Ed Harris

Born: 28th November 1950
Where: Englewood, New Jersey

Four-times Oscar nominated Harris has demonstrated himself to be one of the most adaptable actors of his generation.

Plaudits have come for roles in big movies including Apollo 13, The Truman Show, The Hours and Pollock.

A keen sportsman in high school, his football skills won him a scholarship to Columbia University.

However, in 1971 he dropped out to follow his parents to Oklahoma, and enrolled at Oklahoma University, where he developed an interest in theatre.

He moved to Los Angeles, where he entered the California Institute of the Arts, which granted him a fine-arts degree in 1975.

Stage work followed and in 1978 he landed a small part in Coma and offered an impressive turn two years later in his first leading role in George Romero's Knightriders.

His first major film role came in 1980 when he played a killer in the Charles Bronson movie Borderline.

In 1986, he returned to his stage roots and made his Broadway debut opposite Judith Ivey as the stern but loving father in George Furth's autobiographical Precious Sons, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination.

The 90s saw Harris deliver more complex and chilling roles.

He appeared alongside Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, and Jack Lemmon in Glengarry Glen Ross; was a double-dealing FBI agent in the Tom Cruise vehicle The Firm; and stepped to the other side of the law as a creepy serial killer in Just Cause.

In 1995, Harris nailed the role of NASA mission control flight director Gene Kranz in director Ron Howard's astronaut homage Apollo 13, and his performance earned him first Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.

Harris received a second Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the God-like creator-director of a popular 24-hour-a-day TV series in The Truman Show.

Roles followed as a German sniper in Stalingrad drama Enemy At The Gates, Parcher in the Oscar-nominated A Beautiful Mind and parts in Stepmom in Waking th Dead.

He received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the artist Pollock, in a film by the same name which he also directed.

Next up was the part of an inept base commander in the excellent Buffalo Soldiers and an AIDs-stricken artist in The Hours.

Recent work has included The Human Stain with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman and Radio alongside Cuba Gooding Jr.