
David Strathairn
Department: Acting
Biography
David Russell Strathairn (born January 26, 1949) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of journalist Edward R. Murrow in the feature film Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He also starred in L.A. Confidential (1997), Godzilla (2014), and the Bourne franchise (2007–2012). Strathairn appeared in supporting roles in many notable films such as A League of Their Own (1992), Sneakers (1992), The Firm (1993), The River Wild (1995), Lincoln (2012), Nomadland (2020), and Nightmare Alley (2021). He is a frequent collaborator with director John Sayles, who is a fellow graduate of Williams College. On television, Strathairn is known for his recurring roles in The Sopranos (2004), Alphas (2011–2012), The Blacklist (2015–2016), Billions (2017–2019), and The Expanse (2018–2019). He received a Primetime Emmy Award win and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance in the HBO television film Temple Grandin (2010).
Known For

The Miracle Worker
2000

The Feud
1989

L.A. Confidential
1997

A Midsummer Night's Dream
1999

City of Hope
1991

Sneakers
1992

Good Night, and Good Luck.
2005

Mother Night
1996

Bob Roberts
1992

The Bourne Ultimatum
2007

My Blueberry Nights
2007

We Are Marshall
2006

Cold Souls
2009

Fracture
2007

Matewan
1987

Dolores Claiborne
1995

Iceman
1984

The Spiderwick Chronicles
2008

Steel Toes
2007

Harrison's Flowers
2000

The River Wild
1994

Home for the Holidays
1995

The Brother from Another Planet
1984

Temple Grandin
2010

Silkwood
1983

Eight Men Out
1988

Twisted
2004

Heavens Fall
2006

Losing Isaiah
1995

At Close Range
1986

Missing in America
2005

Passion Fish
1992

The Uninvited
2009

Call Me
1988

The Firm
1993

Limbo
1999

The Notorious Bettie Page
2006

Lathe of Heaven
2002

The Sensation of Sight
2006

The Tempest
2010

Day One
1989

In the Gloaming
1997

Howl
2010

The Supreme Court
2007

The Bourne Legacy
2012

Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even
1992

Blue Car
2003

The Whistleblower
2010

The Giraffe
1998

Lovesick
1983

Racing Daylight
2007

Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004

Lincoln
2012

Matadors
2010

A Map of the World
1999

The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer
2008

Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story
2002

O Pioneers!
1992

Relative Evil
2001

Speakeasy
2002

Love, Marilyn
2013

A Dangerous Woman
1993

Godzilla
2014

Hemingway & Gellhorn
2012

A Good Baby
2000

The Climb
1998

Area 51 Declassified
2010

Maladies
2012

Beyond the Call
1996

Song of Hiawatha
1997

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
1983

No God, No Master
2014

The American Clock
1993

Inside Area 51's Secrets
2010

Memphis Belle
1990

The Victim
2001

Broken Vows
1987

The Shovel
2006

Evidence of Blood
1998

Remember This
2023

Louder Than Bombs
2015

Lost in Yonkers
1993

The Debt
2015

Without Warning: The James Brady Story
1991

Stars & Bars
1988

A Little Prayer
2025

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
2015

Trumbo
2007

The Making of ‘Sneakers’
2003

The Human Behavior Experiments
2006

Bad Manners
1998

Freedom Song
2000

Willa Cather: The Road Is All
2005

O Horizon
2025

Judgment
1990

Heat Wave
1990

The Luckiest Man in America
2025

The People Speak
2009

When Nature Calls
1985

American Pastoral
2016

April One
1994

Return of the Secaucus Seven
1980

November Criminals
2017

UFO
2018

With Friends Like These
1998

Fast Color
2019

Simon Birch
1998

Darkest Hour
2017

The Devil Has a Name
2019

An Interview with God
2018

Walkaway Joe
2020

My Dinner with Hervé
2018

Matters of Life and Death
2007

Nomadland
2021

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2019

The Gettysburg Address
2025

Paradise
2004

Them That Work
2019

Nightmare Alley
2021

The Oedipus Project
2020

A League of Their Own
1992

Dominick and Eugene
1988

Whatever You Desire: Making 'L.A. Confidential'
2008

Sunlight and Shadow: The Visual Style of 'L.A. Confidential'
2008

Where the Crawdads Sing
2022

Lincoln@Gettysburg
2013

He Does Not Want Peace
2016

By Any Means
—

The Bard
—

Zootopia 2
2025

This Ordinary Thing
2025

Babies
—

Stages
2026

The Sopranos
1999

Spenser: For Hire
1985

Monk
2002

Miami Vice
1984

The Equalizer
1985

Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951

Wiseguy
1987

McMafia
2018

The Oscars
1953

The Emmy Awards
1949

Alphas
2011

Z: The Beginning of Everything
2015

The Blacklist
2013

The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
1987

House
2004

The Expanse
2015

Interrogation
2020

The Expanse
2015

A Man on the Inside
2024

Billions
2016