Born in Tenafl y in New Jersey (November 28, 1950), he received his acting education at Oklahoma State University starting his professional theatrical career in Los Angeles. In director Agnieszka Holland’s political thriller TO KILL A PRIEST (1988) he appeared in the role of a police offi cer who killed a troublesome priest in the totalitarian Poland. He had other distinctive roles in sci-fi fi lm THE ABYSS (1989) and in APOLLO 13 (1995), a reconstruction of the unsuccessful mission of American astronauts, for which he won his fi rst Oscar nomination. He was also nominated for Oscar for his performance in sci-fi TRUMAN SHOW (1998) and his riveting impersonation of a controversial artist in biography drama POLLOCK (2000).
In THE HOURS (2002), he played a vexed writer who is dying of AIDS and this convincing performance won him the fourth nomination for Oscar. His was cast in thriller ROCK (1998) and ABSOLUTE POWER (1998), war Western ENEMY AT THE GATES (2000) and psychology drama A BEATIFUL MIND (2001). He is also known from thriller HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005), criminal mystery drama GONE, BABY, GONE (2007) and THE WAY BACK (2010), a reconstruction of the anabasis of a group of prisoners fl eeing from a Soviet prisoner camp during the WWII.
HBO Films