James Woods

Born: 18th April 1947
Where: Vernal, Utah

James attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a scholarship, where he majored in political science. He dropped out in 1968 two months prior to graduating to pursue acting career.

He moved to New York City, and made his Broadway debut in Borstal Boy, followed a year later by his TV-movie debut in All the Way Home.

His feature film debut came in Elia Kazan's The Visitors. Then in 1973, he landed the small role of a friend and fellow leftist of Barbra Streisand in The Way We directed by Sydney.

After his electrifying performance as unrepentant cop killer Gregory Powell in The Onion Field, James starred in some less than stellar efforts.

He was effective as a villain in Against All Odds, before becoming a critics' darling with Salvador.

In a change of role, James played Dolly Parton's love interest in Straight Talk in 1992, and three years later was a pimp and childhood pal of Sharon Stone's call girl Ginger McKenna in Martin Scorsese's Casino.

That same year, James played H.R. Haldeman in Stone's celebrated Nixon, and received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination the following year for his portrayal of the racist killer Byron De La Beckwith in Rob Reiner's Ghosts of Mississippi.

He played a German-Jewish artist married to Meryl Streep in Holocaust; and appeared as James Garner's schizophrenic brother in Promise, which brought him his first Emmy Award.

He earned a second Emmy for My Name Is Bill W, a biopic of the crusading founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

James also won critical praise for his turn as the defense attorney in Indictment: The McMartin Trial, co-produced by Oliver Stone.