William Atherton (born July 30, 1947) is an American
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
,
stageTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
actor.
Atherton was born
William Atherton Knight II in
Orange, ConnecticutOrange is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,233 at the 2000 census. A 2007 Census Bureau estimate puts the population at 13,813. The town is governed by a Board of Selectmen.- History :...
, the son of Myrtle (
néeA married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage, and in speaking of the many cultures where the practice is traditional for women, the maiden name is the family name that the married name replaces....
Robison) and Robert Atherton Knight. He attended the
Carnegie Institute of TechnologyThe Carnegie Institute of Technology , one of the predecessors to Carnegie Mellon University, was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. His stated intention was to build a "first class technical school" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the children of local steel...
and the
Pasadena PlayhouseThe Pasadena Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Pasadena, California.-History:The Playhouse's history began in 1917 when actor/director Gilmor Brown began producing a season of plays at an old burlesque house he called the Savoy...
.
After a handful of small film roles, Atherton got his big break playing hapless fugitive Clovis Poplin in
The Sugarland ExpressThe Sugarland Express is a 1974 American drama film starring Goldie Hawn and William Atherton. It is the first theatrical feature film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is about a husband and wife trying to outrun the law and was based on a true story. The event partially took place, the story is...
, the feature film debut of
Steven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern...
.
William Atherton (born July 30, 1947) is an American
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
,
stageTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
actor.
Early life
Atherton was born
William Atherton Knight II in
Orange, ConnecticutOrange is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,233 at the 2000 census. A 2007 Census Bureau estimate puts the population at 13,813. The town is governed by a Board of Selectmen.- History :...
, the son of Myrtle (
néeA married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage, and in speaking of the many cultures where the practice is traditional for women, the maiden name is the family name that the married name replaces....
Robison) and Robert Atherton Knight. He attended the
Carnegie Institute of TechnologyThe Carnegie Institute of Technology , one of the predecessors to Carnegie Mellon University, was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. His stated intention was to build a "first class technical school" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the children of local steel...
and the
Pasadena PlayhouseThe Pasadena Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Pasadena, California.-History:The Playhouse's history began in 1917 when actor/director Gilmor Brown began producing a season of plays at an old burlesque house he called the Savoy...
.
Career
After a handful of small film roles, Atherton got his big break playing hapless fugitive Clovis Poplin in
The Sugarland ExpressThe Sugarland Express is a 1974 American drama film starring Goldie Hawn and William Atherton. It is the first theatrical feature film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is about a husband and wife trying to outrun the law and was based on a true story. The event partially took place, the story is...
, the feature film debut of
Steven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern...
. After this, he garnered major roles in dark dramas such as
Looking for Mr. GoodbarLooking for Mr. Goodbar is a 1975 novel by Judith Rossner. Rossner based the novel on the events surrounding the brutal murder of Roseann Quinn, a 28-year-old New York City schoolteacher in 1973....
and
The Day of the LocustThe Day of the Locust is a 1975 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger. The screenplay by Waldo Salt is based on the 1939 novel of the same title by Nathanael West...
, as well as the big-budget disaster film
The HindenburgThe Hindenburg is a movie based on the disaster of the German airship Hindenburg. The film was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was written by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link based on the book of the same name by Michael M. Mooney . A.A...
. He also played the young cowboy Jim Lloyd in the 1978 miniseries
CentennialCentennial is a 12-episode American television miniseriesthat aired on NBC from October 1978 to February 1979. It was based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener. The miniseries was produced by John Wilder....
, based on the novel by James Michener.
Atherton entered pop culture history in 1984, when he appeared in the hit comedy
GhostbustersGhostbusters is a 1984 science-fiction comedy film written by co-stars Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis about three eccentric New York City parapsychologists-turned-ghost exterminators. The film was released in the United States on June 8, 1984 and like several films of the era, teamed Aykroyd and/or...
as the overbearing
EPAThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land...
agent Walter Peck. Atherton was almost injured on the set when 200 pounds of shaving cream were dumped on him from a crane to simulate a torrent of molten marshmallow engulfing him, nearly knocking him off his feet.
In 1985,
Martha CoolidgeMartha Coolidge is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America.-Filmography:* Valley Girl * City Girl * National Lampoon's Joy of Sex...
chose Atherton to play Professor Jerry Hathaway in the teen comedy
Real GeniusReal Genius is a 1985 satirical comedy film starring Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret. The film is set on the campus of "Pacific Tech", a fictitious technical university in the US based on Caltech, although some elements of the plot and campus refer to events at Carnegie Mellon University . Chris...
. In 1988, Atherton played
narcissisticSee also narcissistic personality disorder and malignant narcissism.The term narcissism refers to the personality trait of self-esteem, which includes the set of character traits concerned with self-image or ego. The terms narcissism, narcissistic, and narcissist are often used as pejoratives,...
reporter Dick Thornburg in the blockbuster action film
Die HardDie Hard is a 1988 action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which was...
, as well as its 1990
sequelDie Hard 2, also known as Die Hard 2: Die Harder, is a 1990 action film, and the second installment of the Die Hard series. It was directed by Renny Harlin, and stars Bruce Willis as John McClane...
.
Other film credits include
No MercyNo Mercy is a 1986 film starring Richard Gere and Kim Basinger about a cop who accepts an offer to kill a Cajun gangster.-Plot:Maverick Chicago cop Eddie Jillette poses as a hit man to meet with someone in from New Orleans looking to have a job done...
,
The Pelican BriefThe Pelican Brief is a 1993 legal crime thriller film based on the novel of the same name by John Grisham. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Julia Roberts in the role of young law student Darby Shaw and Denzel Washington as Washington Herald reporter Gray Grantham.-Plot:Two Supreme Court...
,
Bio-DomeBio-Dome is a 1996 movie starring Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin and directed by Jason Bloom. The story centers on two men named Bud and Doyle and their experience inside a "bio-dome", a form of a closed ecological system.-Plot:...
,
Mad CityMad City is a 1997 drama and thriller film written by Tom Matthews and Eric Williams, directed by Costa Gavras, and starring John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Blythe Danner, Ted Levine, Raymond J...
,
The Crow: SalvationThe Crow: Salvation was the third movie based on The Crow comic by James O'Barr. It was directed by Bharat Nalluri and released direct to video in 2000 after its distributor cancelled the intended theatrical release.-Plot summary:...
,
The Last SamuraiThe Last Samurai is a 2003 drama film/war film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan.This film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward...
,
Grim Prairie TalesGrim Prairie Tales is a 1990 American horror film, directed and written by Wayne Coe, and starring James Earl Jones and Brad Dourif. It is an anthology film of four western stories, told by two travellers around a prairie campfire...
, the TV movies
Buried Alive,
Headspace and
VirusVirus is a 1995 television movie starring Nicollette Sheridan, William Devane, Stephen Caffrey, Dakin Matthews, Kurt Fuller, Barry Corbin and William Atherton. It was directed by Armand Mastroianni and written by Robin Cook and Roger Young, based on Cook's novel Outbreak. The film is also known as...
. He has also made guest appearances on such TV shows as
The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
,
Desperate HousewivesDesperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry, who also serves as show runner, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producers, as of the fourth season, are Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
,
The EqualizerThe Equalizer was an American urban vigilante television series initially broadcast on CBS between 1985 and 1989.-Overview:The series stars British actor Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former secret agent of an unnamed organization, which was often referred to simply as "The Agency" or "The...
,
Law & OrderLaw & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, which premiered on NBC on September 13, 1990. Created by Dick Wolf, the series is set in New York City, and follows the professional lives of several police officers and prosecutors who represent the public interest in...
and
MonkMonk is an American crime drama, created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular Adrian Monk. It is primarily a mystery series, although the show also features broadly comic touches. The show debuted on July 12, 2002, on the USA Network...
. Atherton also provided the voice of Dr. Destiny on
Justice LeagueJustice League Unlimited is an American animated television series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and specifically based on the Justice League superhero team, it is a direct sequel to the...
. Recently, Atherton guest starred in several episodes of NBC's detective drama
Life.
His 2007 appearances included
Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next DoorThe Girl Next Door is a 2007 film adaptation of the 1989 novel of the same name by Jack Ketchum. It is loosely based on the true story of the murder of Sylvia Likens.-Plot:...
, an adaptation of the best-selling novel
The Girl Next DoorThe Girl Next Door was written by author Jack Ketchum in 1989. It is loosely based on the true story of the murder of Sylvia Likens in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1965.-Synopsis:...
.
He has reprised his role as Walter Peck in
Ghostbusters: The Video GameGhostbusters: The Video Game is a 2009 crossplatform action game based on the Ghostbusters film franchise. Terminal Reality developed the Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions, while Red Fly Studio developed the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Wii versions, and Zen Studios...
, released on June 16, 2009.