Mini Biography
David Strathairn was born on January 26, 1949 in San Francisco, California. His father was a physician and he has two siblings, a brother Tom and a sister named Anne. He attended Williams College, where he demonstrated great interest in the theater, and first befriended John Sayles, with whom he would later frequently collaborate. Strathairn graduated college and traveled to Florida to visit with his grandfather, but the grandfather passed away while Strathairn was en route. Strathairn, finding himself freshly-arrived and without friends in Florida, decided instead to join the Ringling Brothers Clown College and subsequently worked as a clown for six months in a traveling circus.
Relocating to New York State, he spent several years hitchhiking across America to work in local theaters during the summers. During one of these summers Strathairn reunited with Sayles, and this eventually resulted in his role in the highly regarded Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979), Sayle's directorial debut. Thereafter Strathairn developed an extensive resume of supporting roles, which became increasingly substantial as his stature in the industry grew; notable films include Lovesick (1983), Silkwood (1983), L.A. Confidential (1997), and A Map of the World (1999). Sayles frequently casts Strathairn, whose performances can be seen in Sayles' The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), City of Hope (1991), and Passion Fish (1992). Perhaps most notable of his collaborations with Sayles is his superb performance co-starring with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in Limbo (1999).
After a string of successful supporting roles in the early 2000s, Strathairn found himself thrust into the role of leading man with his performance as Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) Taking on the role of the iconic newsman in the black-and-white drama, Strathairn garnered numerous award mentions including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Following the success of that film, Strathairn traveled easily between low-budget independent films - The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), The Sensation of Sight (2006), My Blueberry Nights (2007), and Howl (2010) among them - and big-budget Hollywood productions, including We Are Marshall (2006), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), both The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Bourne Legacy (2012), and Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln (2012), in which he plays Secretary of State William Seward.
Strathairn has also worked extensively in television, and first became familiar to television viewers as the title character's boss in the series "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" (1987). In addition to narration work for many PBS shows, Strathairn has appeared in the TV series "Big Apple" (2001), "The Sopranos" (1999), "Monk" (2002), and heads the cast of the science-fiction series "Alphas" (2011). His work in television films has brought him an Emmy Award for Temple Grandin (2010) (TV) and an Emmy nominations for Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012) (TV).
Strathairn married Logan Freeman in 1980, and the couple have two children.
Filmography
2014 Godzilla (pre-production)
The First (pre-production)
D.W. Griffith (rumored)
2011-2012 Alphas (TV series)
Dr. Lee Rosen
2012 Lincoln
William Seward
2012 The Bourne Legacy
Noah Vosen
2012 No God, No Master
William Flynn
2012 Hemingway & Gellhorn (TV movie)
John Dos Passos
2012 Maladies
Delmar
2010 The Whistleblower
Peter Ward
2010 The Tempest
King Alonso
2010 House M.D. (TV series)
Nash
2010 Temple Grandin (TV movie)
Dr. Carlock
2010 Howl
Ralph McIntosh
2010 Matadors (TV movie)
Roman Lodari
2009 The Uninvited
Steven
2009 The American Experience (TV series documentary)
J. Robert Oppenheimer
2009 Cold Souls
Dr. Flintstein
2009 Kisses Over Babylon (short)
Minor
2008 Monk (TV series)
Patrick Kloster
2008 The Spiderwick Chronicles
Arthur Spiderwick
2007 Matters of Life and Death (short)
Mr. Jennings
2007 The Bourne Ultimatum
Noah Vosen
2007 My Blueberry Nights
Arnie
2007 Racing Daylight
Henry/Harry
2007 Fracture
DA Joe Lobruto
2007 The Supreme Court (TV series)
Narrator
2006 We Are Marshall
President Dedmon
2006 The Sensation of Sight
Finn
2006 Heavens Fall
Judge James Horton
2006 The Shovel (short)
Paul Mullin
2006 Take 3 (TV movie)
Henry R. Hocknell Jr.
2006 Steel Toes
Danny Dunkelman
2005 The Notorious Bettie Page
Estes Kefauver
1993-2005 American Masters (TV series documentary)
Narrator
2005 Good Night, and Good Luck.
Edward R. Murrow
2005 Missing in America
Henry R. Hocknell Jr.
2004 The Sopranos (TV series)
Robert Wegler
2004/I Twisted
Dr. Melvin Frank
2004 Paradise (TV movie)
Reverend Bobby Paradise
2003/I The Root
2002 Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (TV movie)
Jack Hoschouer
2002 Lathe of Heaven (TV movie)
Mannie
2002 Blue Car
Auster
2002 Speakeasy
Bruce Hickman
2001 Ball in the House
Dr. Charlie
2001 Big Apple (TV series)
FBI Agent Will Preecher
2001 The Victim (short)
Mark Zingerline
2000 A Good Baby
Truman Lester
2000 The Miracle Worker (TV movie)
Captain Keller
2000 Harrison's Flowers
Harrison Lloyd
2000 Freedom Song (TV movie)
Peter Crowley
1999 A Map of the World
Howard Goodwin
1999 Limbo
'Jumpin' Joe Gastineau
1999 A Midsummer Night's Dream
Theseus
1998 Meschugge
Charles Kaminski
1998 Simon Birch
Rev. Russell
1998 With Friends Like These...
Armand Minetti
1998 Evidence of Blood (TV movie)
Jackson Kinley
1998 The Climb
Earl Himes
1997 Bad Manners
Wes
1997 L.A. Confidential
Pierce Morehouse Patchett
1997 In the Gloaming (TV movie)
Martin
1997 Song of Hiawatha
Marcel
1996 Mother Night
Lieutenant Bernard B. O'Hare
1996 Beyond the Call (TV movie)
Russell Cates
1995 Home for the Holidays
Russell Terziak
1995 Dolores Claiborne
Joe St. George
1995 Losing Isaiah
Charles Lewin
1994 The Making of 'The River Wild' (TV movie)
Tom Hartman
1994 The River Wild
Tom Hartman
1993 A Dangerous Woman
Getso
1993 The American Clock (TV movie)
Young Arthur Huntington
1993 The Firm
Ray McDeere
1993 Lost in Yonkers
Johnny
1993 Stand Off
John McCowan
1992 Passion Fish
Rennie
1992 Sneakers
Irwin 'Whistler' Emery
1992 Bob Roberts
Mack Laflin
1992 A League of Their Own
Ira Lowenstein
1992 Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even
Keith
1992 O Pioneers! (TV movie)
Carl Linstrum
1991 Lethal Innocence (TV movie)
Dag
1991 City of Hope
Asteroid
1991 Without Warning: The James Brady Story (TV movie)
Doctor Art Kobrine
1988-1991 The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (TV series)
Moss Goodman
1991 Son of the Morning Star (TV movie)
Capt. William F. Benteen
1990 Judgment (TV movie)
Father Frank Aubert
1990 Memphis Belle
Col. Craig Harriman
1990 Heat Wave (TV movie)
Bill Thomas
1990 Wiseguy (TV series)
Sheriff Matthew Stemkowski
1989 The Feud
The Stranger
1989 Day One (TV movie)
J. Robert Oppenheimer
1988 The Equalizer (TV series)
Phillip Borchek
1988 Eight Men Out
Eddie Cicotte
1988 Call Me
Sam
1988 Stars and Bars
Charlie
1988 Dominick and Eugene
Martin Chernak
1987 Another World (TV series)
Dave Wilcox
1987 Matewan
Sid Hatfield
1987 Spenser: For Hire (TV series)
Doggie Thorpe
1987 Broken Vows (TV movie)
Stuart Chase
1986 At Close Range
Tony Pine
1985 Miami Vice (TV series)
Marty Lang
1985 When Nature Calls
Weejun
1984 The Brother from Another Planet
Man In Black
1984 Iceman
Dr. Singe
1983 Silkwood
Wesley
1983 Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
Jerry
1983 Lovesick
Marvin Zuckerman
1979 Return of the Secaucus Seven
Ron Desjardins
