David Strathairn

Biography

David Russell Strathairn was born on January 26, 1949 in San Francisco, California. He is the son of Mary Frances (Frazier), a nurse, and Thomas Scott Strathairn, Jr., a physician. He has two siblings, Tom and Anne. His ancestry includes English, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, Native Hawaiian, and one sixteenth Chinese (the latter three from his paternal grandmother). Strathairn attended Williams College, where he demonstrated great interest in the theater, and first befriended 'John Sayles (I)' (qv), 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)_ (qv), 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)_ (qv), _Silkwood (1983)_ (qv), _L.A. Confidential (1997)_ (qv), and _A Map of the World (1999)_ (qv). Sayles frequently casts Strathairn, whose performances can be seen in Sayles' _The Brother from Another Planet (1984)_ (qv), _Matewan (1987)_ (qv), _Eight Men Out (1988)_ (qv), _City of Hope (1991)_ (qv), and _Passion Fish (1992)_ (qv). Perhaps most notable of his collaborations with Sayles is his superb performance co-starring with 'Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio' (qv) in _Limbo (1999)_ (qv). 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' (qv) in 'George Clooney' (qv)'s _Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)_ (qv) 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)_ (qv), _The Sensation of Sight (2006)_ (qv), _My Blueberry Nights (2007)_ (qv), and _Howl (2010)_ (qv) among them - and big-budget Hollywood productions, including _We Are Marshall (2006)_ (qv), _The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)_ (qv), both _The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)_ (qv) and _The Bourne Legacy (2012)_ (qv), and 'Steven Spielberg' (qv)'s biopic _Lincoln (2012)_ (qv), 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)_ (qv). In addition to narration work for many PBS shows, Strathairn has appeared in the TV series _"Big Apple" (2001)_ (qv), _"The Sopranos" (1999)_ (qv), _"Monk" (2002)_ (qv), and heads the cast of the science-fiction series _"Alphas" (2011)_ (qv). His work in television films has brought him an Emmy Award for _Temple Grandin (2010) (TV)_ (qv) and an Emmy nominations for _Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012) (TV)_ (qv). Strathairn married 'Logan Goodman' (qv) in 1980, and the couple have two children.