Peter MacNicol Biography

Peter C. MacNicol (born April 10, 1954) is an Emmy Award-winning American actor. He is known in films for his roles of Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II, Stingo in Sophie's Choice, and David Langley in Bean. For television he is known for the roles of the eccentric lawyer John Cage in the FOX comedy-drama Ally McBeal, as Tom Lennox in the sixth season of action-thriller 24, Alan Birch in the Medical drama Chicago Hope, and as physicist Dr. Larry Fleinhardt on the CBS crime drama NUMB3RS.

Early life

MacNicol was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, the youngest of five children of Barbara, a homemaker, and John MacNicol, a corporate executive who became an Episcopal priest later in life. MacNicol began his career studying at the University of Dallas and University of Minnesota. While in Minnesota, he performed in two seasons at the Guthrie Theater. A New York talent agent spotted him and told him to make a move to Manhattan.

Career

MacNicol was cast in the off-Broadway play, Crimes of the Heart. The production eventually moved to Broadway, and he won the Theatre World Award. It was also during this production that a casting agent noticed him and called him in to read for his eventual role in Sophie's Choice. In 1981 he landed the starring role in his first film, Dragonslayer, opposite Sir Ralph Richardson. In 1987, he starred in the Trinity Repertory Company's original production of the stage adaptation of All the King's Men, which first appeared at the Dallas Theater Center. This adaptation was developed with the consultation of the author himself.

Among his other stage credits is the Broadway production of Black Comedy/White Lies. He has further extensive classical repertory theater background, including the New York Shakespeare Festival in which he played title roles in Richard II and Romeo and Juliet, and appeared in Twelfth Night, Rum and Coke and Found a Peanut.

On film, he played the naive Southern writer who fell in love with Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice; the museum curator Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II and camp director Gary Granger alongside future NUMB3RS costar David Krumholtz in Addams Family Values. Other film credits include HouseSitter and American Blue Note.

In 1994 MacNicol had a prominent role as Alan Birch for the first season and less than half of the second season of Chicago Hope before departing to take on a role on the TV series Ally McBeal which was also created by David E. Kelley the same person who created Chicago Hope. However, he did return for one final guest appearance in episode five of the show's fifth season.

MacNicol is known by television viewers for his Ally McBeal performance as eccentric attorney John Cage, for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2001. He also starred in the drama NUMB3RS as physicist Dr. Larry Fleinhardt, and had a role as Tom Lennox in the sixth season of the hit Fox show 24. MacNicol reprised his role as Lennox in the film ' titled "Look Before You Sleep".

MacNicol has lent his voice to several comic book supervillains: Dr. Kirk Langstrom/Man-Bat in The Batman, David Clinton/Chronos in Justice League Unlimited, Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus in The Spectacular Spider-Man, X The Eliminator in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and the Mad Hatter in the video game Batman: Arkham City. He also voiced Firefly in G.I. Joe: Renegades.

In addition, this year, MacNicol has written a script entitled Salvation on Sand Mountain and is attached to the project as an executive producer and director.

MacNicol has joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Stark, a pediatric surgeon.

Personal life

MacNicol resides in Los Angeles with his wife, who runs the Corie Williams Scholarship Fund, a non-profit foundation that provides scholarships for inner-city children in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Dragonslayer	Galen Bradwarden
1982	Sophie's Choice	Stingo
1986	Heat	Cyrus Kinnick
1986	American Blue Note	Jack Solow
1989	Ghostbusters II	Dr. Janosz Poha
1990	By Dawn's Early Light	Sedgwick	Television movie
1991	Hard Promises	Stuart
1992	HouseSitter	Marty
1993	Addams Family Values	Gary Granger
1994	Radioland Murders	Son Writer
1995	Dracula: Dead and Loving It	Thomas Renfield
1997	Bean	David Langley
1998	The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue	Narrator
1999	Baby Geniuses	Dan
2001	Recess: School's Out	Fenwick
2002	Balto II: Wolf Quest	Muru
2004	Breakin' All the Rules	Philip Gascon
2005	Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild	Troopmaster
2008	'	Tom Lennox	Television movie
2012	Battleship	Secretary of Defense
2012	Game Change	Rick Davis	Television movie
2013	Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright	Dewey Ottoman

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Faerie Tale Theatre	Martin	Episode: The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers
1992-1993	The Powers That Be	Bradley Grist	20 episodes
1993	Cheers	Mario	Episode: "Look Before You Sleep"
1994	Tales from the Crypt	Austin Haggard	Episode: "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime"
1994-1998	Chicago Hope	Alan Birch	31 episodes Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Quality Drama Series Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (1995-96)
1997-2002	Ally McBeal	John Cage	103 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Quality Comedy Series Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (1999-2000) Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Television Series Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2001-02) Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (1999-2001) Nominated"?Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (1998, 2000)
1999	The Angry Beavers	Kid Friendly	Episode: "The Legend of Kid Friendly"
2000	The Wild Thornberrys	Raju, Monkey	Episode: "Monkey See, Monkey Don't"
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	Major	2 episodes
2003-2007	Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law	Various	14 episodes
2004-2005	Danny Phantom	Sidney Poindexter	2 episodes
2004-2008	The Batman	Dr. Kirk Langstrom	3 episodes
2005	Justice League Unlimited	Chronos	2 episodes
2005-2010	NUMB3RS	Dr. Larry Fleinhardt	94 episodes
2006	Boston Legal	Dr. Sydney Field	Episode: "Race Ipsa"
2007	24	Tom Lennox	24 episodes
2008-2009	The Spectacular Spider-Man	Doctor Octopus	12 episodes
2010	Ben 10: Ultimate Alien	Various	2 episodes
2010-2011	Grey's Anatomy	Dr. Robert Stark	7 episodes
2011	Young Justice	Various	2 episodes
2011	G.I. Joe: Renegades	Firefly	Episode: "Homecoming Part 2"
2011	Fairly Legal	Judge Smollet	Episode: "Coming Home"
2013	Necessary Roughness	Dr. Gunner	3 episodes

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law	X the Eliminator
2011	Batman: Arkham City	Mad Hatter
2013	Batman: Arkham Origins	Mad Hatter