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Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor. He is known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, in addition to nominations for five Golden Globe Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Tony Awards.
He made his film debut in Miloš Forman's drama Ragtime (1981) followed by James L. Brooks's Terms of Endearment (1983), and Mike Nichols's Heartburn (1986). He then received three Golden Globe Award nominations for Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986), and Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale (2005). He starred in a variety of genre films such as Gettysburg (1993), Speed (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), 101 Dalmatians (1996), and Pleasantville (1998). He also took roles in critically acclaimed films such as The Hours (2002), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Infamous (2006), Looper (2012), Steve Jobs (2015), and The Martian (2015).
From 2012 to 2014, Daniels starred as Will McAvoy in the HBO political drama series The Newsroom, for which he won the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. He won a second Primetime Emmy Award in 2018 for his performance in the Netflix miniseries Godless (2017). He has portrayed real life figures such as John P. O'Neill in the Hulu miniseries The Looming Tower (2018), and FBI director James Comey in The Comey Rule (2020) for Showtime.
Daniels is also known for his roles on stage making his Broadway debut in Gemini (1977). He went on to receive three nominations for the Tony Best Actor in a Play for his roles in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage (2009), David Harrower's Blackbird (2016), and Aaron Sorkin's To Kill a Mockingbird (2018–2021). He is the founder and current executive director of the Chelsea, Michigan Purple Rose Theatre Company.
Daniels briefly attended Central Michigan University and participated in the school's theater program. In the summer of 1976, he attended the Eastern Michigan University drama school to participate in a special Bicentennial Repertory program, where he performed in The Hot L Baltimore and three other plays performed in repertoire. Marshall W. Mason was the guest director at EMU, and he invited Daniels to come to New York to work at the Circle Repertory Theatre, where he performed in Fifth of July by Lanford Wilson in the 1977–78 season. Daniels performed in New York in The Shortchanged Review (1979) at Second Stage Theatre.
In 1985, Daniels starred in Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo alongside Mia Farrow and Danny Aiello. The film was met with critical praise earning a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus reading, "lighthearted and sweet, Purple Rose stands as one of Woody Allen's more inventive – and enchantingly whimsical – pictures." Daniels garnered a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance. It was the film that inspired the name for the theater company he established. In 1986, he starred in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild as an unassuming businessman swept up into a wild night by a mysterious woman (Melanie Griffith) and earned his second Golden Globe nomination. Also that year, Daniels had a supporting role alongside Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in Heartburn, directed by Mike Nichols. In 1988, he co-starred with Kelly McGillis in Peter Yates' neo-noir The House on Carroll Street, and appeared in the ensemble dramedy Sweet Hearts Dance with Susan Sarandon, Don Johnson and Elizabeth Perkins. He had the lead in Checking Out (1989), which received only a limited theatrical release.
Daniels continued his work in the theater with Redwood Curtain (1993). Off-Broadway, he starred in Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky with Cynthia Nixon where he received a Drama Desk nomination for and an Obie Award for his performance in the Circle Repertory Company production of Johnny Got His Gun.
In 1994, Daniels would co-star with Jim Carrey in one of his most commercially successful films, Dumb and Dumber. It was a noted departure for Daniels, owing to his status as a dramatic actor. Earlier that year, Daniels appeared with Keanu Reeves in the action blockbuster Speed; the film was an enormous hit, grossing over $350 million at the box office. Daniels would then host Saturday Night Live a second time before the release of the 1996 Disney live-action remake of 101 Dalmatians. Daniels starred as the owner of a litter of dalmatians stolen by the evil Cruella De Vil (Glenn Close). The film was successful, grossing $320 million. Daniels plays a grungy cop Alvin Strayer along with Eric Stoltz in 2 Days in the Valley. Also in 1996 was the family hit film Fly Away Home with Daniels as the supportive single father of Anna Paquin's goose-raising preteen. Daniels then had a critical and commercial misfire with Trial and Error (1997). He would rebound, however, with 1998's Pleasantville as diner owner Bill Johnson, who learns to act as an individual and rebel against the norm at the urging of Tobey Maguire's David. Also starring Reese Witherspoon, Joan Allen, and Don Knotts, Pleasantville was nominated for three Academy Awards. Daniels starred alongside Christopher Lloyd's comedy My Favorite Martian.
Daniels starred in the TV films The Crossing, Cheaters, and the direct-to-video release Chasing Sleep. At this point, in the early 2000s, he began to focus more on his theater work at The Purple Rose Theatre as well as writing, starring, and directing the films Escanaba in da Moonlight and Super Sucker. Daniels's next major film role would be in Clint Eastwood's Blood Work, which received mixed reviews and was a commercial failure. He would rebound later that year with Stephen Daldry's Academy Award-winning The Hours alongside Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman. The film was also a financial success, grossing well over $100 million. Gods and Generals followed in 2003, as did the action film I Witness, which co-starred James Spader. Daniels then starred in Imaginary Heroes and the 2004 television film adaptation of fellow Michigander and friend Mitch Albom's bestseller The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
The year 2005 proved to be a strong year for Daniels as he garnered notice as the star of the lauded Noah Baumbach film The Squid and the Whale with Laura Linney. Daniels received his third Golden Globe nomination for the film, about a divorcing couple and the effect the split has on their children. That year Daniels also starred in the family film adaptation of Because of Winn-Dixie. He would round out the year with a supporting role in George Clooney's Oscar-nominated film Good Night and Good Luck, starring David Straithairn, Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. In 2006, Daniels appeared in the Truman Capote biopic Infamous starring Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sigourney Weaver. The film was compared by critics to Bennett Miller's 2005 film Capote starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Chris Cooper.
Daniels appeared in an Off-Broadway production of David Harrower's Blackbird in 2007 alongside Allison Pill, with whom he would later reunite in Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom. Daniels then starred in Barry Sonnenfeld's family film RV, alongside Robin Williams, as the redneck comic foil to Williams' uptight businessman. He also starred in two other independent films, Mama's Boy and The Lookout, for which he was nominated for a Satellite Award and Traitor (2008) with Don Cheadle.
Daniels had a career resurgence with his turn in Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama series The Newsroom (2012–2014) as fictional news anchor Will McAvoy. The opening scene of the pilot episode "We Just Decided To", in which Daniels gives a monologue on the state of American greatness, has been viewed more than 23 million times. While the show received mixed reviews, Daniels won the Primetime Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the first season. The series ran for two more seasons, for which Daniels was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award. The show also starred Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher Jr., Sam Waterston, Olivia Munn, Alison Pill, Dev Patel, and Jane Fonda. In 2015, Daniels reunited with Sorkin in the biographical drama film Steve Jobs, portraying CEO John Sculley. Daniels starred alongside Michael Fassbender, and Kate Winslet, both of whom received Academy Award nominations for their performances. The film was directed by Academy Award-winner Danny Boyle and written by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin. The film was a critical success earning an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus reading, "Like the tech giant co-founded by its subject, Steve Jobs gathers brilliant people to deliver a product whose elegance belies the intricate complexities at its core." Sorkin won the Golden Globe for its screenplay. He played David in and was set to reprise the role in the planned The Divergent Series: Ascendant. In 2014 he reprised his role as Harry Dunne in Dumb and Dumber To reuniting with Jim Carrey.
In 2017, Daniels starred in Netflix's western miniseries Godless where he portrayed the villain Frank Griffin. He starred alongside Michelle Dockery, Merritt Wever, and Sam Waterston. Daniels won critical praise for his performance and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Supporting Actor in a Miniseries, which he won. In 2018, Daniels's Hulu miniseries The Looming Tower traces the rising threat of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in the late 1990s and how the rivalry between the FBI and CIA during that time may have inadvertently set the path for the tragedy of 9/11. Daniels played John O'Neill, the chief of the New York FBI's Counter-terrorism Center. The ensemble included Bill Camp, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Peter Sarsgaard. Daniels won widespread critical acclaim and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Limited Series.
In 2018, Daniels starred as Atticus Finch, reuniting with Aaron Sorkin in his stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. The play opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre. The production began previews on November 1, 2018, prior to its official opening on December 13, 2018. During the week ending on December 23, 2018, the production grossed over $1.5 million, breaking the record for box office grosses for a non-musical play in a theater owned by The Shubert Organization. Daniels received his third Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. The show received 8 other Tony Award nominations. In June 2019, producer Scott Rudin announced that Daniels would leave the production in November 2019 and would be succeeded by Ed Harris. His last performance was on November 3, 2019.
Daniels narrated the History Channel miniseries on George Washington titled Washington (2020). The 3 part documentary series premiered on February 16, 2020. On September 27, 2020, Daniels portrayed FBI director James Comey in the 2 part limited series, The Comey Rule which debuted on Showtime. The project is based on Comey's memoir, A Higher Loyalty (2018), and was written and directed by Billy Ray. The cast included Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump, Jennifer Ehle as Patrice Comey, Holly Hunter as Sally Yates, and Michael Kelly as Andrew McCabe. Daniels won critical praise for his performance as Comey and received a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2019, it was announced that Showtime had given a straight-to-series order to American Rust, a drama based on Philipp Meyer’s debut American Rust. Daniels was an executive producer on the project and starred alongside Maura Tierney and Bill Camp. In June 2021, it was announced that Daniels would be returning to his role of Atticus Finch in the Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird starting in October. Daniels narrated the 9/11 documentary from Apple TV+ entitled ; it was released on September 1, 2021.
In 2020 Daniels endorsed Joe Biden in the presidential election against Donald Trump. He narrated a campaign ad for Biden titled "America Needs Michigan", focusing on the swing state of Michigan.
In 1991, Daniels founded the Purple Rose Theatre Company, a nonprofit stage company in Chelsea, Michigan. He has written more than a dozen plays for the company.
In 1986 he moved back to his hometown of Chelsea, Michigan; as of 2016, he primarily resided there.
| Marie | Eddie Sisk | |
| Heartburn | Richard | |
| Sweet Hearts Dance | Sam Manners | |
| Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael | Denton Webb | |
| Love Hurts | Paul Weaver | |
| There Goes the Neighborhood | Willis Embry | |
| Gettysburg | Colonel Joshua Chamberlain | |
| Dumb and Dumber | Harry Dunne | |
| 2 Days in the Valley | Alvin Strayer | |
| 101 Dalmatians | Roger Dearly | |
| It's the Rage | Warren Harding | |
| Blood Work | Jasper "Buddy" Noone | |
| The Hours | Louis Waters | |
| I Witness | James Rhodes | |
| Because of Winn-Dixie | Mr. Buloni | |
| Good Night, and Good Luck | Sig Mickelson | |
| Infamous | Alvin Dewey | |
| Mama's Boy | Mert Rosenbloom | |
| A Plumm Summer | Narrator | |
| Traitor | Carter | |
| The Answer Man | Arlen Faber | |
| Away We Go | Jerry Farlander | |
| Paper Man | Richard Dunn | |
| The Martian | Teddy Sanders | |
| A Rumor of War | Chaplain | 2 episodes |
| Breaking Away | College Kid | Episode: "Pilot" |
| American Playhouse | Jed Jenkins | Episode: "The Fifth of July" |
| Tanner '88 | Park Ranger | Episode: "The Girlfriend Factor" |
| Redwood Curtain | Lyman Fellers | Television film |
| Cheaters | Dr. Gerard Plecki | |
| The Five People You Meet in Heaven | The Blue Man | |
| The Emperor's Newest Clothes | The Emperor | Voice; television special |
| The Comey Rule | James Comey | 2 episodes |
| Impractical Jokers | Himself | Episode: "Rock Bottom" |
| Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party | Himself | Episode: "The Steak and Potatoes Episode" |
| My Life | Young Eddie | Circle Theatre, Off-Broadway |
| Two from the Late Show | Nephew (Brontosaurus) | |
| Fifth of July | Jed Jenkins | |
| Three Sisters | Andrei Sergeevich Prozorov | New York City Center, Off-Broadway |
In December 2009, he was granted an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts and was selected to deliver the winter commencement address at the University of Michigan.
In 2022, a nematode parasite that kills was named Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi to honor his role in Arachnophobia.
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