Hard Eight

Background:

Character actor Philip Baker Hall was launched to prominence with his starring role of a veteran gambler in “Hard Eight” (1996), which was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. For his effort, he picked up an Independent Spirit nomination. Noted for his work with the Californian-born filmmaker, Hall first collaborated with Anderson in the short “Cigarettes & Coffee” (1993). After “Hard Eight,” the twosome teamed up again for the Oscar nominee “Boogie Nights” (1997) and the star-studded “Magnolia” (1999). Hall earned a Florida Film Critics Circle Award and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his work in “Boogie Nights” and a Florida Film Critics Circle Award and another Screen Actors Guild nomination for his role in “Magnolia.” The Ohio-born New York stage actor also gave memorable performances in such films as Robert Altman's “Secret Honor” (1984), in which he reprised his award-nominating stage role of President Richard Nixon, “Kiss of Death” (1995), “Air Force One” (1997), “Rush Hour” (1998), “Psycho” (1998), “Cradle Will Rock” (1999), “The Contender” (2000, won an Alan J. Pakula Award) “The Sum of All Fears” (2002), “Bruce Almighty” (2003), “In Good Company” (2004), “The Matador” (2005), “The Amityville Horror” (2005), “The Shaggy Dog” (2006) and “You Kill Me” (2007). Apart from his prolific movie career, Hall also acted in a number of TV films, including “Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis” (2000) and “Path To War” (2002), and was cast in regular roles in the series “Mariah” (1987), “Falcon Crest” (1989-1990), “Pasadena” (2001-2002) and “The Loop” (2006-2007), from which he netted a Satellite nomination.

Moviegoers can see Hall in the upcoming “The Lodger” (2008), “Wonderful World” (2008), “All Good Things” (2009), “Fired Up” (2009) and “Jimmy Nolan” (2009).

Hall and ex-wife Holly Wolfle have two daughters.

English Teacher

Childhood and Family:

Philip Baker Hall was born on September 10, 1931, in Toledo, Ohio. After graduating from the University of Toledo, he joined the U.S. Army and later became a high school English teacher. He began his acting career in the early 1960s.

Hall is divorced from Holly Wolfle. The couple shares two daughters.

Magnolia

Career:

Philip made his acting debut in a 1961 stage production of “Donogo” at NYC's Greenwich Mews Theatre. In 1970, he starred in the supporting role of Father Reis in the motion picture “Cowards,” an anti-war movie directed and written by Simon Nuchtern. At the time, Hall was almost 40 years old.

Hall left New York for Hollywood in 1975 to further his career. He focused his attention on the stage and some of his notable credits include “The Petrified Forest” and Arthur Miller's trilogy “All My Sons,” “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible.” In 1978, he was discovered at the Los Angeles Mark Tapper Forum acting in “The Far Other Side of a Very Thin Line,” which he also co-wrote and co-directed. Hall began to build on his screen career by taking small roles in such TV movies as “Mayday at 40,000 Feet” (1976), “The Hostage Heart” (1977) and “Terror Out of the Sky” (1978). He made his miniseries debut in the syndicated “The Bastard” (1978), based on John Jakes' novel of the same name. In 1977, he appeared as George in the pilot for “Man From Atlantis,” an NBC science fiction series starring Patrick Duffy.

In 1983, Hall received the starring role of Richard Nixon on the NYC stage production of “Secret Honor.” For his work in the play, Philip was handed a Drama Desk award nomination. It was also the role that gained attention from director Robert Altman, who asked Hall to reprise his stage role for the 1984 movie version. A winner of the FIPRESCI Prize-Forum of New Cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival, Altman's “Secret Honor” was primarily ignored by audiences despite its critically success.

Following a supporting role in the CBS movie “Who Is Julia?” (1986), adapted from a novel by Barbara S. Harris, Hall made his debut as a television series regular in “Mariah,” a short-lived prison drama that aired on ABC in 1987. Costarring with John Getz and Tovah Feldshuh, he played the role of a superintendent named James Malone. Hall then guest starred as Judge Delaporte in a 1987 episode of The Don Johnson/Philip Michael Thomas police series “Miami Face” called “Contempt of Court,” and appeared as Dr Harrison in a three-part episode of NBC's “Family Ties” (1988) before revisiting series TV as a regular in the final season of the long-running CBS prime time soap “Falcon Crest” (1989-1990).

Hall resurfaced on the big screen after “Secret Honor” when he joined Casey Siemaszko and Richard Tyson for Phil Joanou's “Three O'Clock High” (1987), playing Det. Mulvahill. It was followed by a small role in the comedy “Midnight Run” (1988), which starred Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin and helmed by Martin Brest, and Cameron Crowe's romance “Say Anything” (1989), starring John Cusack and Ione Skye. Also in 1989, Philip played a dean in the comedy “How I Got Into College,” a NYC police commissioner in the sequel “Ghostbusters II” and a judge in Peter Yates' “An Innocent Man.”

The early 1990s saw Hall land guest spots in such TV series as “Matlock,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “L.A. Law,” “Cheers,” “Chicago Hope” and “Hardball,” but it was the actor's portrayal of Lt Bookman in an episode of NBC's “Seinfeld” (1991) that really impressed audiences. It was after the notable appearance that Hall began his affiliation with director Paul Thomas Anderson, whom he met on the set of the PBS special “Campus Culture Wars: Five Stories About PC” (1993), where Anderson served as a production assistant. Anderson wrote a part especially for Hall in his short “Cigarettes and Coffee” (1993), which was shown at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. When the project was eventually released as a full-length feature in 1996, Anderson changed the name to “Hard Eight.” Cast as an incomprehensible professional gambler named Sydney, Hall earned favorable reviews and was handed an Independent Spirit nomination in the category of Best Male Lead. The role subsequently put Hall on the map.

In between “Cigarettes and Coffee” and “Hard Eight,” Hall was cast in the supporting role of Nicolas Cage's dying father in Barbet Schroeder's remake of “Kiss of Death” (1995) and supported Sally Field and Ed Harris in John Schlesinger's retaliation drama “Eye for an Eye” (1996). In addition, he was spotted on stage in a Los Angeles production of Harold Pinter's “The Homecoming” (1995).

After playing the supporting role of a cunning hotel executive in the Toronto-premiered “Hit Me” (1996), Hall was reunited with Anderson for “Boogie Nights” (1997). Appearing as a businessman who admonishes producer Jack Horner (played by Burt Reynolds) about the impending video revolution, Hall co-won a Florida Film Critics Circle for Best Ensemble Cast and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. The same year, he also offered a fine supporting turn as U.S. Atty. General Andrew Ward in the Wolfgang Petersen-directed thriller “Air Force One,” starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Glenn Close.

Hall next portrayed William Vaughn in the short-lived courtroom series “Michael Hayes” (1997), which starred David Caruso, and joined the cast of the David E. Kelley-created show “The Practice” (also 1997) in the recurring role of Judge Joseph Vinocour. He then returned to his coveted guest role of Lt. Bookman in the final episode of “Seinfeld” (1998) and appeared in such movies as Peter Weir's “The Truman Show” (1998), Gus Van Sant's remake of “Psycho” (1998), Sebastian Gutierrez's “Judas Kiss” (1998), the Jackie Chan vehicle “Rush Hour” (1998), Tony Scott's “Enemy of the State” (1998), Michael Mann's “The Insider” (1999), Tim Robbins' “Cradle Will Rock” (1999) and “The Talented Mr Ripley” (1999). Hall then rejoined Anderson for the Oscar nominee “Magnolia,” in which he was cast as a game show host named Jimmy Gator. Along with costars Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly and Tom Cruise, he nabbed a Florida Film Critics Circle for Best Ensemble Cast and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture.

Entering the new millennium, Hall could be seen in William Friedkin's “Rules of Engagement” (2000), cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Janusz Kaminski's “Lost Souls” (2000), Rod Lurie's political drama “The Contender” (2000), from which he jointly netted a Broadcast Film Critics Association's Alan J. Pakula Award, the sport-themed “A Gentleman's Game” (2001), “The Sum of All Fears” (2002), Lars von Trier's “Dogville” (2003), the Jim Carrey comedy “Bruce Almighty” (2003), and Paul Weitz's “In Good Company” (2004) On the small screen, Hall played Aristotle Onassis in the biopic “Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis” (2000), had the regular role of George Reese Greeley on the short-lived drama “Pasadena” (2001-2002), and appeared with Michael Gambon, Donald Sutherland and Alec Baldwin in the made-for-TV drama “Path To War” (2002). He also played Dr. Donald Douglas on three episodes of WB's drama “Everwood” (2003-2004) and guest starred in such shows as “The Fugitive,” “Without a Trace,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Monk,” “Boston Legal” and “The West Wing.”

In 2005, Hall supported Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear in Richard Shepard's “The Matador,” starred as Father McNamara in the remake of the horror classic “The Amityville Horror,” and was cast opposite Justin Chambers and Robin Tunney in Alexander Bulkley's “The Zodiac.” He next portrayed Lance Strictland on the Tim Allen-Kristin Davis comedy “The Shaggy Dog” (2006), was featured alongside David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver in the comedy “The TV Set” (2006), costarred with Amy Jo Johnson in the drama “Islander” (2006), acted with Ben Kingsley in the John Dahl thriller “You Kill Me” (2007), had a bit part in “Zodiac” (2007), a crime/drama directed by David Fincher, and reprised his role of Captain William Diel in the installment “Rush Hour 3” (2007). From 2006 to 2007, Hall portrayed the regular role of Russ on the Fox comedy series “The Loop,” opposite Bret Harrison, Eric Christian Olsen and Mimi Rogers. Delivering a good performance, he was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

In 2008, Hall made a guest appearance on an episode of the series “Psych,” playing Irving Parker. He recently completed filming “The Lodger” (2008), a based-on-book movie starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Shane West and Hope Davis, and is set to play roles in “Wonderful World” (2008), opposite Matthew Broderick, “All Good Things” (2009), starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling, and the comedy “Fired Up” (2009), with Sarah Roemer and Hayley Marie Norman. He will also portray Connor McCoy in the drama “Jimmy Nolan” (2009), which is being directed by Jeff McCracken.

Awards:

• Broadcast Film Critics Association: Alan J. Pakula Award, For artistic excellence by illuminating issues of great social and political importance, “The Contender,” 2001

• Florida Film Critics Circle: Best Ensemble Cast, “Magnolia,” 2000

• Florida Film Critics Circle: Best Ensemble Cast, “Boogie Nights,” 1998