Peter Weller

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Peter Weller

Born Peter Frederick Weller
June 24, 1947 (1947-06-24) (age 60)
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA
Occupation Actor, director, Lecturer
Spouse(s) Sheri Stowe (2006-present)

Peter Frederick Weller (born June 24, 1947) is an Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actor, director and lecturer. He is best known to moviegoers as the titular character of RoboCop in the first two RoboCop movies as well as Buckaroo Banzai in the cult-classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Weller was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, the son of Dorothy, a homemaker, and Frederick Weller, a lawyer, federal judge, and former helicopter pilot for the Army[1] who often flew President Lyndon B. Johnson. Weller had a "middle-class Catholic" upbringing.[2] As a result of his father's army work, Weller spent many years abroad during his childhood. His family lived in Germany for several years, before eventually moving to Texas. He attended Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio. While enrolled at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), he played trumpet in one of the campus bands. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre, and began his acting career after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

[edit] Career

Weller's stage career began in the 1970s, with appearances on Broadway in Full Circle, directed by Otto Preminger, and Summer Brave, William Inge's rewrite of his play Picnic. About this time, he became a member of the famed Actor's Studio.

He has appeared in more than 50 films and television series, including turns as the title characters in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and blockbuster hits RoboCop and RoboCop 2. He has also appeared in critically acclaimed movies such as Mighty Aphrodite, the Oliver Stone-produced The New Age and Naked Lunch. In 1995 he appeared in Screamers, a science-fiction film based on the short story "Second Variety" by Philip K. Dick and directed by Christian Duguay. Duguay would later direct Weller in the TV series Engineering an Empire for the History Channel.

On television, he played the shuttle captain in the short-lived show Odyssey 5 and made guest appearances as Terran supremacist John Frederick Paxton in the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes "Demons" and "Terra Prime".

Weller has also directed various projects for television, including episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, Monk and three episodes of the aforementioned Odyssey 5. He also directed a 1997 adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Gold Coast starring David Caruso and Marg Helgenberger.

Weller is a contributor to the History Channel in several productions as "Peter Weller, Syracuse University" in his capacity as a college professor and historian. Weller also hosts the series Engineering an Empire for the network.

In 2006, he joined the cast of the critically acclaimed drama series 24 as terrorist collaborator Christopher Henderson. Weller received a "cheer" in TV Guide's "Cheers & Jeers" section for his performance. In December 2006, Weller starred as architect Frank Lloyd Wright at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in "Frank's Home", a new play by Richard Nelson.

[edit] Personal life

Weller holds a Masters Degree in Roman and Renaissance art, and is an occasional lecturer at Syracuse University on the subjects of Hollywood and the Roman Empire.

Weller's favorite musician is Miles Davis and he occasionally plays in a jazz band with Buckaroo Banzai costar Jeff Goldblum.

Weller married long-time girlfriend, Sheri Stowe, in Positano, Italy on June 24, 2006, which was also his 59th birthday. He was once engaged to Sela Ward and had a long term relationship with Ali McGraw, several years his senior. She 'turned him onto' art history. They also starred together in the film, Just Tell Me What You Want.

Weller is a fan of Italian film maker Michelangelo Antonioni, who directed him in Par-delà les nuages (Beyond the Clouds). In Cigar Aficionado he was quoted as saying "There is no director living except maybe Kurosawa, Bergman or Antonioni that I would fall down and do anything for," Weller says, "I met Antonioni three years ago in Taormina, [Italy], at a film festival. I introduced myself and told him that I adored his movies, his contributions to film, because he was the first guy who really started making films about the reality of the vacuity between people, the difficulty in traversing this space between lovers in modern day...and he never gives you an answer, Antonioni -- that's the beautiful thing".[3]

[edit] Filmography as actor

[edit] Filmography as director

  • Gold Coast (film) (28-Sep-1997)

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ Peter Weller Biography (1947-)
  2. ^ Cigar Aficionado | People Profile | Peter Weller
  3. ^ Cigar Aficionado | People Profile | Peter Weller

[edit] External links