ER Rocket

Background:

''I love film. I really enjoy it. I like working in it. I love making money. I'm grateful for TV too and I've had a lot of fun with it. Film and television are different challenges for an actor than theater though.'' Paul McCrane

First noticed as the red-haired openly gay aspiring actor Montgomery McNeill in Alan Parker's musical film "Fame" (1980), Philadelphia native Paul McCrane, who was trained at HB Studios in New York and has been in many theater productions since the late 1970s, has appeared in the films "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984), "RoboCop" (1987), "The Blob" (1988) and "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994).

On the small screen, the 5' 8" red-haired, brown-eyed, balding character actor with expressive brown eyes and chiseled features played cancer-absorbing mutant Leonard Betts (1997) in the Fox popular sci-fi series ''The X-Files,'' surgeon Dr. 'Rocket' Romano (1997-2003) on the hit NBC medical drama "ER," and Graem Bauer (2006-2007), the brother of Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer, in the Fox award winning series "24."

Paul David

Childhood and Family:

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 19, 1961, Paul David McCrane grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He is the son of James J. McCrane, Jr., an actor and writer, and Eileen C. Manyak, a nurse. Paul has a sister named Barbara McCrane.

Paul attended Holy Ghost Prep School and studied acting at HB Studios in New York. He also studied acting extensively with the late Uta Hagen, who was widely known as one of the most important acting teachers in America.

In 1998, Paul married Dana Kellin, a jewelry designer whose products are often featured on television and film and worn by many upscale celebrities. They currently have two children, son William Thomas McCrane (born in 2000) and daughter Noa Catherine McCrane.

Paul is a gifted musician and songwriter and plays the guitar and piano. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.

Fame

Career:

''I got interested in the theater because my father has been involved as an actor in Philadelphia for as long as I can remember. I went to see him in a lot of plays and I can remember going backstage after a performance and being amazed that these rickety little sets had supported a whole world that I had been completely enmeshed in. That's probably the first time I had a sense that there was something magical about that world.'' Paul McCrane

Having appearing in school plays, Paul McCrane landed his first professional acting job in 1977 in a New York stage production of John Guare's "Landscape of the Body," playing Shirley Knight's son. He followed it up with an award-winning Broadway debut in the next year's "Runaways," and has since worked regularly in both Broadway and off-Broadway productions.

The Philadelphia native made his film acting debut in Sylvester Stallone's boxing movie "Rocky II" (1979). Not long after, the newcomer became an overnight star when he was cast as the red-haired openly gay aspiring actor Montgomery MacNeil, an insecure son of a famous movie star, in director Alan Parker's musical film "Fame" (1980). In addition to being one of the stars of the movie, McCrane also performed the songs "Dogs in the Yard," "Is It Okay If I Call You Mine" (he had written it for a high school girlfriend), and "I Sing the Body Electric." His work in the film later earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special, and a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actor - Major Motion Picture.

During this time, McCrane made his TV acting debut in the CBS TV-movie "Baby Comes Home" (1980) and followed it up with the made-for-television movie "We're Fighting Back" (1981; alongside Ellen Barkin). He also made two more films in 1984, Tony Richardson's uneven adaptation of John Irving's novel, "The Hotel New Hampshire," as the homosexual brother to Jodie Foster's character, and Sidney J. Furie's independent war drama "Purple Hearts," starring Cheryl Ladd.

McCrane spent the rest of the decade playing roles in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi, superhero action movie "RoboCop" (1987), as Emil Antonowski, a member of Boddicker's gang, and the 1988 remake of the 1958 independent horror/science-fiction film, "The Blob," playing a deputy named Bill Briggs.

On stage, McCrane returned to Broadway with a co-starring role in a 1985 revival of Eugene O'Neill's classic play "The Iceman Cometh," alongside Barnard Hughes and Jason Robards, and was reunited with stage director Guare for "Six Degrees of Separation" in 1991. He acted in several productions at the La Jolla Playhouse, including "Big River" and William Shakespeare's pastoral comedy "As You Like It.”

TV viewers could catch him as Detective Bob McIntire in the short-lived ABC musical drama "Cop Rock" (1990), in which he performed the songs "Garbage In, Garbage Out," "Beautiful Lies" and "We'll Ride Again." He also co-starred as John Bishop in the TNT Emmy-winning biopic of the novelist and wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Zelda" (1993; starring Natasha Richardson), and as a series regular on the CBS dramatic police mystery "Under Suspicion" (1994).

After six years away from films, McCrane returned as a prison guard in Frank Darabont's Oscar-nominated drama film based on the Stephen King novella, "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994; starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman). He quickly returned to the small screen as heart surgeon Dr. Herb Barton in the short-lived ABC sitcom "Champs" (1996).

''He called it as he saw it, as abrasive as that may have been. That was one of the fun things about the character. He was, for the most part, a two-dimensional Snidely Whiplash kind of guy. They allowed him to actually have occasional flashes of humanity and rationale to his arguments. You can’t just hate him; well, you can really hate him, but there’s something that’s sort of attractive in how much you want to strangle the guy.'' Paul McCrane (on his character Robert Romano in ''ER'')

McCrane is probably most remembered by TV audiences for his portrayal of surgeon Dr. Romano on the hit NBC medical drama "ER." Originally picked as a recurring character during the show's 1997 season, McCrane's character became a regular of the 1999-2000 seasons. As a member of the show's cast, McCrane received Screen Actors Guild Award nominations in 2000 and 2001, both for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

During his ''ER'' stint, McCrane delivered a memorable guest performance as Leonard Betts in a 1997 episode of the Fox Peabody, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning science fiction television series "The X-Files," and portrayed astronaut Pete Conrad in the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" (1998). In March 1998, he directed a Los Angeles stage production of Rick Cleveland's "Home Grown" at the Ventura Court Theatre, in Hollywood, California.

Entering the new millennium, McCrane appeared in the short film "Last Mistake" and Burt Reynolds’ "The Last Producer." After appearing in the CBS short-lived drama series "Citizen Baines" (2001), he was cast in the films "New Suit" (2002), a comedy by director François Velle, and "A Year and a Day" (2005), a drama by writer/director Robert Lane.

McCrane was spotted as a guest in a February 2005 episode of the HBO series "Unscripted" before landing the recurring role of Graem Bauer (2006-2007), the brother of Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer and the mastermind behind the majority of the plots in Days 5 and 6, in the Fox Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning series "24."

In January 2008, McCrane could be seen as a guest in an episode of the ABC Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning series starring America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty."

Awards:
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