Dan Futterman

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Dan Futterman (born on June 8, 1967 in Silver Spring, Maryland, and raised in Larchmont, New York) is an American actor and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter.

He is best known for playing the role of Val Goldman in the film The Birdcage and Vincent Gray on the CBS television series Judging Amy. In 2005, he wrote the screenplay for the film Capote for which he received an Academy Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award, Boston Society of Film Critics award, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association award.

Dan is currently filming A Mighty Heart with Angelina Jolie. Dan plays murdered journalist Daniel Pearl.

Futterman is married to television writer Anya Epstein (sister of Boston Red Sox General Manager and Executive Vice President Theo Epstein), with whom he has two daughters, Sylvie and Eve. He graduated from Columbia University in 1989.

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[edit] Full Biography

A handsome, dark-haired actor with an easy-going delivery and photogenic smile, Dan Futterman had a breakthrough (although thankless) role playing Val Goldman, the straight son of Robin Williams, in "The Birdcage" (1996). Raised in tony Westchester County, NY, he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English and was torn between graduate school and pursuing an acting career. The latter won out and 1991 proved to be a banner year for the young performer, landing his first stage role in the WPA production "Club Soda" and his first (small) film role as a thug who menaces Jeff Bridges in "The Fisher King". While his film career has heated up, Futterman has not abandoned stage work: he succeeded Joe Mantello as the voluble Louis Ironside in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" on Broadway in 1993; portrayed an American diplomat's son who runs into trouble in South Africa in Jon Robin Baitz's "A Fair Country" (1996); and was a slick card player with big dreams in "Dealer's Choice" (1997). After landing a significant role as the son who leaves a blended family in "Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even" (1992), the actor made a handful of TV appearances, most notably as a West Point grad pitted against former classmates during the Civil War in "Class of '61" (ABC, 1993) Several of his best screen performances have been in independent films. Futterman displayed a winning charm as a teacher who seemingly can't make a commitment in the romantic comedy "Breathing Room/'Til Christmas" (1996). "Far Harbor/Mr. Spreckman's Boat" (also 1996) was an ensemble piece in which he stood out as a smarmy doctor in an interracial relationship. As the American half of a pair of twenty-something con artists in London in "Shooting Fish" (1997), he delivered a finely nuanced but loosely engaging performance that dominated the early sequences. Futterman returned to TV work co-starring with Mickey Rourke as a teacher who clashes with a priest in "Thicker Than Blood" (TNT, 1998) and appearing alongside Ron Eldard and Martin Donovan in the WWII drama "When Trumpets Fade" (HBO, 1998).

In 1999, Futterman made the leap to series TV, co-starring as the writer brother of a jurist (Amy Brenneman) in the hit CBS series "Judging Amy" (which he departed early in the 2001-2002 season). On the big screen, he delivered one of his best screen performances in the indie "Urbania" (2000), portraying a gay man coming to terms with the aftermath of a trauma. He next played the nice guy ex-boyfriend who shelters an abused woman (Jennifer Lopez) running from her husband in "Enough" (2002), a cheap and exploitative thriller panned by critics and avoided like plague by audiences. Futterman then had a recurring role as the on-again, off-again boyfriend of a beautiful and gainfully-employed woman (Kiele Sanchez) on one-hour drama, "Related" (WB, 2005- ).

But it was Futterman’s writing, not his acting, that would help propel him to the next level in his career. After reading Gerald Clarke’s “Capote, A Biography,” he went to his old friend, director Bennett Miller, and said he was going to write a script. Unimpressed with Futterman’s pronouncement, Miller gave him a pat on the back and sent Futterman on his merry way. A few years later, he gave the script to Miller, who was impressed with his efforts. The two recruited another old friend, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, to star and began the process of getting their film made. The result was a simple, but stark tale of Truman Capote’s journey to Kansas in 1959 to cover the grisly shotgun murders of the upstanding Clutter family. Though an outsider from cosmopolitan New York in a small rural town, Capote spent the next six years interviewing friends, neighbors and the two itinerant murders, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote developed a strange, but familiar bond with the artistic and sensitive Smith—a relationship that eventually led to his downfall. Capote’s role in the subsequent trials of Hickock and Smith was dubious at best, destructive to his soul and creative output at worst. In order to continue writing, Capote funded the defendant’s numerous appeals. But to have an ending, he withdrew his support so the state could execute the killers. The psychological toll of watching Smith hang was too much for Capote to bear—he became an alcoholic and never finished another novel. While Hoffman received the lion’s share of critical praise and accolades, Futterman was recognized with several award nominations, including an Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] As an actor

[edit] As writer

[edit] External links

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