James Woods

His recent work has garnered a much-deserved shower of honors including the Golden Satellite Award for his lead performance in the independent feature, Killer: A Journal of Murder and Golden Globe nominations for both the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie, The Summer of Ben Tyler, and Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi. In Ben Tyler, Woods played the antithesis of the monster he created in Ghosts, a man who adopts a retarded black child in the segregated South of the 1940’s.

The calibre of his work has attracted a number of the world’s finest directors, most recently including Martin Scorsese for whom he appeared in Casino and Kicked in the Head and Oliver Stone for whom he has starred in the director’s Nixon and the film that landed him his first Academy Award nomination, Salvador.

During Woods’ two decades of motion picture and television performances, he has moved effortlessly from big box office studio films to festival-celebrated independent features, comedy to drama. His versatility and range is reflected in his roles as White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman in Nixon, a sleazy Las Vegas pimp in Casino, comedic performances in The Hard Way with Michael J. Fox and Immediate Family opposite Glenn Close, as well as his acclaimed television performances in Indictment: The McMartin Trial and HBO’s Citizen Cohn in which he captured the ruthless essence of McCarthy Committee Counsel Roy Cohn.

Woods’ portraits of controversial real life figures began with his portrayal of cop killer Gregory Powell in Harold Becker’s The Onion Field, and has continued with his roles as Haldeman, Beckwith, Cohn and serial killer Carl Panzram in Killer. His performance in Citizen Cohn remains one of the most enthusiastically reviewed performances in the medium’s history, earning him the first American Television Award Best Actor Trophy (voted by the nation’s critics), the Peabody Award and nominations for literally every other relevant award. Similarly, Jane’s House, in which he starred, was one of the highest-rated television movies in many seasons.

Woods received his first Academy Award nomination and the Independent Film Project’s Spirit Award as Best Actor in Oliver Stone’s Salvador. During that same year, he received the Golden Globe Award, the Golden Apple Award and an Emmy all earned for his performance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Promise . He received another Golden Globe nomination for NBC’s In Love and War. His films that year also included The Boost and Best Seller.

In addition to winning an Emmy for his portrayal of the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous in My Name is Bill W., Woods made the project’s video release possible by foregoing his profit participation in exchange for Warner Bros. agreement to give thousands of copies of the film to the organization. The drama remains a powerful recruiting tool for the program.

James Woods was born in Utah, the son of a military hero and a schoolteacher. He was raised in various places including Illinois, Virginia, Guam and, primarily, Rhode Island. He began his acting career in a typically unorthodox environment for the arts while attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Majoring in political science on full scholarship, he appeared in some 36 plays at M.I.T., Harvard and the Theatre Company of Boston. Summer stock at the Provincetown Playhouse preceded his move to New York to expand his career as an actor.

Woods made his Broadway debut in Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy, and followed with a lead performance in the off-Broadway production of Saved for which he received the Obie Award and the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Actor. Other theater credits include The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Finishing Touches, Green Julia and Michael Weller’s Moonchildren for which he won the Theatre World Award.

Woods made his film debut in Elia Kazan’s The Visitors then played a small but memorable role as Barbra Streisand’s college boyfriend in The Way We Were. His first major starring role was in Alex and the Gypsy opposite Jack Lemmon. He went on to star in Arthur Penn’s Night Moves with Gene Hackman. Joseph Wambaugh’s The Onion Field, directed by Harold Becker, truly launched his film career and earned him his first Golden Globe Award.

Woods made his television debut as Joanne Woodward’s brother in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of All the Way Home. He played Meryl Streep’s husband in the television production of Holocaust and distinguished himself with performances in And Your Name is Jonah, Badge of the Assassin and The Boys.

His film work includes Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, Peter Yates’ Eyewitness with William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver, The Getaway with Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, the Bruce Beresford/Sam Sheppard Curse of the Starving Class opposite Kathy Bates, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, Mordecai Richler’s Joshua, Then and Now, Ted Kotcheff’s Split Image, Against All Odds with Jeff Bridges and True Believer with Robert Downey, Jr.