Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and . He is known for his appearances in films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Cross Creek (1983), Jagged Edge (1985), Bitter Moon (1992), Kika (1993), Patch Adams (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), A Walk to Remember (2002), and Femme Fatale (2002).
His voice work includes his narration for the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics. He narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century (1992), winning an Emmy Award. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator in 2015 for his work on documentary miniseries .
Coyote was one of the founders of the Diggers, an anarchist Improv groups active in Haight-Ashbury during the mid-1960s, including the Summer of Love.
Early life
Coyote was born Robert Peter Cohon on October 10, 1941,
in New York City, the son of Ruth (née Fidler) and Morris Cohon, an investment banker.
His father was of
Sephardic Jewish descent and his mother came from a working-class
Ashkenazi Jewish family. Her father, trained as a
rabbi in Russia, escaped being drafted into the Imperial Russian Army, and eventually ran a small candy store in
the Bronx.
Coyote "was raised in a highly intellectual, cultural but unreligious family",
involved in left-wing politics.
He grew up in Englewood, New Jersey,
[ Peter Coyote biodata , Jack Magazine. Accessed November 25, 2007. "At fourteen he was a campaign worker in the Adlai Stevenson presidential campaign in his home town of Englewood New Jersey."] and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School there in 1959.
[ "Englewood Student Joins Fast To Dramatize A-Test Protests; Group From Grinnell College Seeking Audience With President", The Record, November 13, 1961. Accessed October 4, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "Peter Cohon, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Morris Cohon, 90 Booth Avenue, will be one of 12 students from Grinnell College Grinnell, Iowa; to protest nuclear testing by a 3-day fast as part of a peace demonstration today in Washington.... Peter, a graduate of Dwight Morrow High School, class of 1959.,is interested in writing or teaching, according to his mother."] Coyote later said that he was "half black and half white inside" due to the strong influence of Susie Nelson, his family's
African-American housekeeper.
Coyote is the maternal uncle of librarian Jessamyn West.
While a student at Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1961, Coyote was one of the organizers of a group of twelve students who traveled to Washington, D.C. during the Cuban Missile Crisis supporting President John F. Kennedy's "peace race". Kennedy invited the group into the White House, the first time protesters had ever been so recognized, and they met for several hours with McGeorge Bundy. The group received wide press coverage. They the resulting headlines and sent them to every college in the United States.
Upon graduation from Grinnell with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1964,
Name change
While still at Grinnell, Coyote ingested
peyote and had a profound experience with something he recognized as an animal spirit. At the next dawn he came to in a cornfield dotted with paw-prints. A few years later, he came across
Coyote's Journal, a poetry magazine, and recognized its logo as the same paw-prints he had seen during his peyote experience. After meeting Rolling Thunder (John Pope), a purported Paiute-Shoshone
Shamanism, who informed him that there were two ways to regard what he had experienced. "You could consider it a hallucination", he said, "and you'll just remain a white man and be ok. Or, you could consider that the Universe opened itself to you, and if you consider it deeply enough, you might become a human being." Peter considered what he had been saying for several months, and then changed his last name to Coyote, the first step toward understanding its significance. The immediate, unanticipated consequence, was that no one, not even Peter knew who Peter Coyote was, and he was liberated from his personal history. From that point on, he never knew "where the rabbit would break from the brush".
["Krassner reviews 'Sleeping Where I Fall' by Peter Coyote" (Sep/Oct 1999) Tikkun Vol.14 No.5 pp. 71-74]
Countercultural activities
After a short apprenticeship at the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, he joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a radical political street theater whose members were arrested for performing in parks without permits. Coyote acted, wrote scripts, and directed in the Mime Troupe. Coyote directed the first cross-country tour of
The Minstrel Show, Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel, a controversial play closed by authorities in several cities.
["Mime Troupe Gets Injunction, Acclaim" (6 Feb 1968) Los Angeles Times]
From 1967 to 1975, Coyote was a prominent member of the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury counterculture community and a founding member, along with Emmett Grogan, Peter Berg, Judy Goldhaft, Kent Minault, Nina Blasenheim, David Simpson, Jane Lapiner, and Billy Murcott, of the Diggers, an anarchist group known for operating anonymously and without money.
Discovering Zen
Coyote had first discovered
Zen in his teens via the works of
Jack Kerouac,
Gary Snyder, and other
Beat Generation. Coyote met Snyder with the Diggers and was impressed with Snyder's "gravitas and elegance, his care and deliberation".
In 1975, Coyote undertook meditation practice and eventually became a dedicated practitioner of American Zen Buddhism, moving into the San Francisco Zen Center.
Coyote performed audiobook recordings of Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and Paul Reps's Zen Flesh, Zen Bones as well as narrating the documentary Inquiry into the Great Matter: A History of Zen Buddhism.
Transition to a professional career
In 1975, Coyote was hired as an artist under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, which placed him in community settings.
["Peter Coyote speaks about the arts," video interview. Retrieved November 17, 2025 ] His experiences under CETA led to his becoming part of the San Francisco Arts Commission. In 1976, Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the California Arts Council, where he served until 1983 (three years as Chair).
[ University of Kansas, Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences, Pryor Center. Retrieved November 17, 2025 ]
Film and television acting
In 1978, Coyote began acting again ("to shake the rust out") appearing in plays at San Francisco's award-winning
Magic Theatre. While he was playing the lead in the world premiere of
Sam Shepard's
True West, a Hollywood agent approached him, and his film career began with
Die Laughing (1980). He gave supporting performances in
Tell Me a Riddle (1980),
Southern Comfort (1981), and as the mysterious scientist "Keys" in
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He was seriously considered for the role of Indiana Jones in
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and auditioned for the part. Coyote's first starring role was in the science fiction adventure
(1982). He also starred in
Jagged Edge (1985) and
Outrageous Fortune (1987). Since then, he has made more than 120 films for theaters and television and has played starring roles for many directors, including
Roman Polanski (
Bitter Moon), Pedro Almodóvar (
Kika),
Martin Ritt (
Cross Creek), Jean-Paul Rappeneau (
Bon Voyage),
Diane Kurys (
A Man in Love), and
Walter Salles (
Exposure). For his 1990 guest appearance on the television series
Road to Avonlea, he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
In addition to his movie work in more recent films such as Sphere, A Walk to Remember, and Erin Brockovich, Coyote has also appeared in many made-for-television movies and miniseries, and he does commercial voice-overs. Coyote was cast in lead roles on several television series: The 4400 in 2004 and The Inside in 2005. After The Inside was canceled, Coyote returned to The 4400 as a special guest star for their two-part season finale, then joined the cast of ABC's series Commander in Chief as the Vice President of the United States, and the next year did a four-episode turn as Sally Field's disreputable boyfriend in Brothers & Sisters.
Narration
In 2005, Coyote served as the narrator for several prominent projects including the documentary film
and the
National Geographic-produced
PBS documentary based on
Jared Diamond's
Guns, Germs, and Steel. He also narrated an episode of the series
Lost in April 2006. In 2008, he narrated
Torturing Democracy, a documentary produced by PBS which details the George W. Bush administration's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the war on terror. He also narrated the 12-hour
Ken Burns series on the , and 15 episodes for the
National Geographic Explorer series.
In 2010, he narrated the documentary Solitary Confinement on the effect of long-term isolation, with footage taken from Colorado State Penitentiary where all prisoners are held this way. In 2014, he appeared in the TNT television series Perception, as the father of the main character, Dr. Daniel Pierce, and narrated Burns' ; the latter saw him win his first Primetime Emmy Award. In 2017, he narrated the 17¼-hour Ken Burns and Lynn Novick PBS documentary series The Vietnam War. In 2019, he narrated Burns' PBS documentary Country Music.
In 2025, Coyote narrated The American Revolution, a PBS documentary series by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David P. Schmidt.
Writing
Coyote's left-wing politics are evident in his articles for
Mother Jones magazine, some of which he wrote as a delegate to the 1996 Democratic National Convention; in his disagreements with David Horowitz; and in his autobiography
Sleeping Where I Fall. In 2006, Coyote developed a political television show for
Link TV called "The Active Opposition" and in 2007 created
Outside the Box with Peter Coyote starting on Link TV's special, Special:
The End of Oil – Part 2.
Many of Coyote's stories from the 1967 to 1975 counter-culture period are included in his memoir, Sleeping Where I Fall, published by Counterpoint Press in April 1998. One of the stories incorporated into his book is "Carla's Story," about a 16-year-old mother who lived communally with Coyote, and who, after learning of her husband's murder, became a drug addict, then a prostitute, had her children stolen, and continued to spiral downhill until she turned her life around. This story was published in Zyzzyva, and awarded the 1993–1994 Pushcart Prize. He also states he was a close friend of singer Janis Joplin. Coyote has a website,
In April 2015, his memoir The Rainman's Third Cure: An Irregular Education was released, where he "provides portraits of mentors that shaped him—including his violent, intimidating father, a bass player, a Mafia Consiglieri, and beat poet Gary Snyder, who introduced him to the practice of Zen."
In September 2021, Four Way Books released a collection of Coyote's poetry entitled Tongue of a Crow.
In March 2024, Inner Traditions published Zen in the Vernacular: Things As It Is. The book is based on lectures Coyote gave on Facebook during the COVID 19 pandemic. Kirkus Reviews states that he writes "very directly about human iniquities ranging from the Holocaust to the systemic racism of modern-day American law enforcement. The calm, inexorably sensible way Coyote links the deeper principles of Buddhism to secular social awareness is cumulatively convincing. He never browbeats, and he never allows even his non-Buddhist readers any easy excuses." They conclude that Coyote's book presents "a quietly uplifting, practical view of Buddhism."
Filmography
Actor
-
(1980) as Lt. Micklin
-
Die Laughing (1980) as Davis
-
Southern Comfort (1981) as Sergeant Poole
-
Isabel's Choice (1981 TV film) as Wynn Thomas
-
(1982) as Porter Reese
-
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as Keys
-
Endangered Species (1982) as Steele
-
Out (1982) as Rex
-
Strangers Kiss (1983) Stanley, the Director
-
Cross Creek (1983) as Norton Baskin
-
Slayground (1983) as Stone
-
Heartbreakers (1984) as Arthur Blue
-
The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) as Det. Larry Ringwald
-
Jagged Edge (1985) as Thomas Krasny
-
The Blue Yonder (1985) as Max Knickerbocker
-
Outrageous Fortune (1987) as Michael Sanders
-
Un homme amoureux (1987) as Steve Elliott
-
Echoes in the Darkness (1987 TV mini-series) as William Bradfield Jr.
-
Heart of Midnight (1988) as Sharpe/Larry
-
The Man Inside (1990) as Henry Tobel
-
A Grande Arte - American title is Exposure (1991) as Mr. Peter Mandrake
-
Keeper of the City (1991) as Frank Nordhall
-
Road to Avonlea (1991) as Romney Penhallow
-
Bitter Moon (1992) as Oscar
-
Kika (1993) as Nicholas
-
That Eye, the Sky (1994) as Henry Warburton
-
Breach of Conduct (1994) as Col. Andrew Case
-
Moonlight and Valentino (1995) as Paul
-
Buffalo Girls (1995) as Buffalo Bill Cody
-
Unforgettable (1996) as Don Bresler
-
Murder in My Mind (1997) as Arthur Lefcourt
-
Road Ends (1997) as Gene Gere
-
Sphere (1998) as Captain Harold C. Barnes
-
Two for Texas (1998 TNT movie for TV) as Jim Bowie
-
Patch Adams (1998) as Bill Davis
-
Route 9 (1998) as Sheriff Dwayne Hogan
-
Random Hearts (1999) as Cullen Chandler
-
Execution of Justice (1999) as Harvey Milk
-
The Basket (1999) as Martin Conlon
-
More Dogs Than Bones (2000) as Det. Darren Cody
-
Erin Brockovich (2000) as Kurt Potter
-
Jack the Dog (2001) as Alfred Stieglitz
-
Midwives (2001) as Stephen Hastings
-
Femme Fatale (2002) as Watts
-
A Walk to Remember (2002) as Rev. Sullivan
-
Founding Brothers (2002) as Thomas Jefferson (voice)
-
Bon Voyage (2003) as Alex Winckler
-
Northfork (2003) as Eddie
-
The Hebrew Hammer (2003) as JJL Chief Bloomenbergensteinenthal
-
Deadwood (2004) as George Crook
-
(2005) as Mike LaSalle
-
Independent Lens (2005–2009) as Narrator
-
The Inside (2005) as Special Agent Webster
-
Deepwater (2005) as Herman Finch
-
A Little Trip to Heaven (2005) as Frank
-
(2005) as Uncle Charles
-
(2005) as Uncle Charles
-
Commander in Chief (2005–2006) as Warren Keaton
-
The 4400 (2004–2006) as Dennis Ryland
-
(2006) as President Manning
-
(2001–2011). Episode aired 15 November 2007, Season 07, Episode 07 as Lionel Shill
-
Brothers & Sisters (2007) as Mark August
-
Five Dollars a Day (2008) as Bert Kruger
-
as President Sterling
-
All Roads Lead Home (2008) as Hock
-
NCIS (2008) as Ned Quinn
-
The Lena Baker Story (2008) as Elliot Arthur
-
FlashForward (2009) as President Dave Segovia
-
This Is Not a Movie (2010) as CEO of Propaganda / screenwriter
-
(2010-2011) as District Attorney Jerry Hardin
-
Last Will (2011) as Judge Garner
-
The Gundown (2011) as Tom Morgan
-
(2011) as Himself
-
La Rançon de la gloire (2014) as John Crooker
-
Good Kill (2014) as Langley (voice)
-
Blue Bloods (2015) as Senator McCreary
-
Eva & Leon (2015) as Le père d'Eva
-
No Deposit (2015) as Police Chief Williams
-
The Disappearance (2017) as Henry Sullivan
-
1 Mile to You (2017) as Prin. Umber
-
The Etruscan Smile (2018) as Professor
-
The Comey Rule (2020) as Robert Mueller
-
The Real Activist (2020) as Himself
-
The Girl Who Believes in Miracles (2021) as Sam Donovan
Narrator
List of Peter Coyote documentaries
-
The UFO Experience, a television documentary directed by Ronald K. Lakis in which Coyote appeared and also narrated (1982)
-
Contrary Warriors (1986)
-
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1988)
-
(1990)
-
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
-
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
-
The Breathtaker by Alice Blanchard
-
by Carlos Castaneda
-
The Studio System, American Cinema, New York Center for Visual History (1994)
-
National Geographic: Cyclone! (1995)
-
The West Produced by Ken Burns and directed by Stephen Ives (1996)
-
21st Century Jet: The Building of the Boeing 777 (1996)
-
Survivors of the Skeleton Coast (1997)
-
When Disasters Strike II (1997)
-
Video Justice: Crime Caught on Tape (1997)
-
World's Scariest Police Chases Pilot episode (1997)
-
TITANIC: Breaking New Ground (1998)
-
The History of Sex (1999)
-
Rome: Power & Glory (1999)
-
National Geographic: The Battle For Midway produced by Michael Rosenfeld (1999)
-
In the Light of Reverence (2001)
-
The Color of War (2001)
-
Out of the Blue (2002)
-
The Shapes of Life: Origins (2002)
-
Seth Eastman: Painting the Dakota (2002)
-
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
-
The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery by Don Miguel Ruiz
-
Oil on Ice (2004)
-
The Voice of Knowledge : A Practical Guide to Inner Peace (Toltec Wisdom) by Don Miguel Ruiz (2004)
-
Kursk: A Submarine In Troubled Waters by Jean-Michel Carré (2004)
-
National Geographic: Surviving Everest (Peter Coyote, Liesl Clark, 2004)
-
National Geographic: Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond, 2005)
-
(2005)
-
Understanding: Extraterrestrials
-
The Tribe (2005)
-
National Geographic Explorer – Journey to an Alien Moon produced by Mark Mannucci
-
National Geographic: Lost Treasures of Afghanistan produced by James Barrat (2006)
-
National Geographic: The Gospel of Judas produced by James Barrat (2006)
-
The War Prayer (2006)
-
Fog City Mavericks (2007)
-
Hippies (2007)
-
(2008)
-
Torturing Democracy (2008)
-
What If Cannabis Cured Cancer
-
Illicit: The Dark Trade (2008)
-
National Geographic Explorer: Congo Bush Pilots producer/director/writer by Tony Gerber (2008)
-
Gray Eagles (2009)
-
National Geographic Explorer: (2009)
-
National Geographic Explorer : The Virus Hunters (2009)
-
National Geographic Explorer : Inside Guantanamo Bay (2009)
-
directed by Ken Burns (2009)
-
Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League (2009)
-
(2009)
-
For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska
-
The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players (2010)
-
(2011)
-
I Am Fishead: Are Corporate Leaders Psychopaths?
-
NHL 36: Patrick Kane (2011)
-
NHL 36: Patrice Bergeron (2011)
-
Prohibition by Ken Burns (2011)
-
White Water, Black Gold (2011)
-
NHL 36: Niklas Lidstrom (2012)
-
NHL 36: Mike Richards (2012)
-
NHL 36: James Neal (2012)
-
The Dust Bowl (2012) Host and narrator of PBS miniseries directed by Ken Burns
-
PBS: The Ghost Army (2013)
-
Oregon Experience: Hanford Oregon Public Broadcasting (2013)
-
Big Bend: Life on the Edge (2013)
-
PBS: by Ken Burns (2014)
-
Pretty Slick by James Fox (2014)
-
Sands of War (2015)
-
The Illusionists by Elena Rossini (2015)
-
PBS (KUED): Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools (2016)
-
Managing Risk in a Changing Climate (2017)
-
(2018)
-
The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (2017)
-
PBS: Moscone: A Legacy of Change
-
The Etruscan Smile (2018)
-
25 Steps (2018)
-
PBS: Country Music by Ken Burns (2019)
-
The Phenomenon by James Fox (2020)
-
PBS: Hemingway by Ken Burns (2021)
-
Geospatial Revolution: Mapping the Pandemic, Penn State Public Broadcasting (2022)
-
PBS: Benjamin Franklin by Ken Burns (2022)
-
PBS: The U.S. and the Holocaust by Ken Burns (2022)
-
Moment of Contact by James Fox (2022)
-
PBS: The American Buffalo by Ken Burns (2023)
-
Bad Faith (2024)
-
PBS: The American Revolution (TV series) by Ken Burns (2025)
Bibliography
-
Corrigan, Michael (2008). A Year and a Day: A Grief Journal. Idaho State University. . Includes Peter Coyote's emails to Michael Corrigan after Corrigan lost his wife.
Illustrator
-
Emmett Grogan (1990) Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps, autobiography
External links
