Ed Harris

Biography

Edward Allen Harris, known as Ed Harris, was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on November 28, 1950, and grew up in Tenafly. He is an American actor and filmmaker who has appeared in dozens of notable films and has also directed, produced and written feature films. His career began in the late 1970s and made him one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood during the 1990s and 2000s, earning four Academy Award nominations across the supporting and leading actor categories. What sets him apart is consistency rather than star power: he has rarely led blockbusters for their own sake, yet he has built a body of work across drama, war films, thrillers and science fiction.

Harris grew up in a middle-class Presbyterian household. His father, Robert L. Harris, sang in the Fred Waring chorus and worked at the bookshop of the Art Institute of Chicago, while his mother, Margaret, was a travel agent; both had roots in Oklahoma. He has two brothers, Robert and Paul. He graduated from Tenafly High School in 1969, where he captained the football team in his final year, and went on to play college football at Columbia University, where one of his teammates was Eric Holder, later United States Attorney General. His interest in acting grew through school and college productions. When his family moved to New Mexico, he followed them and enrolled at the University of Oklahoma to study drama. After working in local theatres, including the Jewel Box Theater in Oklahoma City, he moved to Los Angeles and graduated in Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 1975.

His first steps were on stage. In 1976 he took part in the world premiere of Thomas Rickman's play Baalam at the Pasadena Repertory Theatre, and at the same venue he played Lot in the West Coast premiere of Tennessee Williams's Kingdom of Earth. His film debut came in 1978 with a supporting part in the medical thriller Coma, starring Michael Douglas. His first major film role followed in Borderline (1980), opposite Charles Bronson. In 1981 he played the lead in Knightriders, George A. Romero's film about a travelling troupe of motorcycle jousters, a character modelled on King Arthur, and the following year he had a small part in Romero's Creepshow. Meanwhile, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, he worked steadily on television, appearing in single episodes of series such as Lou Grant, The Rockford Files and The Seekers.

His real breakthrough came in 1983, when he played astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff. The same period marked a turning point in his personal life: while filming Robert Benton's Places in the Heart in 1984 he met the actress Amy Madigan, whom he married soon afterwards, and the two have shared the screen several times since. Through the 1980s he moved between commercial cinema and more personal projects. He played William Walker, the American adventurer who declared himself president of Nicaragua, and in 1989 he earned his first Golden Globe nomination for Jacknife. That year he also starred in James Cameron's underwater science fiction film The Abyss, which raised his profile with wider audiences. His stage work had brought him a Tony nomination in 1986 for George Furth's Precious Sons, along with the Theatre World Award and the Drama Desk Award.

The 1990s confirmed his standing. In 1992 he played Dave Moss in Glengarry Glen Ross, adapted from David Mamet's play, and the performance won him the best actor prize at the Valladolid International Film Festival. He followed it with The Firm (1993) and then Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995), in which he played E. Howard Hunt, a figure from the Watergate affair. That same year came Apollo 13, where he played Gene Kranz, the NASA flight director, a role that brought him his first Academy Award nomination, in the supporting category. After The Rock (1996) and the political thriller Absolute Power (1997), he played a key part in The Truman Show opposite Jim Carrey in 1998. It earned him a second supporting actor Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe in the same category.

In 2000 he stepped behind the camera for the first time with Pollock, a biopic of the painter Jackson Pollock, a role he also played himself. To prepare, he built a small studio in which to reproduce the artist's methods. The film earned him a Best Actor nomination, his third Academy Award nomination overall. Two years later The Hours brought him a fourth, in the supporting category, for his role as Richard Brown. Between those two nominations he appeared in A Beautiful Mind (2001) and in Enemy at the Gates (2001), where he played the German sniper Major Erwin König. In 2005 he was Miles Roby in the miniseries Empire Falls, which gained him Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and that same year he played a vengeful mobster in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. In 2008 he co-wrote, directed and starred in the western Appaloosa, alongside Viggo Mortensen.

The 2010s saw him work across film and television. For his portrayal of Senator John McCain in the telefilm Game Change (2012) he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a series, miniseries or television film. He voiced Mission Control in Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity (2013), and in Snowpiercer and Mother! (2017) he took part in more adventurous projects with very different tones. As the Man in Black in HBO's Westworld (2016 to 2022) he received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a drama series. In the 2020s he appeared in The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), where he played Rear Admiral Chester 'Hammer' Cain. His Atticus Finch in the Broadway stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird (2019) stands out among his recent theatre work, a medium he has never fully left behind.

Harris has several projects announced, including Downtown Owl, directed by Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater, and Love Lies Bleeding, from Rose Glass. His legacy lies in a career built on craft, moving easily between commercial cinema, author-driven drama and prestige television. In 2015 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in motion pictures, a recognition that sums up a trajectory which, without fuss, has left a lasting mark on American film.

Key films

• Apollo 13 (1995): Gene Kranz, the flight director, a role that earned him his first Academy Award nomination in the supporting category.
• The Truman Show (1998): co-starring with Jim Carrey, and an Oscar nomination for supporting actor.
• Pollock (2000): his directorial debut, in which he also plays the painter Jackson Pollock, earning a Best Actor nomination.
• The Hours (2002): as Richard Brown in an ensemble cast, bringing him his fourth Academy Award nomination.
• A History of Violence (2005): a tense supporting role in David Cronenberg's film, opposite Viggo Mortensen.