David Strathairn

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David Russell Strathairn (born on January 26 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated American film and television actor.

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Early life

Strathairn was born in San Francisco, California of Scottish and Hawaiian descent. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1970. Reportedly, he attended the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Florida and worked as a clown in a traveling circus.

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Film career

Some of his notable 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), and corrupt baseball player Eddie Cicotte in 1988's Eight Men Out. He also co-starred in Twisted as Ashley Judd's psychiatrist and in The River Wild as Meryl Streep's husband.

He works frequently with director John Sayles including his film debut Return of the Secaucus 7, Passion Fish, Limbo, and City of Hope, for which Strathairn won the Independent Spirit Award.

Strathairn's television work has included a wide range of roles, including Moss, the bookselling nebbish on the critically acclaimed The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd; Captain Keller, the father of Helen in the 2000 remake of The Miracle Worker; and a far-out (both figuratively and literally) televangelist in "Paradise." Recently, Strathairn had a recurring role on the hit TV drama The Sopranos.

In 2005, he appeared in the leading role in Good Night, and Good Luck, a theatrical biopic in which he portrayed the famed CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow in his clash with Senator Joseph McCarthy over his Communist "witch hunt" in the 1950s. Strathairn received Best Actor Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and Academy Award nominations for his performance in the film.