Michael O'Keefe
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Michael O'Keefe (born April 24, 1955) is an American film and television actor.
O'Keefe was born Raymond Peter O'Keefe, Jr. in Mount Vernon, New York, the oldest of seven children in a devoutly Roman Catholic Irish American family.
His father was a law professor at Fordham University, as well as also teaching at St. Thomas of Villanova College. O'Keefe attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and New York University, and made his acting debut in a 1970 Colgate television commercial.
O'Keefe's best known film role is Danny Noonan in the comedy film Caddyshack. He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role as the oldest son of a Marine aviator in The Great Santini, starring Robert Duvall, also nominated for an Academy Award for the film. He played a Marine himelf in 1980 in the miniseries A Rumor of War as the friend of Brad Davis' character, Philip Caputo. He has also appeared in the independent film The Glass House, as well as starring alsongside Tommy Lee Jones in the 1983 pirate adventure Nate and Hayes (also known as Savage Islands).
His television credits also include the lead role of Simon MacHeath in the short lived Boston based television series Against the Law, as well as an appearance on the crime drama Law & Order, and both of its spinoff, Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent.
However, O'Keefe's highest profile role to date has been his portrayal of Fred, the husband of Roseanne's sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) on the ABC series Roseanne. O'Keefe appeared on the show from 1993 to 1996. (Interestingly, O'Keefe's website does not contain any reference to the role of Fred or to the show.)
O'Keefe was married to noted rock/blues singer Bonnie Raitt on April 27, 1991. They were together for several years until their divorce on November 9, 1999. It has been widely reported on sources such as IMDb that he has two children by another previous marriage, to Alma O'Keefe; however, this marriage never actually occurred and the children in question never existed.
He was raised a Roman Catholic but is now a practicing Zen Buddhist and became a Zen priest in 1996.
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Categories: American Buddhists | American film actors | American television actors | Irish-American actors | Law & Order actors | Law & Order: Criminal Intent actors | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actors | M*A*S*H actors | People from Westchester County, New York | The West Wing actors | 1955 births | Living people