Donald Moffat
Encyclopedia
Donald Moffat is an English-born actor, now a naturalized American citizen.
, Devon
, the only child of Kathleen Mary (née
Smith) and Walter George Moffat, who was an insurance agent. His parents ran a boarding house in Totnes
. Completing his studies at the local King Edward VI School
and national service
in the Army
, Moffat trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
in London
.
, and was nominated for a Tony for Best Actor in a Play in 1967 for his roles in revivals of Henrik Ibsen
's The Wild Duck
and Pirandello's Right You Are If You Think You Are. He was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in the revival of Eugene O'Neill
's The Iceman Cometh
(1986) with Jason Robards
. He won an Obie
for Painting Churches
.
His best known film role is probably the corrupt U.S. President in Clear and Present Danger
. He has appeared on television in Logan's Run
, The West Wing
, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
and Tales of the City
, in which his performance as dying executive Edgar Halcyon earned him many new fans. He has also appeared in many Broadway
plays, including the world premieres of John Guare's A Few Stout Individuals (as Ulysses S. Grant
), Painting Churches
, The Heiress
, The Cherry Orchard
, Much Ado About Nothing
, The School for Scandal
, The Affair
, and Hamlet
.
Early life
Moffat was born in PlymouthPlymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, the only child of Kathleen Mary (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....
Smith) and Walter George Moffat, who was an insurance agent. His parents ran a boarding house in Totnes
Totnes
Totnes is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
. Completing his studies at the local King Edward VI School
King Edward VI Community College
King Edward VI Community College is a secondary school in Totnes, Devon, England. The College enjoy a favoured open site in the Dart valley amidst the rolling South Hams countryside...
and national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in the Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, Moffat trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Career
Moffat began his career as a stage actor in London and New York. His first work was at the Old Vic Theatre Company in London. He joined APA (The Association of Producing Artists), a repertory company on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, and was nominated for a Tony for Best Actor in a Play in 1967 for his roles in revivals of Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck is an 1884 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.-Plot:The first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Håkon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father's home following a self-imposed...
and Pirandello's Right You Are If You Think You Are. He was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in the revival of Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's The Iceman Cometh
The Iceman Cometh
The Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1940 the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on 9 October 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling where it ran for 136 performances to close on 15 March 1947.-Characters:* Night Hawk-...
(1986) with Jason Robards
Jason Robards
Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...
. He won an Obie
Obie
Obie may refer to:* Bill "Obie" O'Billovich , a former coach in the Canadian Football League* Obie Award, off-Broadway Theater Award* Obie Baizley , Canadian politician* Obie Bermúdez , pop singer and composer...
for Painting Churches
Painting Churches
Painting Churches is a play written by Tina Howe, first produced Off-Broadway in 1976. It was a finalist for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play concerns the relationship between an artist daughter and her aging parents.-Plot:...
.
His best known film role is probably the corrupt U.S. President in Clear and Present Danger
Clear and Present Danger (film)
Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 film directed by Phillip Noyce, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy. It is a subsequent release to the 1992 film Patriot Games, which in itself is a subsequent release to the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October.It is the last film to feature Harrison...
. He has appeared on television in Logan's Run
Logan's Run (TV series)
Logan's Run is a 1977–1978 American CBS-TV series and a spin-off from the 1976 film of the same name.- Cast :*Gregory Harrison as Logan 5*Heather Menzies as Jessica 6*Donald Moffat as Rem*Randy Powell as Francis- Episode list :...
, The West Wing
The West Wing (TV series)
The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...
, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman is an American post-Civil War western/drama series created by Beth Sullivan. Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn, played by Jane Seymour, left Boston in search of adventure. She goes to Colorado Springs, Colorado where she establishes herself as doctor/adviser.The show ran on CBS...
and Tales of the City
Tales of the City (miniseries)
Tales of the City is a 1993 television miniseries based on the first of the Tales of the City series of novels by Armistead Maupin.To date, the first three books in the sequence have been adapted into television miniseries; the first, Tales of the City, was produced by the UK's Channel 4 and was...
, in which his performance as dying executive Edgar Halcyon earned him many new fans. He has also appeared in many Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
plays, including the world premieres of John Guare's A Few Stout Individuals (as Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
), Painting Churches
Painting Churches
Painting Churches is a play written by Tina Howe, first produced Off-Broadway in 1976. It was a finalist for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play concerns the relationship between an artist daughter and her aging parents.-Plot:...
, The Heiress
The Heiress (play)
The Heiress is a 1947 play by American playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel, Washington Square. The play opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on 29 September 1947 directed by Jed Harris starring Wendy Hiller, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Cookson...
, The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
, Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
, The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...
, The Affair
The Affair (play)
The Affair is a 1962 play by Ronald Miller based on the novel by C.P. Snow.-Synopsis:A group of professors at Cambridge University try to hire an old colleague back even though they all don't like him, they all agree he was dismissed unfairly....
, and Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
.
Selected Filmography
- 61* (2001) as Ford Frick
- Cookie's FortuneCookie's FortuneCookie's Fortune is a 1999 comedy film directed by Robert Altman and starring an ensemble cast, including Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close, Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell...
(1999) as Jack Palmer - The Unbearable Lightness of BeingThe Unbearable Lightness of BeingThe Unbearable Lightness of Being , written by Milan Kundera, is a philosophical novel about two men, two women, a dog and their lives in the Prague Spring of the Czechoslovak Communist period in 1968. Although written in 1982, the novel was not published until two years later, in France...
(1998) as Chief Surgeon - The Evening StarThe Evening StarThe Evening Star is a 1996 sequel to Academy Award for Best Picture-winning Terms of Endearment, starring Shirley MacLaine, who reprises the role of Aurora Greenway she played in the original film. The movie takes place about fifteen years after the original following the characters from 1988 to...
(1996) as Hector Scott - Trapped in ParadiseTrapped in ParadiseTrapped in Paradise is a 1994 Christmas-themed crime comedy film written and directed by George Gallo, and starring Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, and Dana Carvey.-Plot:...
(1994) as Clifford Anderson - Clear and Present DangerClear and Present Danger (film)Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 film directed by Phillip Noyce, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy. It is a subsequent release to the 1992 film Patriot Games, which in itself is a subsequent release to the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October.It is the last film to feature Harrison...
(1994) as the fictional President Bennett - HousesitterHouseSitterHouseSitter is a 1992 romantic comedy film directed by Frank Oz, written by Mark Stein, and starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. The premise involves a woman with con-artist tendencies who worms her way into the life of a reserved architect by claiming to be his wife.-Plot:Newton Davis is a...
(1992) as George Davis - Regarding HenryRegarding HenryRegarding Henry is a 1991 American film drama starring Harrison Ford and Annette Bening, directed by Mike Nichols.The screenplay by J. J. Abrams focuses on a New York City lawyer who struggles to regain his memory and recover his speech and mobility after he survives a shooting.-Plot:Ambitious,...
(1991) as Charlie Cameron - Class ActionClass Action (1991 film)Class Action is a 1991 American drama thriller film directed by Michael Apted. Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio star; Laurence Fishburne, Colin Friels, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Donald Moffat are also featured.-Plot:...
(1991) as Quinn - The Bonfire of the VanitiesThe Bonfire of the Vanities (film)The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1990 American film adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow, Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin, and Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy,...
(1990) as Mr. McCoy - The Bourne IdentityThe Bourne Identity (1988 film)The Bourne Identity is a 1988 television movie adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity.The film follows the storyline of the novel, with a run-time of 3 hours 5 min...
(1988) as David Abbott - The Best of TimesThe Best of Times (film)The Best of Times is a 1986 American film starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell.-Plot:Robin Williams plays Jack Dundee, a banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life: The moment that he dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school...
(1986) as the Colonel - The Right Stuff (1983) as U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
- The Thing (1982) as Garry, the Station Commander
- The ChisholmsThe ChisholmsThe Chisholms is a CBS western miniseries starring Robert Preston, which aired thirteen episodes from March 29, 1979, to April 19, 1979, and from January 19, 1980, to March 15, 1980. The 1979 episodes showed the family moving from Virginia to Wyoming...
CBS miniseries (1980) as Enos - The Long Days of Summer (1980) as Josef Kaplan
- Popeye (1980) as the Taxman
- On the NickelOn the NickelOn the Nickel is a feature film written, produced by, and starring Ralph Waite ....
(1980) as Sam - TartuffeTartuffeTartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
(1978) as Tartuffe - Eleanor and Franklin: The White House YearsEleanor and Franklin: The White House YearsEleanor and Franklin: The White House Years is a made-for-television movie that was a sequel to the previous year's Eleanor and Franklin. Originally airing on March 13, 1977, it was part of a two-part biopic directed by Daniel Petrie based on Joseph P. Lash's Pulitzer prize-winning biography...
(1977) as Harry HopkinsHarry HopkinsHarry Lloyd Hopkins was one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's closest advisers. He was one of the architects of the New Deal, especially the relief programs of the Works Progress Administration , which he directed and built into the largest employer in the country... - Logan's Run (TV series)Logan's Run (TV series)Logan's Run is a 1977–1978 American CBS-TV series and a spin-off from the 1976 film of the same name.- Cast :*Gregory Harrison as Logan 5*Heather Menzies as Jessica 6*Donald Moffat as Rem*Randy Powell as Francis- Episode list :...
(1977-1978) as Rem - EarthquakeEarthquake (film)Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations...
(1974) as Dr. Harvey Johnson - The Battle of the River PlateThe Battle of the River Plate (film)The Battle of the River Plate is a 1956 British war film by director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring John Gregson, Anthony Quayle and Peter Finch...
(U.S. title Pursuit of the Graf Spee) (1956) as Swanston, LookoutLookoutA lookout or look-out is a person on a ship in charge of the observation of the sea for hazards, other ships, land, etc. Lookouts report anything they see and or hear. When reporting contacts, lookouts give information such as, bearing of the object, which way the object is headed, target angles...
, HMS AjaxHMS Ajax (22)HMS Ajax was a Leander class light cruiser which served with the British Royal Navy during World War II. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, the Battle of Crete, the Battle of Malta and as a supply escort in the Siege of Tobruk. This ship was the eighth in the Royal...
(uncredited)