David Russell Strathairn (born January 26, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck. He has appeared in many of writer/director John Sayles's movies. He is also recognized for his role as CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen in the 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum, a role he reprised in 2012's The Bourne Legacy.

 

Early life

Strathairn was born in San Francisco, California, the second of three children of Mary Frances (née Frazier), a nurse, and Thomas Scott Strathairn, Jr., a physician.He is of Scottish descent through his paternal grandfather, Thomas Scott Strathairn, a native of Crieff, and of Native Hawaiian ancestry through his paternal grandmother, Josephine Lei Victoria Alana.Strathairn attended Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, and graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1970.

 

He studied clowning at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Floridaand briefly worked as a clown in a travelling circus.

 

Career

Strathairn was nominated for an Academy Award for his starring portrayal of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 biopic Good Night, and Good Luck. The movie explored Murrow's clash with Senator Joseph McCarthy over McCarthy's Communist "witch-hunt" in the 1950s. Strathairn also received Best Actor Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nominations for his performance.

 

Other notable film roles include his portrayals of the title character in Harrison's Flowers (2000); the wisecracking blind techie in Sneakers (1992); Joe St. George in Dolores Claiborne (1995); Pierce Patchett in L.A. Confidential (1997); Theseus, Duke of Athens, in the 1999 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and corrupt baseball player Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out (1988).

Strathairn is often regarded as a character actor, appearing in supporting roles in many independent and Hollywood films. In this capacity, he has co-starred in Twisted as Ashley Judd's psychiatrist; in The River Wild as Meryl Streep's husband; as Tom Cruise's jailbird brother in The Firm; and as Kim Basinger's pimp in L.A. Confidential.

 

He has worked frequently with his Williams College classmate and director John Sayles. He made his film debut in Return of the Secaucus 7, and worked in the films Passion Fish, Matewan, Limbo, and City of Hope, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award. Alongside Sayles, he played one of the Men in Black in the 1983 film The Brother from Another Planet. Several years later, Strathairn created the role of Edwin Booth with Maryann Plunkett in a workshop production of Booth! A House Divided, by W. Stuart McDowell, at The Players in New York City.

 

His television work includes a wide range of roles: "Moss", the bookselling nebbish on the critically acclaimed The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd; Captain Keller, the father of Helen Keller in the 2000 remake of The Miracle Worker; and a far-out (both figuratively and literally) televangelist in Paradise, the pilot episode for a TV series on Showtime that was not successful.Strathairn also had a recurring role on the hit television drama The Sopranos. Strathairn starred in the second season episode, "Out Where the Buses Don't Run", in Miami Vice.

 

Among Strathairn's recent films are: We Are...Marshall, a 2006 film about the rebirth of Marshall University's football program after the 1970 plane crash that killed most of the team's members; and Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti as a fictionalised version of himself, who enlists a company's services to deep freeze his soul, directed by Sophie Barthes.In 2006 he did a campaign ad for then congressional candidate (now, Senator) Kirsten Gillibrand. He reprised his role as Edward R. Murrow in a speech similar to the one from Good Night, and Good Luck, but was altered to reference Gillibrand's opponent John Sweeney. 

 

Strathairn plays the lead role opposite Andrew Walker in the 2007 independent film, Steel Toes, a film by David Gow (writer/co-director/producer)and Mark Adam (co-director/DOP/editor). The film is based on Gow's stage play Cherry Docs, in which Strathairn starred for its American premiere at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia.

 

He played a lead role opposite Matt Damon in the summer 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum and appeared in Paramount Pictures' children's film The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) as Arthur Spiderwick. Strathairn appeared in the American Experience PBS anthology series documentary, The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a biography of the physicist. He also plays William Flynn, an FBI agent dealing with anarchism in 1920s New York City, in No God, No Master.

 

In 2009, Strathairn performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. It was adapted from the historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

 

He stars as Dr. Lee Rosen on Syfy's series Alphas.

 

Theater

Strathairn is an accomplished stage actor and has performed over 30 theatrical roles. He performed several roles in stage plays by 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter. He played Stanley in two consecutive New York Classic Stage Company (CSC) productions of Pinter's 1957 play The Birthday Party, directed by Carey Perloff (since 1992 artistic director of the American Conservatory Theatre), in 1988 and 1989; the dual roles of prison Officer and Prisoner in Pinter's 1989 play Mountain Language (in a double bill with the second CSC Rep production of The Birthday Party); Edwin Booth in a workshop production also featuring Angela Goethals of Booth: A House Divided by W. Stuart McDowell at The Players in 1989; Kerner, in Tom Stoppard's Hapgood (1994); and Devlin, opposite Lindsay Duncan's Rebecca, in Pinter's 1996 two-hander Ashes to Ashes in the 1999 New York premiere by the Roundabout Theatre Company.

 

Political involvement

Strathairn narrated a biographical video that was aired to introduce Barack Obama before his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

 

Personal life

He married Logan Goodman, a nurse. They have two sons and live in the mid-Hudson Valley area near Poughkeepsie, New York. Their son, Tay, is an actor and a musician who plays jazz piano. He has been a part of such bands as Dawes and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros as a keyboardist. Tay appeared in John Sayles' films Eight Men Out (as Eddie Cicotte) and Lone Star (as Young Sam).

 

Their son Ebberly is an architecture graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was an ardent lacrosse player. He has worked for MASS Design Group. Strathairn has a brother, Tom, who for a time was a teacher at San Marcos Jr High, but now teaches at San Marcos High School, in San Diego county.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1980	Return of the Secaucus 7	Ron Desjardins
1983	Lovesick	Marvin Zuckerman
	Silkwood	Wesley
1984	Iceman	Dr. Singe
	The Brother from Another Planet	Man In Black
1985	When Nature Calls	Weejun
	Miami Vice	Marty Lang	TV series, one episode
1986	At Close Range	Tony Pine
1987	Broken Vows	Stuart Chase	TV film
	Matewan	Police Chief Sid Hatfield
1988	Stars and Bars	Charlie
	Call Me	Sam
	Eight Men Out	Eddie Cicotte
	Dominick and Eugene	Martin
1989	Day One	J. Robert Oppenheimer	TV film
	The Feud	The Stranger
	Wiseguy	Sheriff Matthew Stemkowsky	TV Series, 4 episodes
1990	Heat Wave	Bill Thomas	TV film
	Memphis Belle	Col. Craig Harriman
	Judgment	Father Frank Aubert	TV film
1991	Son of the Morning Star	Capt. William F. Benteen	TV film
	Without Warning: The James Brady Story	Doctor Art Kobrine	TV film
	City of Hope	Asteroid	Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1992	Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even	Keith
	A League of Their Own	Ira Lowenstein
	Bob Roberts	Mack Laflin
	O Pioneers!	Carl Linstrum	TV film Bronze Wrangler Award for Television Feature Film
	Sneakers	Erwin 'Whistler' Emory
	Passion Fish	Rennie	Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1993	Lost in Yonkers	Johnny
	The Firm	Ray McDeere
	A Dangerous Woman	Getso
1994	The River Wild	Tom Hartman
1995	Losing Isaiah	Charles Lewin
	Dolores Claiborne	Joe St. George
	Home for the Holidays	Russell Terziak
1996	Beyond the Call	Russell Cates	TV film
	Mother Night	Lieutenant Bernard B. O'Hare
1997	Song of Hiawatha	Marcel
	In the Gloaming	Martin	TV film Nominated – CableACE Award for Guest Actor in a Dramatic Special or Series
	L.A. Confidential	Pierce Morehouse Patchett	Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
	Bad Manners	Wes
1998	The Climb	Earl Himes
	Evidence of Blood	Jackson Kinley	TV film
	With Friends Like These...	Armand Minetti
	Simon Birch	Reverend Russell
	Meschugge	Charles Kaminski
1999	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Theseus
	Limbo	"Jumpin Joe" Gastineau	Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
	A Map of the World	Howard Goodwin
2000	A Good Baby	Truman Lester
	Freedom Song	Peter Crowley	TV film
	Harrison's Flowers	Harrison Lloyd
	The Miracle Worker	Captain Keller	TV film
2001	Relative Evil	Dr. Charlie	a.k.a. Ball in the House
2002	Speakeasy	Bruce Hickman
	Blue Car	Auster
	Lathe of Heaven	Mannie	TV film
	Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story	Jack Hoschouer	TV film
2004	The Sopranos	Robert Wegler	TV series, three episodes
	Paradise	Reverend Bobby Paradise	TV film
	Twisted	Dr. Melvin Frank
2005	The Notorious Bettie Page	Estes Kefauver
	Missing in America	Henry
	Good Night, and Good Luck.	Edward R. Murrow	Gransito Movie Award for Best Actor Volpi Cup for Best Actor Women Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
2006	The Shovel	Paul Mullin	short film
	Heavens Fall	Judge James Horton
	We Are Marshall	Donald Dedmon
2007	The Sensation of Sight	Finn	Also Producer
	Steel Toes	Danny Dunckelman
	Fracture	DA Joe Lobruto
	Racing Daylight	Henry Becker/Harry Stokes
	The Bourne Ultimatum	Noah Vosen
	My Blueberry Nights	Arnie Copeland
	Matters of Life and Death	Mr. Jennings
	Trumbo	Readings
2008	The Spiderwick Chronicles	Arthur Spiderwick
	Monk (episode "Mr. Monk and the Genius")	Patrick Kloster	TV series, one episode
2009	The Uninvited	Steven
	Cold Souls	Dr. Flintstein
	The People Speak	Himself	Documentary
	Odysseus in America	Narration
2010	Temple Grandin	Professor Carlock	TV film Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
	Howl	Ralph McIntosh
	House (episode "Lockdown")	Nash	TV series, one episode
	The Tempest	Alonzo, King of Naples
	The Whistleblower	Peter Ward
	Indiana University Health	Commercial	Voice over
2011	Alphas	Dr. Lee Rosen	TV Series, running
2012	The Bourne Legacy	Noah Vosen
	Hemingway & Gellhorn	John Dos Passos	TV film Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
	Lincoln	Secretary of State William Seward