Bruce Greenwood

Canadian character actor Bruce Greenwood spent the 1970s working in regional Vancouver theater, and appeared in many Canadian TV shows during the '80s. His first American film was a walk-on role in Rambo: First Blood . In the U.S., he fared much better with television pilots, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies. His first big role was Dr. Seth Griffin on St. Elsewhere from 1986-1988. Other TV projects included The FBI Murders , The Servants of Twilight , and Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach… Show more Boys . By the '90s, he had found a home for himself on television. Greenwood played Pierce Lawson in 1991 on the evening soap opera Knots Landing , earned a Gemini (the Canadian Emmy) nomination for The Little Kidnappers , and then took home an award for his role in Road to Avonlea . He also starred as Thomas Veil on the UPN dramatic series Nowhere Man and guest starred as Roger Bingham on the HBO comedy series The Larry Sanders Show . He did quite well on NBC, as well, appearing in many TV movies (including Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge ) and starring in the sci-fi mystery show Sleepwalkers as Dr. Nathan Bradford. Greenwood made the leap to the big screen with a fellow Canadian, Egyptian-born filmmaker Atom Egoyan. In Exotica , he played the troubled Francis, a tax collector obsessed with a stripper. The film was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival, and Greenwood re-teamed with the director for his next film, The Sweet Hereafter , which won a special jury prize at Cannes, while Greenwood was nominated for a Genie award for his supporting role of mourning father Billy Ansell. By contrast, he played bad guys in mainstream thrillers in the '90s, with starring roles in Disturbing Behavior , Hide and Seek , Double Jeopardy , and Rules of Engagement He may be most well known, however, for playing President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the political thriller Thirteen Days , for which he won a Golden Satellite Award. With this role under his belt, Greenwood moved into more dramatic territory with the A&E miniseries The Magnificent Ambersons as well as a dual role in Egoyan's Ararat . In 2003, he produced fellow Canadian Deepa Mehta's film The Republic of Love and appeared in the action comedy Hollywood Homicide and the sci-fi thriller The Core . He continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including I, Robot, Racing Stripes, Capote, Déjà vu, and had a small part in Todd Haynes' 2007 idiosyncratic Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. That same year he played the president in the hit sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets. He had a brief but memorable turn as Captain James T. Kirk's father in J.J. Abrams Star Trek, and played a bad guy in the comedy Dinner for Schmucks. He had a major role in the arty western Meek's Cutoff, and reteamed with Abrams when he appeared in the Spielberg homage Super 8. ~ Rovi

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