Cotter Smith
Encyclopedia
Cotter Smith is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stage, film, and television actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

Biography

He was born Joseph Cotter Smith in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, the son of Madeline (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Cotter) and John Lewis Smith, Jr., who was a federal judge. In 1972, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in literature at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...

.

Career

He began his acting career in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1978, studying with Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

 and at the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...

. His New York theater credits include Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...

's An American Daughter (the Broadway premiere); Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.-Early years:...

's Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

-winning How I Learned to Drive
How I Learned To Drive
How I Learned to Drive is a play written by American playwright Paula Vogel. The play premiered on March 16, 1997 off-broadway at the Vineyard Theatre...

; Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Lanford Wilson was an American playwright who helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters...

's Burn This
Burn This
Burn This is a play by Lanford Wilson.-Plot:It begins shortly after the funeral of Robbie, a young gay dancer who drowned in a boating accident. In attendance were his roommates: choreographer Anna and ad man Larry...

; Charles Fuller
Charles Fuller
Charles H. Fuller, Jr. is an American playwright, best known for his play, A Soldier's Play, for which he received the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Early years:...

's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play
A Soldier's Play
A Soldier's Play is a drama by Charles Fuller. The play uses a murder mystery to explore the complicated feelings of anger and resentment that some African Americans have toward one another, and the ways in which many black Americans have absorbed white racist attitudes.This play is loosely based...

; Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...

's Blood Knot
Blood Knot
Blood Knot is an early play by South African playwright, actor, and director Athol Fugard, performed first, but only one time, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1961, with the playwright Fugard and Zakes Mokae playing the brothers Morris and Zachariah....

 and the premiere of Craig Lucas
Craig Lucas
Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.-Biography:...

' The Dying Gaul, among many others. He spent ten years as a member of the Circle Repertory Company working exclusively on the premiere productions of new American plays, and is currently a member of the Vineyard Theatre Company in New York. He co-starred with Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...

 in the National Tour of Art
'Art' (play)
‘Art’ is a French language play by Yasmina Reza that premiered on 28 October 1994 at Comédie des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The English language adaptation, translated by Christopher Hampton opened in London's West End on 15 October 1996, starring Albert Finney. It played on Broadway in New York...

.

He is currently appearing in the premiere of Michael Weller's two-character play SIDE EFFECTS with Joely Richardson at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York, directed by David Auburn and produced by MCC Theater Company. He recently completed a run of the new play KIN by Bathsheba Doran, directed by Sam Gold, at Playwrights Horizons in New York. He also appeared in the new play NEXT FALL by Geoffrey Nauffts for the Naked Angels Theatre Company, which completed its critically acclaimed off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 run in the summer of 2009 and moved to Broadway, opening at the Helen Hayes Theatre in March 2010, where it played for six months. It was nominated for a Tony Award for Best New Play of the Year.

He spent five summers as a member of the Playwrights Lab at Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

's Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981 that actively advances the work of filmmakers and storytellers worldwide...

 and four at the New York Stage and Film Company working on the development of new American plays. He co-founded the Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where he has appeared in The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...

, The Homecoming
The Homecoming
The Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play and its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival...

, Endgame
Endgame (play)
Endgame, by Samuel Beckett, is a one-act play with four characters, written in a style associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. It was originally written in French ; as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English. The play was first performed in a French-language production at the...

, Mad Forest
Mad Forest
Mad Forest: A Play from Romania is a play by English playwright Caryl Churchill. The three acts occur, respectively, shortly before, during, and shortly after the Romanian Revolution of 1989...

, and Habeas Corpus
Habeas Corpus (play)
Habeas Corpus is a comedy stage play by the English author Alan Bennett. It was first performed at the Lyric Theatre in London on 10 May 1973, with Alec Guinness and Margaret Courtenay in the lead roles....

. Other Los Angeles performances include Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, Love Letters
Love Letters (play)
Love Letters is a Pulitzer Prize for Drama nominated play by A. R. Gurney. The play centers on just two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III...

, and Raft of the Medusa
Raft of the Medusa
For other uses, See: Radeau The Raft of the Medusa is an oil painting of 1818–1819 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault . Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism...

, as well as the West Coast premieres of A Soldier's Play and How I Learned to Drive at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...

.

With his wife, Heidi Mueller Smith, he founded and served as Artistic Director from 2001-2007 of the Cornerstone Theatre Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...

, where he directed and taught acting. Among his directing credits for the company are Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...

's The American Dream
The American Dream (play)
The American Dream is an early, one-act play by American playwright Edward Albee. It was first staged 24 January 1961 at the York Playhouse in New York City. The play, a satire on American family life, concerns a married couple and their elderly mother...

, Harold Pinter's Night School, and Lanford Wilson's The Gingham Dog. Some of his acting credits there include 12 Angry Men
12 Angry Men (play)
Twelve Angry Men is a play by Reginald Rose adapted from his 1954 teleplay of the same title for the CBS Studio One anthology television series...

, Betrayal
Betrayal (play)
Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright's major dramatic works, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship,...

, Long Day's Journey into Night
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Long Day's Journey Into Night is a 1956 drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork...

, and Educating Rita
Educating Rita
Educating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University lecturer....

.

Smith has been nominated four times by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle is an organization located in Los Angeles, California, dedicated to excellence in theatrical criticism, and to the encouragement and improvement of theatre in the Greater Los Angeles Area....

 and is the recipient of their Outstanding Performance Award
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards is an annual awards program presented by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle . Established in 1969, the awards recognize excellence in theatre in the Greater Los Angeles Area....

. He has received four Drama-Logue Award
Drama-Logue Award
The Drama-Logue Award was a theater award established in 1977, given by the publishers of Drama-Logue newspaper, a weekly west-coast theater trade publication. Winners were selected by the publication's theater critics, and would receive a certificate at an annual awards ceremony...

s and two Ovation Award nominations.

His television and film work ranges from his debut 25 years ago co-starring as Robert Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

 (opposite Robert Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...

's Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....

) in the mini-series Blood Feud, to his role as the President of the United States in the 20th Century Fox film, X2
X2 (film)
X2 is a 2003 superhero film based on the fictional characters the X-Men. Directed by Bryan Singer, it is the second film in the X-Men film series...

. His most recent film roles have been in the upcoming BURNING BLUE and FRIENDS WITH KIDS. Over the years he has appeared in many television shows, from his regular roles on the ABC series Equal Justice and Night Stalker
Night Stalker (TV series)
Night Stalker is a television series that ran for six weeks in the Fall of 2005 on ABC. The series starred Stuart Townsend as Carl Kolchak, an investigative reporter whose wife was murdered. Kolchak spends his time investigating other strange murders, believing they are linked in some way to his...

 to his recurring roles on Judging Amy
Judging Amy
Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly...

, Tru Calling
Tru Calling
Tru Calling is an American television supernatural drama series that premiered on Fox Network on October 30, 2003. It ran for two seasons before being canceled....

, Courthouse, and Orleans
Orleans (TV series)
Orleans is a short lived American drama series that aired on CBS from January 7, 1997 through April 10, 1997. It ran for only 8 episodes. The series was said to be inspired by the experiences of creater producer Toni Graphia, who was the daughter of a Louisiana judge.-Synopsis:The show was...

. His most recent television role was on the series "White Collar."

Personal life

He and his wife, Heidi Mueller Smith, live in New York City.

Cotter Smith is the father of Madeline, a student at Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

 in New York. He has four stepchildren: Brianne, Christopher, Evan and Byron.

Cotter was married to actress Mel Harris
Mel Harris
Mel Harris is an American actress.-Personal life:Harris was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the daughter to Mary Michael "Mike", a high school science teacher, and Warren Harris, a university football coach...

 from 1988 to 1996. They have a daughter Madeline together born in 1990.

Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Other notes
1984 Nickel Mountain
Nickel Mountain
Nickel Mountain is a drama film produced in Iceland and the United States. It stars actors such as Michael Cole, Heather Langenkamp and Patrick Cassidy. The movie, based on the novel of the same title by American novelist John Gardner, is written and directed by Drew Denbaum....

Tucker
1987 Lady Beware
Lady Beware
Lady Beware is a 1987 American thriller film, directed by Karen Arthur. It stars Diane Lane, Michael Woods, and Cotter Smith. The film is marketed with the tagline "When fantasy leads to terror." It was filmed on location in and around Pittsburgh....

Mac Odell
1988 Cameron's Closet
Cameron's Closet
Cameron's Closet, also known as Cameron's Terror, is a 1988 American horror film. The film was directed by Armand Mastroianni and stars Scott Curtis, Cotter Smith, Mel Harris, Tab Hunter, Kim Lankford, Gary Hudson and William Lustig.-Plot:...

Sergeant Sam Taliaferro
1989 K-9
K-9 (film)
K-9 is a 1989 American action comedy film starring James Belushi and Mel Harris. Directed by Rod Daniel and written by Steven Siegel and Scott Myers, it was produced by Lawrence Gordon and Charles Gordon, and released by Universal City Studios...

Gilliam
1996 Invader Dr. Case Montgomery Alternative title: Lifeform
2003 Reeseville John Meyers
X2
X2 (film)
X2 is a 2003 superhero film based on the fictional characters the X-Men. Directed by Bryan Singer, it is the second film in the X-Men film series...

President McKenna
2005 The Sleeper Dr. Altman
2008 Lunatics, Lovers & Poets Scotty MacGregor
2011 "Burning Blue" Admiral Lynch
"Friends With Kids"
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1982 St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...

Dr. Rowe 1 episode
Hill Street Blues Intern 1 episode
1983 Blood Feud Robert F. Kennedy Television movie
1984 Mistral's Daughter Frank Miniseries
The Master
The Master (TV series)
The Master is a short-lived ninja-themed action-adventure TV series created by Michael Sloan which aired on NBC. The show focused on the adventures of John Peter McAllister, an aging ninja master , and his young pupil, Max Keller...

Chad Webster 1 episode
Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from October 8, 1981 to May 16, 1988...

Captain Fuller 1 episode
1985 A Bunny's Tale
A Bunny's Tale
A Bunny's Tale is a 1985 television film based on American feminist icon and journalist Gloria Steinem's experiences working as a Playboy Bunny in 1963. It stars Kirstie Alley as Steinem.-Plot Summary:...

Ned Holcomb Television movie
Moonlighting
Moonlighting (TV series)
Moonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes...

Brian Baker 1 episode
The Rape of Richard Beck
The Rape of Richard Beck
-Plot:Richard Beck is a police detective who believes that rape victims are to blame for the crime. He is later raped by two of the suspects he had been chasing...

Lt. Hugo Television movie
Hardcastle and McCormick
Hardcastle and McCormick
Hardcastle and McCormick is a 1980s action/drama television series from Stephen J. Cannell Productions, shown on ABC from 1983–1986, starring Brian Keith as Judge Milton C. Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh Kelly as ex-con and race car driver Mark "Skid" McCormick.The show's premise involves the...

Randy Hopke 1 episode
1986 The Twilight Zone Mitchell Chaplin 1 episode
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...

Robert Rhine 1 episode
D.C. Cops Michael Halsey Television movie
1990 Equal Justice Deputy D.A. Eugene "Gene" Rogan Television movie
1990-1991 Equal Justice Deputy D.A. Eugene "Gene" Rogan 25 episodes
1991 The Last Prostitute Joe Television movie
1992 Midnight's Child Television movie
A Message from Holly Television movie
1993 A Place to Be Loved
A Place to Be Loved
A Place to Be Loved is a 1993 television movie with Richard Crenna and Rhea Perlman. It was released in the United Kingdom under the title Shattered Family.-Plot summary:...

Mike Caldwell Television movie
With Hostile Intent Officer Rob Arnold Television movie
L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...

Tony Henderson 3 episodes
Desperate Journey: The Allison Wilcox Story Steve Television movie
1994 Armed and Innocent Lonnie Television movie
1995 Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...

Dr. Bob Marinak 1 episode
Courthouse Andrew Rawson 6 episodes
Remember Me Adam Nichols Television movie
1996 High Incident
High Incident
High Incident is a police drama series produced by DreamWorks Television for the ABC network. The show was created by Steven Spielberg, Michael Pavone, Eric Bogosian and Dave Alan Johnson...

1 episode
1997 Spy Game
Spy Game (TV series)
Spy Game is a short-lived American action-adventure television series that aired on the ABC network for 13 episodes during the spring and summer of 1997...

Adam Quill 1 episode
Bridge of Time Robert Creighton Television movie
Orleans Bill Brennecke 1 episode
Law & Order Eric Martin 1 episode
1998 Oz
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...

Judge Benjamin Fee 1 episode
Trinity Agent 1 episode
1999 Vengeance Unlimited
Vengeance Unlimited
Vengeance Unlimited was a TV series broadcasted during 1998-1999 on ABC which lasted for just one season of sixteen episodes. The show starred Michael Madsen as Mr. Chapel, a mysterious and pragmatic character keen on serving justice to those who have been ignored by the law...

Stan Garcos 1 episode
2000 Run the Wild Fields Silas Green Television movie
2001-2005 Judging Amy ASA Jeremy Friedman 4 episodes
2004 Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...

Agent Foster 1 episode
2004-2005 Tru Calling Richard Davies 6 episodes
2005-2006 Night Stalker Tony Vincenzo 10 episodes
2006 Commander in Chief
Commander in Chief (TV series)
Commander in Chief is an American drama television series that focused on the fictional administration and family of Mackenzie Allen , the first female President of the United States, who ascends to the role from the Vice Presidency after the death of the sitting President from a sudden cerebral...

Governor Stan Preston 1 episode
NCIS
NCIS (TV series)
NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...

NCIS Special Agent in Charge Sam Stevens 1 episode
Invasion
Invasion (TV series)
Invasion is an American science fiction television series that aired on ABC for only one season beginning in September 2005. Somewhat similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the show told the story of the aftermath of a hurricane in which water-based creatures infiltrate a small Florida town and...

Deputy Buell 1 episode
Without a Trace Fr. Sean McGinnis 1 episode
The Unit
The Unit
The Unit is an American action-drama television series that focuses on a top-secret military unit modeled after the real-life U.S. Army special operations unit commonly known as Delta Force...

1 episode
2008 Depth Charge Television movie

External links

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