded the successful St. Nicholas Theater Company, where Macy originated roles in a number of Mamet's plays, such as American Buffalo and The Water Engine.[5]

Career

After spending some time in Los Angeles, California, he moved to New York in 1980. While living there he had roles in over fifty off-Broadway and Broadway plays. One of his on-screen roles was as a turtle named Socrates in the direct-to-video film, The Boy Who Loved Trolls (1984), under the name W. H. Macy. He has appeared in films that Mamet wrote and/or directed, such as House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, Oleanna (playing a role he reprised after originating the role in the play of the same name), and more recently, Wag the Dog, State and Main, and Spartan.

Macy may be best known for his lead role in Fargo, in a role for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and helped boost his career and recognizability, though at the expense of nearly confining him to a narrow typecast of a worried man, down on his luck.[6] Subsequent roles gave Macy a break with Benny & Joon, Above Suspicion, Mr. Holland's Opus, Ghosts of Mississippi, Air Force One, Boogie Nights, Pleasantville, Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, Happy, Texas, Mystery Men, Magnolia, Jurassic Park III, Focus, Panic, Welcome to Collinwood, Seabiscuit, The Cooler, and Sahara.

Macy has also had a number of roles on television, the most recent being a guest appearance on The Unit as the President of the United States. In 2003, he won two Emmy Awards, one for starring in the lead role and one as co-writer of the made-for-TNT film Door to Door. Door to Door is a drama based on the true story of Bill Porter, a door-to-door salesman in Portland, Oregon, born with cerebral palsy. The film is composed of several stories, each taking up a whole period between commercials.

His work on ER and Sports Night has also been recognized with Emmy nominations. His character in ER, David Morgenstern, is responsible for a sage piece of advice that has been handed down throughout the series. In the pilot episode, when Juliana Margulies' character, nurse Carol Hathaway, is brought to the hospital with a drug overdose, Morgenstern tells Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards) that he needs to "set the tone" to get the unit through the difficulty of treating one of its own. "You set the tone" is repeated several times in the series, once jokingly by Doug Ross (George Clooney) to Greene and at two other key moments. When Greene, dying from a brain tumor, leaves the ER for the last time, he tells Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle), "You set the tone, Carter." It was a moment that represented the passing of the torch. And a few seasons later, in Carter's farewell episode, he passes a drunk and nauseous Dr. Morris (Scott Grimes), a notoriously bumbling character on the show, and tells him, "You set the tone, Morris." to which an ailing Morris replies, "What?" Carter, realizing that Morris is, to say the least, not cut out of the mold of Morgenstern and Greene, smiles and tells him, "Never mind." This was referenced again in the Feb 2009 episode when Carter returns to the E.R.

In a November 2003 interview with USA Today, Macy stated that he wants to star in a big-budget action movie "for the money, for the security of a franchise like that". He serves as director-in-residence at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, where he teaches a technique called Practical Aesthetics. A book describing the technique, A Practical Handbook for the Actor (ISBN 0-394-74412-8), is dedicated to Macy and Mamet.

In 2007 Macy starred in Wild Hogs, a film about middle-aged men reliving their youthful days by taking to the open road on their Harley-Davidson motorcycles from Cincinnati to the Pacific Coast. He recently completed filming on The Lonely Maiden, a comedy that co-stars Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken.

On June 23, 2008, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, will each receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the upcoming year.

On January 13, 2009, Macy replaced Jeremy Piven in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow on Broadway. Piven suddenly and unexpectedly dropped out of the play in December 2008 after he experienced health problems related to high mercury levels in his blood; Norbert Leo Butz covered the role from December 23, 2008, until Macy took over the part.[7]

Personal life

Macy and actress Felicity Huffman have been married since September 6, 1997. The couple have two daughters, Sofia Grace (born August 1, 2000) and Georgia Grace (born March 14, 2002). They live in Los Angeles, California, and have had a cabin in Vermont since the 1980s.

Macy and Huffman appeared at a rally for John Kerry in 2004.[8][9] Macy also plays the ukulele and is an avid woodturner, even appearing on the cover of the specialist magazine Fine Woodworking. In the April 12, 2009 airing of the NPR show "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!," Macy denied rumors that he is an avid boomerang aficionado.[10] These "rumors" appear to have originated as Wikipedia vandalism.[11] He is a national ambassador for the United Cerebral Palsy Association.[12]

Filmography

Year Film Role Other notes
1978 The Awakening Land Will Beagle
1980 Foolin' Around Bronski (as W.H. Macy)
Somewhere in Time Critic (as W.H. Macy)
1983 Without a Trace Reporter
1984 The Boy Who Loved Trolls Socrates the turtle
1985 The Last Dragon J.J.
1986 Kate & Allie Carl
1987 House of Games Sgt. Morgan
Radio Days Radio Actor
1988 The Murder of Mary Phagan Randy
Things Change Billy Drake
1992 The Water Engine Charles Lang
1993 Being Human Boris
Benny & Joon Randy Burch
Searching for Bobby Fischer Tunafish Father
1994 ER (TV) Dr. David Morgenstern 1994-1998, 2002 (Cameo role at Dr. Greene's funeral), 2009
Dead on Sight Steven Meeker
The Client Dr. Greenway
1995 Tall Tale Railroad Magnate Uncredited
Mr. Holland's Opus Vice Principal Gene Wolters
1996 Fargo Jerry Lundegaard Nominated: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Andersonville Col. Chandler
Down Periscope Commander Carl Knox (USS Orlando)
Ghosts of Mississippi Charlie Crisco
1997 Air Force One Major Caldwell
Boogie Nights Little Bill Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Wag the Dog CIA Agent Charles Young
1998 Pleasantville George Parker
Psycho Milton Arbogast
A Civil Action James Gordon
The Con Bobby Sommerdinger
1999 Happy, Texas Sheriff Chappy Dent
Mystery Men The Shoveller
A Slight Case Of Murder Terry Thorpe
Magnolia Quiz Kid Donnie Smith Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2000 State and Main Walt Price
Panic Alex
2001 Jurassic Park III Paul Kirby
Focus Lawrence 'Larry' Newman
2002 Door to Door Bill Porter Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie Glenn
Welcome to Collinwood Riley
2003 The Cooler Bernie Lootz
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls Narrator Documentary
Seabiscuit Tick Tock McGlaughlin Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
2004 Reversible Errors Arthur Raven
Cellular Mooney
In Enemy Hands Chief of Boat Nathan Travers
Spartan Stoddard
2005 The Wool Cap Charlie Gigot Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
Sahara Admiral James Sandecker
Edmond Edmond Burke
Thank You for Smoking Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre
2006 Doogal Brian the snail
Nightmares and Dreamscapes: “Umney's Last Case Sam Landry, Clyde Umney Nominated:Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Bobby Paul Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Curious George (TV) Narrator Season 1
Everyone's Hero Lefty Maginnis Voice
Choose Your Own Adventure DVD Series Rudyard North
Inland Empire Announcer
2007 Wild Hogs Dudley Frank
He Was a Quiet Man Gene Shelby
2008 The Deal Charlie Berns
Bart Got a Room Ernie Stein
The Tale of Despereaux Lester Voice
2009 The Maiden Heist George
Shorts Dr. Noseworthy
2010 Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride Dudley Frank

References

  1. ^ a b c Robert, Abele (July 2001). "Interview with William H. Macy". Maxim: 84. 
  2. ^ Grady, Pam. "Making a Spectacle of Himself: William H. Macy reveals how donning a pair of glasses changes everything in his new drama, Focus". Reel.com. http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=features/interviews/whmacy. 
  3. ^ William H. Macy Biography - Yahoo! Movies
  4. ^ "William H. Macy Biography (1950-)". FilmReference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/63/William-H-Macy.html. 
  5. ^ Harris, Andrew B. (1994). Broadway Theatre. Routledge. p. 98. ISBN 041510520X. http://books.google.com/books?id=SqM46zulAGwC&pg=PT123&lpg=PT123&dq=%22st+nicholas+theater%22&source=web&ots=TykO_1DuyW&sig=TMoX5Ew1R4x8-fHiqXLaMdOmShg&hl=en. Retrieved on 2008-04-16. "By 1975, David Mamet and the St Nicholas Theater had settled in Chicago." 
  6. ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2072068
  7. ^ Silverman, Stephen M. (December 18, 2008). "Jeremy Piven Abruptly Abandons Broadway Play". People Magazine. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20247585,00.html. 
  8. ^ "All Star Concert Benefit for Presidential Candidate John Kerry". DailyCeleb.com. July 6, 2004. http://www.dailyceleb.com/production/index.php?view=event&eid=2272&cap=william+h.+macy. 
  9. ^ "William H Macy's Federal Campaign Contribution Report". Newsmeat. http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/William_H_Macy.php. 
  10. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102992895
  11. ^ Comment 9 from Peter Sagal blog: http://petersagal.com/wordpress/?p=221
  12. ^ United Cerebral Palsy (January 14, 2003). UCP Announces William H. Macy as UCP Ambassador. Press release. http://www.ucp.org/ucp_generaldoc.cfm/1/3/12211/12211-12211/4258. 

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Ben Kingsley
for Anne Frank: The Whole Story
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2003
for Door to Door
Succeeded by
Al Pacino
for Angels in America

 
 

 

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