Matinee Classics - William Atherton Biography & Filmography

William Atherton ACTOR

WILLIAM ATHERTON BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

William Atherton was born on July 30th, 1947 in Orange, Connecticut with the birth name William Atherton Knight, born to Robert and Roby Atherton Knight. He first became involved in acting when he attended the Drama School at Carnegie Tech and in 1969, he graduated from Carnegie-Mellon.

His professional career began as a stage actor in New York where he performed in a number of Off-Broadway as well as Broadway productions. He had begun to make quite a name for himself as a stage actor and soon began to catch the eye of Hollywood.

His film debut was in, "The Sugarland Express" (1974) starring Goldie Hawn and Ben Johnson which followed with lead roles in such features as, "The Day of the Locust" (1975) starring alongside Burgess Meredith, Karen Black and Donald Sutherland, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977) starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere and Tuesday Weld, "The Hindenburg" (1975) starring George C. Scott and Anne Bancroft, "Ghostbusters" (1984) starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver and "The Real Genius" (1985) starring Val Kilmer.

Soon he began to take on more prominent and successful film roles adding to his resume appearances in, "No Mercy" (1986) starring Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, "Die Hard" (1988) starring Bruce Willis and Bonnie Bedelia, "Die Hard 2" (1990), "The Pelican Brief" (1993) starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts, "Bio-Dome" (1996), "Grim Praire Tales" (1990) starring James Earl Jones, "Man City" (1997) and "The Crow" (2000).

In addition to his many film roles he has also starred on a variety of television series such as, "Murder, She Wrote", "Boston Legal", "Monk", "Law & Order", "The Twilight Zone", "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost".

Atherton has also appeared in a variety of television movies such as, "Broken Trust" (1995) co-starring Tom Selleck and Elizabeth McGovern and "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge" (1999). In addition to his film and television work, he continues to return to stage acting and has added such production credits as, "The House of Blue Leaves", "Rich and Famous", "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel" and "The American Clock" among others.

More recently he has added even more successful film roles such as, "The Girl Next Door" (2007), "Jinn" (2012), "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie" (2012), "The Citizen" (2012) and the television series, "The Unknown" (2012).

He has received a number of honors while being a part of the entertainment industry. Atherton has been recognized for his talent as a stage actor receiving such honors as, a Drama Desk Award, the Outer Circle Critics Award and a Theatre World Award.

William Atherton is currently married to his only and only wife, Bobbi Goldin whom he wed in 1980.