Movies starring David 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' (qv), 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 ...
show all 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' (qv), 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 7 (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' (qv) in the romantic comedy Lovesick (1983), in Silkwood (1983) as Welsey, in L.A. Confidential (1997) as the enigmatic millionaire Pierce Patchett, and in Map of the World, A (1999) as Howard, the husband of 'Sigourney Weaver' (qv)'s character. Sayles frequently casts Strathairn, whose performances can be seen in Sayles' Brother from Another Planet, The (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' (qv) in Limbo (1999).
He works in television occasionally and may be familiar to television viewers as Molly's boss in the series "Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, The" (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.
hide
|
|
In this excellent adventure thriller, Meryl Streep takes her family white-water rafting to try to revive their disintegrating relationships. But what promises to be an enjoyable break soon turns into a nightmare when armed robbers Kevin Bacon and John C Reilly hitch a ride on their raft with $250,000 of stolen loot. Directed by Curtis Hanson, this is a terrific roller-coaster ride filled with hair-raising action scenes and some equally tense moments on the river bank. In a dramatic break from her usual roles, Streep is utterly convincing as the strong-willed wife and mother, taking charge as husband David Strathairn wimps out, and struggling to keep her head above water as the sinister Bacon and the wounded Reilly become distinctly unpleasant. Streep performed many of her own stunts (at one point she was thrown overboard and resurfaced 500 yards downstream where she was rescued by a kayak crew) and put in a lot of training for the role. Her muscles are as pumped-up as the plot — which is little more than a thrill machine with added nuggets of political correctness about the family unit and sexual equality — but the incredible action and Streep’s performance more than compensate for any shortcomings.
|
|
|
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team’s new coach (McConaughey) and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.
|
|
|
Gregory Hoblit’s stylish crime thriller opens with Anthony Hopkins’s aeronautical engineer shooting his unfaithful wife (Embeth Davidtz). The cat-and-mouse games begin when Hopkins decides to plead not guilty and defend himself in court, pitting his wits against Ryan Gosling’s assistant DA, who has a 97 per cent successful prosecution record. This is Gosling’s last case before he takes a job in the lucrative private sector and it looks like a formality (there’s even a confession), but the twist here is that the arresting officer (Billy Burke) was Davidtz’s lover. Hoblit (Primal Fear) is an old hand at this sort of thing, and Hopkins and Gosling spark nicely off each other (just try to ignore Hopkins’s inconsistent accent). Also representing Britain in the Anglo-American cast is Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day), who plays a cool-as-ice lawyer grooming Gosling for his new career in company law, and Fiona Shaw as a sharp-tongued, dry-witted judge. There’s nothing particularly new here and some of the plot contortions border on the preposterous, but fans of twisting courtroom thrillers will find it an entertaining diversion.
|
|
|
In the third film based on author Robert Ludlum’s bestsellers, former CIA agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) hits the ground running — and from then on the pace never slackens. The subtle and simple script is dazzling, as Bourne zips through stunning global locations to discover the truth about his past and take revenge on those responsible for his brainwashed plight. Damon has really made the role of the troubled assassin his own, and returning director Paul Greengrass employs the same hand-held camera technique he used in The Bourne Supremacy to add immediacy and up-close-and-personal thrills to the terrific stunts. With flashbacks to both previous episodes, and stars Joan Allen and Julia Stiles returning to marvellous effect, this final instalment is essentially one long chase that never loses its grip or credibility. Nothing is overplayed, from the scary surveillance tracking methods to the high-level corruption, making this a superbly crafted masterclass in intelligent action film-making.
|
|
|
In the early 1950’s, the threat of Communism created an air of paranoia in the United States and exploiting those fears was Senator ‘Joseph McCarthy (II)’ (qv) of Wisconsin. However, CBS reporter ‘Edward R. Murrow (I)’ (qv) and his producer ‘Fred W. Friendly’ (qv) decided to take a stand and challenge McCarthy and expose him for the fear monger he was. However, their actions took a great personal toll on both men, but they stood by their convictions and helped to bring down one of the most controversial senators in American history.
|
|
|
1950’s Los Angeles is the seedy backdrop for this intricate noir-ish tale of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style: Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out; Bud White, ready to break the rules to seek justice, but barely able to keep his raging violence under control; and Jack Vincennes, always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley and White down the one-way path to find the truth behind the dark world of L.A. crime.
|
