William Atherton

Born: 30 July 1947
Where: Orange, Connecticut, USA

Reliable supporting actor William Atherton has been a stalwart of the American screen since his feature debut in The New Centurions in 1972.

He was already experienced off Broadway, and it was after his first move into film that Broadway called and the bright lights of New York became too much of an attraction to pass up.

Throughput the 70's he became a regular face on stage, and in 1974 William gained positive critical attention for his work opposite Goldie Hawn in Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express.

In the same year William showed off another of his talents - his voice. He sang What'll I Do? behind title credits for The Great Gatsby.

His credits in the 70s included fairly major parts in The Hindenberg and Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and in 1984 he co-starred in Ghostbusters as the butt of most of Bill Murray's jokes!

It was four years later that William created what was to become a cult movie figure - the role of newscaster Dick Thornburg in Die Hard - which he reprised in the sequel two years later.

In 1993 he appeared in The Pelican Brief, and Mad City was another of his hits.

Most recently William has completed the filming of The Last Samurai in New Zealand with Tom Cruise.