Mr. Supporting Actor 

Actor William H Macy was born in 1950 in Florida, United States. His first acting role was that of Mordred in Camelot in a school play. He also performed in the folk singing trio The Minnesingers, where he sang and played the guitar. After his graduation in 1968, he studied drama at the Foreign Language League School in Reading, England. That lasted a summer, and then he returned to the US to become a veterinarian. At college he participated in student productions of Waiting for Godot and Of Mice and Men

His interest in acting increased, and finally got him to transfer from the West Virginia Bethany College to Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont, where the drama program is highly reputed. There he studied under playwright David Mamet - later known for writing of The Untouchables, Wag the Dog, Hannibal. Together with other of Mamet's students he formed the acting group St Nicholas Company, which performed to and from during the next years. After a couple of slow years, things started moving again and William H Macy appeared in commercials and worked with the St Nichols. Macy finally earned his SAG membership in 1978, and he was now a screen actor under the name "W.H. Macy", to avoid confusion with Bill Macy

He moved to New York and soon came his first film, Somewhere In Time in 1980 and after that Macy worked on a numerous off-Broadway theatres and more commercials. After that followed House of Games by Mamet, and several small parts on TV series. He continued to do commercials and got more and more fed up with the whole thing. Trying to change things, he moved to Los Angeles. There he managed to make a name for himself as an supporting actor in movies like Searching for Bobby Fisher and The client. He also started appearing on a regular basis on ER

His big break came in 1996 when he landed the part of Jerry Lundegaard in the Coen brothers wonderful Fargo. The convincing portrayal of the unlucky car salesman rendered him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. Following Fargo, William H Macy started appearing in major supporting roles in major pictures, such as Wag the Dog and Boogie Nights. He also received attention for his series of GAP commercials - which you'd think he'd do no more. Anyway, after a couple of indie films, he was back in supporting roles in blockbusters such as Pleasantville and Magnolia, in which he made a fantastic Quiz Kid Donnie Smith. His latest appearance on the screen was in a semi-leading part in David Mamet's State and Main, 2000.

He lives with his wife Felicity Huffman in Los Angeles.

Major appearances:


reference: mrshowbiz, imdb

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