Ed Harris

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Birthday:

28 November 1950, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA

Birth Name:

Edward Allen Harris

Height:

175 cm

By transforming into his characters and pulling the audience in, Ed Harris has earned the reputation as one of the most talented actors of our time.Ed Harris was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, to Margaret (Sholl), a travel agent, and Robert Lee Harris, a bookstore worker who also sang professionally. Both of his parents were originally from Oklahoma. Harris grew up as the middle child. After graduating high school, he attended New York's Columbia University, where he played football. After viewing local theater productions, Harris took a sudden interest in acting. He left Columbia, headed to Oklahoma, where his parents were living, and enrolled in the University of Oklahoma's theater department. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to find work. He started acting in theater and television guest spots. Harris landed his first leading role in a film in cult-favorite George A. Romero's Knightriders (1981). Two years later, he got his first taste of critical acclaim, playing astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff (1983). Also that year, he made his New York stage debut in Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love", a performance that earned him an Obie for Outstanding Actor. Harris' career gathered momentum after that. In 2000, he made his debut as a director in the Oscar-winning film Pollock (2000). Show less «

[on painter Jackson Pollock]: One thing I learned about Mr. Pollock's art, which any art student knows I'm sure, but was indeed a revelation...Show more »

[on painter Jackson Pollock]: One thing I learned about Mr. Pollock's art, which any art student knows I'm sure, but was indeed a revelation to me, is that Jackson fully believed and lived by "Don't use the accident, because I deny the accident." One cannot even approximate Pollock's work unless every stroke, every pour, every slap, every fling, every shake, every splash, every splatter and every flick has a specific intention. Show less «

As soon as I went on stage, I wanted to do nothing else with my life but act. I always liked the attention that playing sports had brought, ...Show more »

As soon as I went on stage, I wanted to do nothing else with my life but act. I always liked the attention that playing sports had brought, but acting fulfilled that need even better. Show less «

I was very happy playing sports until I was 18, and then there were a couple of years where I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I saw ...Show more »

I was very happy playing sports until I was 18, and then there were a couple of years where I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I saw some theatre in Oklahoma and made a decision to learn about acting. It wasn't really with an eye on making films or even making a living; it was really about trying to focus on something that had the potential of taking the place of sport in terms of something to penetrate. Show less «

I don't intentionally choose movies that aren't going to be successful commercially. It just happens that the most interesting scripts I rea...Show more »

I don't intentionally choose movies that aren't going to be successful commercially. It just happens that the most interesting scripts I read are outside the mainstream. I like characters who have an edge to them, who are going to do something unexpected. Show less «

Acting is not a competition to me. One of the first things I learned about acting was, the only person you compete against is yourself.

[on Senator John McCain, whom he portrayed in Game Change (2012)] He's a man with a tremendous sense of honor and duty. And I think, when he...Show more »

[on Senator John McCain, whom he portrayed in Game Change (2012)] He's a man with a tremendous sense of honor and duty. And I think, when he decided to go into politics, his ambition and his ego were in constant conflict with this sense of honor and duty and patriotism. Show less «