Powers Boothe

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Powers Boothe

Born June 1, 1948 (1948-06-01) (age 60)
Snyder in Scurry County, Texas, USA
Spouse(s) Pamela Ann Boothe

Powers Allen Boothe (born June 1, 1948) is an American television and film actor. He is known for his Emmy-winning 1980 portrayal of Jim Jones.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Boothe was born on a farm in Snyder, the seat of Scurry County in west Texas, the son of Emily Kathryn (née Reeves) and Merrill Vestal Boothe.[1] Boothe is the father of actress Parisse Boothe. He resides in Los Angeles, where he raises racing quarter horses. Boothe is the cousin of Stephen Morgan and Kristin Morgan. He attended Texas State University (then Southwest Texas State College) in San Marcos as an undergraduate and received his Master of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1972.

[edit] Career

After graduation from university, Boothe joined the repertory company of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, with roles in Henry IV, Part 2 (portraying Henry IV of England), Troilus and Cressida, and others. His New York stage debut was in the 1974 Lincoln Center production of Richard III. Five years later, his Broadway theater debut came in a starring role in the one-act play Lone Star, written by James McLure. Boothe first came to national attention in 1980, playing Jim Jones in the CBS-TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. Boothe's portrayal of the crazed cult leader received critical acclaim. In Time's story on the production, Boothe was praised: "There is one extraordinary performance. A young actor named Powers Boothe captures all the charisma and evil of 'Dad', Jim Jones."

Boothe won the Emmy Award for his role, beating out veterans Henry Fonda and Jason Robards. As the Screen Actors Guild were on strike in the fall of 1980, he was one the only actor to cross picket lines to attend the ceremonies.[2] He said at the time, "This may be either the bravest moment of my career or the dumbest."

Boothe joined the ranks of Humphrey Bogart and other actors when he portrayed Philip Marlowe in a series of short films for HBO in the 1980s. He appeared in films like Southern Comfort, A Breed Apart, Red Dawn, The Emerald Forest, Oliver Stone's Nixon (where he played Chief of Staff Alexander Haig), U-Turn, and Extreme Prejudice, as well as HBO films like Into The Homeland and By Dawn's Early Light. He also appeared in the 1990 CBS-TV film Family of Spies, in which he played traitor Navy Officer John Walker. Boothe also portrayed Curly Bill Brocius in Tombstone, as well as the disloyal senior Army officer in Blue Sky (opposite Jessica Lange's Oscar-winning performance).

In 2001, he starred as Flavius Aëtius, the Roman general in charge of stopping the Hun invasion in the made-for-TV mini-series Attila. Most recently, Boothe has played a featured role as brothel-owner Cy Tolliver on the HBO series Deadwood, and the seedy Senator Roark in the motion picture Sin City. He is the voice of one of the characters in the 2005 video game Area 51 and Gorilla Grodd, the hyper-intelligent telepathic supervillain in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. He voiced the villain, Kane, in the 2008 video game entitled Turok.

He was a special guest star on 24, where he played Vice President Noah Daniels. Just after taking the role as acting President, Boothe is seen exiting Air Force Two with F-15s in the background. Boothe played a downed F-15 pilot in Red Dawn. In March of 2008, he narrated a television campaign ad for Senator John McCain's presidential campaign.[3]

Boothe maintains a private art collection which includes Western paintings of his friend and fellow actor Buck Taylor.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Powers Boothe Biography (1949?-)
  2. ^ EW
  3. ^ http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/03/a-new-mccain-ad-and-texas-ties.html

[edit] External links

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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie

Anthony Hopkins (1976) · Hal Holbrook (1976) · Ed Flanders (1977) · Christopher Plummer (1977) · Fred Astaire (1978) · Michael Moriarty (1978) · Peter Strauss (1979) · Powers Boothe (1980) · Anthony Hopkins (1981) · Mickey Rooney (1982) · Tommy Lee Jones (1983) · Laurence Olivier (1984) · Richard Crenna (1985) · Dustin Hoffman (1986) · James Woods (1987) · Jason Robards (1988) · James Woods (1989) · Hume Cronyn (1990) · John Gielgud (1991) · Beau Bridges (1992) · Robert Morse (1993) · Hume Cronyn (1994) · Raúl Juliá (1995) · Alan Rickman (1996) · Armand Assante (1997) · Gary Sinise (1998) · Stanley Tucci (1999) · Jack Lemmon (2000)