David Russell Strathairn

David Strathairn was born on January 26, 1949 in San Francisco, California. His father was a physician and he has one sibling, a brother Tom. He attended Williams College, where he demonstrated great interest in the theater, and first befriended John Sayles, with whom he would later frequently collaborate. Strathairn graduated college and traveled to Florida to visit with a 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 (1980), Sayle's directorial debut.

Thereafter Strathairn developed an extensive resume of supporting roles, which have become increasingly substantial as his stature in the industry has grown. Only a few examples of his work include an off-beat patient of the psychiatrist played by Dudley Moore in the romantic comedy Lovesick (1983), in Silkwood (1983) as Welsey, in L.A. Confidential (1997) as the enigmatic millionaire Pierce Patchett, and in A Map of the World (1999) as Howard, the husband of Sigourney Weaver's character. Sayles frequently casts Strathairn, whose performances can be seen in Sayles' The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), City of Hope (1991), and Passion Fish (1992). Perhaps most notable of his collaborations with Sayles is his superb performance co-starring with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in Limbo (1999).

He works in television occasionally and may be familiar to television viewers as Molly's boss in the series "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" (1987).

Strathairn continues to be one of the most active male supporting actors in American film today, his work is highly regarded, and he can be counted on to deliver an understated yet powerful performance. His craggy, unorthodox good looks are perhaps attributable to his mixed Scottish and Hawaiian ancestry. Strathairn lives with his wife Logan and two children in Upstate New York.

one of the finest actors of the century, he is one of my favorite actors of all time. right now. i admire his role on we are marshall as the president of the marshall university. he handled every of his role impressively accurate. he is absolutely one of the finest actors of our time

His Quotes

"Television and film are our libraries now, our history books."

"It feels as if you put on a many-pocketed coat with 100 cell phones, all on vibe alert, and they all start going off at random times, and you begin to think, 'This is pretty uncomfortable'. You can't possibly answer all these phones, nor should you. 'Buzz' - that's really a quite apropos word. They say it's great for the film. Well, if it's great for the film, that's great." [on the "buzz" surrounding him and his performance in Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)]

"Artists, actors and performers are sometimes vilified for stepping outside of the workplace or using their work as a kind of bully pulpit."