Matthew Modine

After high school, he moved to New York and while pursuing an acting career, he worked as a chef at a Manhattan restaurant and studied acting with Stella Adler. In the '80s, his film career took off after he made his debut in the John Sayles's Baby, It's You. Next, he played a high school wrestler in Vision Quest and turned more serious to potray a soldier in Robert Altman's drama about young men going to Vietnam in Streamers. His breakthrough movie role came in 1984's Birdy as an emotionally disturbed Vietnam veteran, and another top-notch performance quickly followed in Stanley Kubrick's brutal war-is-hell film Full Metal Jacket (1987). Into the '90s, his film career continued as he appeared in both modest hits (the comedy Married to the Mob) and flops (the medical drama Gross Anatomy, the sailing movie Wind). He ventured into theater, making his professional stage debut opposite Allison Janney in the American Stage Company production of Breaking Up. He also found success on the small screen, earning Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his lead performance as a doctor fighting AIDS in HBO's acclaimed And the Band Played On (1993). He again grabbed praise from audiences for his title role in the biblical made-for-TV movie Jacob and for the CBS charmer What the Deaf Man Heard. Modine aged gracefully as the '90s wore on and he became a busy character actor. In the '00s, he appeared in both indie and mainstream films (Mary, Le Divorce, Transporter 2), and on made-for-TV movies (Flowers for Algernon, The Winning Season). After an impactful guest appearance on the NBC political drama The West Wing, he headlined the short-lived drama Bedford Diaries and then joined the third season of the Showtime series Weeds for a brief arc as a scheming real estate developer. In 2009, he took to the stage in diverse productions, first playing Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and then playing himself in the satirical Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas. A year later, he made his Broadway debut in The Miracle Worker. In his downtime, he enjoys a quiet domestic life with his wife and kids, and supports causes that are deeply important to him including pancreatic cancer research and environmentalism. ~ Rovi