William H. Macy Biography

William Hall Macy, Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor, screenwriter, teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though he has appeared in summer action films as well. Macy has described himself as "sort of a Middle American, WASPy, Lutheran kind of guy... Everyman".

Macy was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He has won two Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for nine Emmy Awards and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards in total. He is also a three-time Golden Globe Award nominee. Since 2010 he has played the main protagonist in the Showtime television series Shameless. Macy and actress Felicity Huffman have been married since 1997.

Early life

Macy was born in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Georgia and Maryland. His father, William Hall Macy, Sr., was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal for flying a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in World War II; he later ran a construction company in Atlanta, Georgia, and worked for Dun & Bradstreet, before taking over a Cumberland, Maryland-based insurance agency, when Macy was nine years old. His mother, Lois (née Overstreet), was a war widow who met Macy's father after her first husband died in 1943; Macy has described her as a "Southern belle".

Macy graduated in 1968 from Allegany High School in Cumberland, Maryland. Afterwards, he studied veterinary medicine at Bethany College in West Virginia. By his own admission a "wretched student," he transferred to Goddard College and became involved in theatre, where he performed in ensemble productions of The Three Penny Opera, A Midsummer Night's Dream and a wide variety of contemporary and improvisational pieces. At Goddard, he first met playwright David Mamet.

Career

After graduating from Goddard in 1971, Macy moved to Chicago, Illinois, working as a bartender to pay the rent. Within a year, he and David Mamet, among others, founded St. Nicholas Theater Company, where Macy originated roles in a number of Mamet's plays, such as American Buffalo and The Water Engine.

Macy spent time in Los Angeles, California, before moving to New York City, New York in 1980. While living there, he had roles in over 50 Off Broadway and Broadway plays. One of his early on-screen roles was as a turtle named Socrates in the direct-to-video film The Boy Who Loved Trolls (1984), under the name W. H. Macy (so as not to be confused with the actor Bill Macy). He also had a minor role as a hospital orderly on the sitcom Kate & Allie in the fourth season episode "General Hospital" (also as W. H. Macy). He has appeared in numerous films that Mamet wrote and/or directed, including House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, Oleanna (reprising the role he originated in the play of the same name), Wag the Dog, State and Main, and Spartan.

Macy may be best known for his lead role in Fargo, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. The role helped boost his career and recognizability, though at the expense of nearly confining him to a narrow typecast of a worried man down on his luck. Other Macy roles of the 1990s and 2000s included Benny & Joon, Above Suspicion, Mr. Holland's Opus, Ghosts of Mississippi, Air Force One, Boogie Nights, Pleasantville, Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, Happy, Texas, Mystery Men, Magnolia, Jurassic Park III, Focus, Panic, Welcome to Collinwood, Seabiscuit, The Cooler, and Sahara.

Macy has also had a number of roles on television, including a guest appearance on The Unit, as the President of the United States. In 2003, he won two Emmy Awards, one for starring in the lead role, and one as co-writer, of the made-for-TNT film Door to Door. Door to Door is a drama based on the true story of Bill Porter, a door-to-door salesman in Portland, Oregon, born with cerebral palsy. The film is composed of several stories, each taking up a whole period between commercials.

His work on ER and Sports Night has also been recognized with Emmy nominations. His character in ER, David Morgenstern, is responsible for a sage piece of advice that has been handed down throughout the series. In the pilot episode, when Julianna Margulies' character, nurse Carol Hathaway, is brought to the hospital with a drug overdose, Morgenstern tells Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards) that he needs to "set the tone" to get the unit through the difficulty of treating one of its own. "You set the tone" is repeated several times in the series.

In a November 2003 interview with USA Today, Macy stated that he wanted to star in a big-budget action movie "for the money, for the security of a franchise like that". He serves as director-in-residence at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, where he teaches a technique called Practical Aesthetics. A book describing the technique, A Practical Handbook for the Actor (ISBN 0-394-74412-8), is dedicated to Macy and Mamet.

In 2007, Macy starred in Wild Hogs, a film about middle-aged men reliving their youthful days by taking to the open road on their Harley-Davidson motorcycles from Cincinnati to the Pacific Coast. Despite being critically panned with a 14% "rotten" rating from Rotten Tomatoes, it was a financial success, grossing over $168 million. In 2009, Macy completed filming on The Maiden Heist, a comedy that co-starred Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken.

On June 23, 2008, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, would each receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the upcoming year. On January 13, 2009, Macy replaced Jeremy Piven in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow on Broadway. Piven suddenly and unexpectedly dropped out of the play in December 2008 after he experienced health problems; Norbert Leo Butz covered the role from December 23, 2008, until Macy took over the part. Dirty Girl, which starred Macy along with Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich, Mary Steenburgen and Tim McGraw, premiered September 12, 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In the 2012 film The Sessions, Macy played a priest who helps a man with a severe disability find personal fulfillment through a sex surrogate. The role is a 180-degree turn from his substance abusing anti-hero on the Showtime television series Shameless.

Shameless

In summer 2010, Macy joined the Showtime pilot Shameless, as the main protagonist Frank Gallagher. The project ultimately went to series, with its first season premiering January 9, 2011. Macy has received high critical acclaim for his performance. After the show's ratings improved, Showtime renewed it for a second and third season, and on January 29, 2013, for a fourth season to premiere in early 2014.

Personal life

Macy and actress Felicity Huffman have been married since September 6, 1997; they have two daughters and one son, Sophia Grace (born August 1, 2000) and Georgia Grace (born March 14, 2002) and William H Macy III (born January 10 1999).

Macy and Huffman appeared at a rally for John Kerry in 2004. Macy also plays the ukulele and is an avid woodturner; he has appeared on the cover of the specialist magazine Fine Woodworking. He is a national ambassador for the United Cerebral Palsy Association.

Since shooting Wild Hogs, Macy has picked up a strong interest in riding motorcycles.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1978	'	Will Beagle
1980	Foolin' Around	Bronski (as W.H. Macy)
	Somewhere in Time	Critic (as W.H. Macy)
1983	Without a Trace	Reporter
1984	'	Socrates the Turtle (voice)
1985	'	J.J.	Cameo Appearance
1986	Kate & Allie	Carl	TV series
1987	House of Games	Sgt. Morgan
	Radio Days	Radio Actor
1988	'	Randy	TV miniseries
	Things Change	Billy Drake
1990	Law & Order	Assistant U.S. Attorney John McCormack	TV series, pilot episode Everybody's Favorite Bagman
1991	Homicide	Tim Sullivan	Nominated " Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1992	'	Charles Lang
1992	The Heart of Justice	Booth	TV movie
1993	Being Human	Boris
	Bakersfield P.D.	Russell Karp	TV Series
	Benny & Joon	Randy Burch
	Searching for Bobby Fischer	Petey's Father
1994	The Client	Dr. Greenway
	ER	Dr. David Morgenstern	TV, cameos 2002, 2009 Nominated " Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor " Drama Series (1997)
1995	Murder in the First	D.A. William McNeil
	Oleanna	John	Nominated " Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male
	Dead on Sight	Steven Meeker
	Tall Tale	Railroad Magnate	Uncredited
	Mr. Holland's Opus	Vice Principal Gene Wolters
	Evolver	Evolver (voice)
1996	Fargo	Jerry Lundegaard
	Andersonville	Col. Chandler
	Down Periscope	Commander Carl Knox
	Ghosts of Mississippi	Charlie Crisco
1997	Colin Fitz Lives!	Mr. O'Day ...aka "Colin Fitz"
	Air Force One	Major Norman Caldwell
	Boogie Nights	Little Bill
	Wag the Dog	CIA Agent Charles Young
1998	Pleasantville	George Parker
	Psycho	Milton Arbogast	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
	'	Justin (voice)	Direct-to-video
	'	James Gordon	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
	'	Bobby Sommerdinger
	'	Leo Lionheart (voice)
1999	Happy, Texas	Sheriff Chappy Dent
	Mystery Men	The Shoveler
	'	Terry Thorpe	Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Television Feature or Miniseries Nominated " Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor " Miniseries or a Movie
	'	Ichabod Crane	Voice
	Magnolia	Quiz Kid Donnie Smith	Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Nominated " Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
	Sports Night	Sam Donovan	TV, Nominated " Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor " Comedy Series
2000	State and Main	Walt Price
	Panic	Alex
2001	Jurassic Park III	Paul Kirby
	Focus	Lawrence 'Larry' Newman
2002	Door to Door	Bill Porter
	It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie	Glenn
	Welcome to Collinwood	Riley
2003	'	Bernie Lootz	Nominated " Satellite Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Drama
	Easy Riders, Raging Bulls	Narrator	Documentary
	Stealing Sinatra	John Irwin
	Seabiscuit	Tick Tock McGlaughlin
2004	Reversible Errors	Arthur Raven
	Cellular	Mooney
	In Enemy Hands	Chief of Boat Nathan Travers
	Spartan	Stoddard
2005	'	Charlie Gigot
	Sahara	Admiral James Sandecker
	Edmond	Edmond Burke
	Thank You for Smoking	Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre
2006	The Simpsons: "Homer's Paternity Coot"	Himself
	Doogal	Brian the Snail (voice)
	Nightmares and Dreamscapes: "Umney's Last Case"	Sam Landry, Clyde Umney
	Bobby	Paul
	Curious George	Narrator	TV, season 1
	Everyone's Hero	Lefty Maginnis (voice)
	Choose Your Own Adventure DVD Series	Rudyard North
	Inland Empire	Announcer
2007	Wild Hogs	Dudley Frank
	He Was a Quiet Man	Gene Shelby
2008	'	Charlie Berns
	Bart Got a Room	Ernie Stein
	'	Lester (voice)
2009	'	George
	Shorts	Dr. Noseworthy
2010	Marmaduke	Don Twombly
	Dirty Girl	Ray
2011"present	Shameless	Frank Gallagher	Series regular
2011	'	Frank Levin
2012	'	Father Brendan	Nominated " St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
2013	A Single Shot	Pitt	Post-production
2013	Trust Me	Gary
2014	Rudderless	Sam	Also director Filming