Biography
David 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 had also starred in "L.A. Confidential" (1997), "Godzilla" (2014), and the "Bourne" franchise (2007–2012).
Known For
Complete Filmography
The Gettysburg Address
2025
as Ralph Waldo Emerson (voice)
In the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln went to Gettysburg. "The Gettysburg Address" investigates the five extant copies of Lincoln's famous ...
The Luckiest Man in America
2025
as Bill Carruthers
1984; Michael Larson, an unemployed ice-cream truck driver from Ohio, steps onto the game show "Press Your Luck" harboring a secret: the key to endles...
O Horizon
2025
as Warren
Abby, a brilliant, young neuroscientist who has recently lost her father, drowns her grief by spending her days working with a monkey named Dorey. Abb...
A Little Prayer
2023
as Bill
Tammy and husband David lead a quiet life in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, sharing a home with David’s parents, Bill and Venida. David and Bill work ...
Remember This
2023
as Jan Karski
In a virtuoso solo performance, Academy Award nominee David Strathairn portrays Jan Karski in this genre-defying true story of a reluctant World War I...
Where the Crawdads Sing
2022
as Tom Milton
Abandoned by her family, Kya raises herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. When her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is instan...
Nightmare Alley
2021
as Pete
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dang...
Nomadland
2021
as Dave
A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling...
The Oedipus Project
2020
as Messenger 1
The Oedipus Project is an innovative new digital initiative by Theater of War Productions that will present acclaimed actors performing scenes from So...
Walkaway Joe
2020
as Joe Haley
A young boy named Dallas goes on a search for his pool-hustling father after he abandons their family. Dallas is determined to bring his father home w...
Them That Work
2019
as Self
Documentary about the impact left by John Sayles’ 1987 film Matewan, about a shooting between company gun thugs and union organizers in Southern West ...
The Devil Has a Name
2019
as Fred Stern
An oil baron and a farmer standoff after the water on his farm is poisoned by her company.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2019
as Admiral William Stenz
Follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the migh...
Fast Color
2019
as Ellis
A woman is forced to go on the run when her superhuman abilities are discovered. Years after having abandoned her family, the only place she has left ...
My Dinner with Hervé
2018
as Marty Rothstein
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toti...
UFO
2018
as Franklin Ahls
A college student, who sees a UFO, uses his exceptional math skills to investigate the sighting with his friends while the FBI follows closely behind.
An Interview with God
2018
as God
An up-and-coming journalist finds his world and faith increasingly challenged when he's granted the interview of a lifetime – with someone who claims ...
Darkest Hour
2017
as President Roosevelt (voice)
In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or fight on knowing that it c...
November Criminals
2017
as Theo
When Addison investigates the murder of his friend Kevin with the help of Phoebe, they discover that the truth is darker than they had ever imagined.
American Pastoral
2016
as Nathan Zuckerman
Set in postwar America, a man watches his seemingly perfect life fall apart as his daughter's new political affiliation threatens to destroy their fam...
He Does Not Want Peace
2016
as Richard Englebright
When a man witnesses a profound event, it threatens to destroy his family.
Louder Than Bombs
2015
as Richard Weissman
Three years after his wife, acclaimed photographer Isabelle Reed, dies in a car crash, Gene keeps everyday life going with his shy teenage son, Conrad...
The Debt
2015
as Nathan
Set against the backdrop of an international finance deal in New York and Peru, Oliver's Deal is an intense political drama which explores how far peo...
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
2015
as Ty Burley
As the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has only a single remaining vacancy - posing a rooming predicament for two fresh arrivals - Sonny pursues his expans...
Godzilla
2014
as Admiral William Stenz
Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe....
No God, No Master
2014
as William Flynn
A plot to overthrow the United States government is uncovered in New York City in the summer of 1919 when William Flynn, a field agent for the Bureau ...
Lincoln@Gettysburg
2013
as Narrator (voice)
An examination of how President Abraham Lincoln used contemporary telecommunications to his maximum advantage in the American Civil War.
Love, Marilyn
2013
as Self
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote ...
Lincoln
2012
as William Seward
The revealing story of the 16th US President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln p...
Hemingway & Gellhorn
2012
as John Dos Passos
Writer Ernest Hemingway begins a romance with fellow scribe Martha Gellhorn.
The Bourne Legacy
2012
as Noah Vosen
New CIA operative Aaron Cross experiences life-or-death stakes that have been triggered by the previous actions of Jason Bourne.
Maladies
2012
as Delmar
A former soap star appears to have a narrator stuck in his head. As he moves in with his sister and works to restart his creative career, he tries to ...
The Whistleblower
2010
as Peter Ward
Nebraska cop Kathryn Bolkovac discovers a deadly sex trafficking ring while serving as a U.N. peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. Risking her own life to ...
The Tempest
2010
as King Alonso
An adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare. Prospera (a female version of Shakespeare's Prospero) is the usurped ruler of Milan who has been ban...
Howl
2010
as Ralph McIntosh
It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the...
Inside Area 51's Secrets
2010
as Narrator
It's the most famous military installation in the world, yet it doesn’t officially exist. Area 51, a site for covert Cold War operations, has long be...
Area 51 Declassified
2010
as Himself - Narrator
It's the most famous military installation in the world, yet it doesn’t officially exist. Area 51, a site for covert Cold War operations, has long be...
Temple Grandin
2010
as Professor Carlock
A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic American who has become one of the leading scientists in humane livestock handling.
Matadors
2010
as Roman Lodari
Two wealthy families in Chicago find themselves in an on-going struggle of pride and power.
The People Speak
2009
as Self
A look at America's struggles with war, class, race and women's rights. based on Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."
Cold Souls
2009
as Dr. Flintstein
Paul is agonising over his interpretation of 'Uncle Vanya' and, paralysed by anxiety, stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-t...
The Uninvited
2009
as Steven
Anna returns home after spending time in a psychiatric facility following her mother's tragic death and discovers that her mother's former nurse, Rach...
Whatever You Desire: Making 'L.A. Confidential'
2008
as Self
Director Curtis Hanson and his cast and crew discuss the arduous but rewarding process of creating a modern classic.
Sunlight and Shadow: The Visual Style of 'L.A. Confidential'
2008
as Self
Curtis Hanson and his behind-the-scenes collaborators reveal the secrets of bringing 1950s Los Angeles to life in unforgettable style.
The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer
2008
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a national hero, the brilliant scientist who during WWII led the scientific team that created the atomic bomb. But after the...
The Spiderwick Chronicles
2008
as Arthur Spiderwick
Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselv...
My Blueberry Nights
2007
as Arnie
Elizabeth has just been through a particularly nasty breakup, and now she's ready to leave her friends and memories behind as she chases her dreams ac...
Trumbo
2007
as Self
Through a focus on the life of Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), this film examines the effects on individuals and families of a congressional pursuit of Hol...
Matters of Life and Death
2007
as Mr. Jennings
Three siblings struggle to maintain control of their lives after the unexpected death of their parents thrusts them into an uncertain world of adultho...
The Bourne Ultimatum
2007
as Noah Vosen
Bourne is brought out of hiding once again by reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation Blackbriar, an upgrade to Project Treadstone, in a...
Racing Daylight
2007
as Henry / Harry
RACING DAYLIGHT is a spooky murder mystery as well as a supernatural love story that transcends time. The film captures the journey of Sadie Stokes (M...
Steel Toes
2007
as Danny Dunkelman
Rage and intolerance collide with compassion Academy-Award nominated David Strathairn portrays Danny Dunkleman, a Jewish liberal humanist, and the cou...
Fracture
2007
as Joe Lobruto
A husband is on trial for the attempted murder of his wife, in what is seemingly an open/shut case for the ambitious district attorney trying to put h...
The Supreme Court
2007
as Narrator
It's known as the court of last resort -- the Supreme Court -- where nine judges appointed for life make monumental decisions that govern our everyday...
We Are Marshall
2006
as President Dedmon
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving p...
The Sensation of Sight
2006
as Finn
An English teacher sells encyclopedias while searching for the meaning of life.
The Sensation of Sight
2006
Producer
An English teacher sells encyclopedias while searching for the meaning of life.
Heavens Fall
2006
as Judge James Horton
Successful New York attorney Sam Leibowitz travels to the South in 1933 to defend nine young black men accused of raping two women on an Alabama freig...
The Human Behavior Experiments
2006
as Narrator
Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right place, they're capable of anything," says John Huston's character, Noah Cross...
The Shovel
2006
as Paul Mullin
When weekender Paul Mullin discovers his neighbor digging a hole in the middle of the night, he writes it off as simply a bizarre encounter. Until the...
Good Night, and Good Luck.
2005
as Edward R. Murrow
The story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.
The Notorious Bettie Page
2005
as Estes Kefauver
Bettie Page grew up in a conservative religious family in Tennessee and became a photo model sensation in 1950s New York. Bettie's legendary pin-up ph...
Willa Cather: The Road Is All
2005
as Narrator
Willa Cather had the great good fortune to have lived among the first generation of white settlers in 1880's Nebraska, and she gives witness to their ...
Missing in America
2005
as Henry R. Hocknell Jr.
A haunted Vietnam veteran, living in exile in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, is faced with a life-changing decision after he is visited by a fo...
Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004
as Pierce Patchett in L.A. Confidential (archive footage)
From its distinctive neighborhoods to its architectural homes, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to countless movies. In this dazzling work, Andersen ...
Twisted
2004
as Dr. Melvin Frank
Recently promoted and transferred to the homicide division, Inspector Jessica Shepard feels pressure to prove herself -- and what better way than by s...
Paradise
2004
as Reverend Bobby Paradise
Televangelist Bobby Paradise "saw God" in some space debris when he was returning to Earth as an astronaut. Or at least he was convinced he did by his...
The Making of ‘Sneakers’
2003
as Self
Behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of ‘Sneakers’ (1992).
Blue Car
2003
as Auster
Meg is a gifted but emotionally scarred 18-year-old who finds solace in writing poetry. Mr. Auster, her English teacher, recognizes her talent and enc...
Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story
2002
as Jack Hoschouer
True story about the cat and mouse game between the FBI trying to find a Soviet mole in their ranks and Robert Hanssen, one of the top FBI agents and ...
Lathe of Heaven
2002
as Mannie
In a near future society a man claims that his dreams physically change reality. His therapist is confused at first but soon decides to use him for hi...
Speakeasy
2002
as Bruce Hickman
After being randomly brought together in a car accident, two strangers develop a friendship based on their shared relationship with a deaf man. This c...
Relative Evil
2001
as Dr. Charlie
Relative Evil (aka Ball in the House) - When JJ (Jonathan Tucker) returns home from rehab, he is greeted by a conniving family who are plotting to cas...
The Victim
2001
as Mark Zingerline
She's the bar floozy, he's the stranger. She tries to pick him up but for some reason, he's not game.
A Good Baby
2000
as Truman Lester
A young loner wandering the back roads of North Carolina comes across an abandoned baby. He immediately starts seeking the baby's parents, but starts ...
The Miracle Worker
2000
as Captain Keller
Devoted teacher Anne Sullivan leads deaf, blind and mute Helen Keller out of solitude and helps integrate her into the world.
Harrison's Flowers
2000
as Harrison Lloyd
1991. Harrison Lloyd, a renowned photojournalist covering the war in Yugoslavia, is reported missing. Sarah, his wife, convinced that he is not dead, ...
Freedom Song
2000
as Peter Crowley
Freedom Song is a made-for-TV film based on true stories of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1960s. It tells the story of the struggle ...
A Map of the World
1999
as Howard Goodwin
School nurse Alice Goodwin lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property ...
Limbo
1999
as Joe Gastineau
Traumatized by a fishing boat accident many years before, Joe Gastineau has given up his hopes for a life beyond the odd jobs he takes to support hims...
A Midsummer Night's Dream
1999
as Theseus
The lovely Hermia is to wed Demetrius, but she truly cares for Lysander. Hermia's friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius, while other romantic enta...
Bad Manners
1998
as Wes Westlund
Wes and Nancy are a married academics couple. One day they host Nancy's long-ago lover Matt and his current sexy girlfriend Kim. Matt is a musician an...
The Giraffe
1998
as Charles Kaminski
Lena Katz, who is German, and David Fish, who is American, are Jews who live in New York. When Lena's mother, who arrives from Germany, meets her at a...
Simon Birch
1998
as Rev. Russell
Simon Birch and Joe Wenteworth are boys who have a reputation for being oddballs. Joe never knew his father, and his mother, Rebecca, is keeping her l...
With Friends Like These
1998
as Armand Minetti
Four small-time, two-bit character actors, all close friends, compete for the same important part in the next Martin Scorsese mob film.
Evidence of Blood
1998
as Jackson Kinley
When a brilliant crime writer investigates a 40-year-old murder, he confronts a small town's worst fears.
The Climb
1998
as Earl Himes
Baltimore, 1959. Danny's dad is the only man in the neighborhood who didn't fight in World War II. Danny, who's 12, gets teased and folks make nasty c...
L.A. Confidential
1997
as Pierce Patchett
Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of...
Song of Hiawatha
1997
as Marcel
This adaptation of the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tells the tale of a mighty Ojibwe leader as he falls in love and strives for peace.
In the Gloaming
1997
as Martin
Danny, dying of AIDS, returns home for his last months. Always close to his mother, they share moments of openness that tend to shut out Danny's fathe...
Mother Night
1996
as Bernard B. O'Hare
An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real...
Beyond the Call
1996
as Russel Gates
Russell Gates (David Strahairn) is a Vietnam vet on death row for killing a policeman. His childhood sweetheart, Pam O'Brien (Sissy Spacek), is stunne...
Home for the Holidays
1995
as Russell Terziak
After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Cl...
Dolores Claiborne
1995
as Joe St. George
Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk ...
Losing Isaiah
1995
as Charles Lewin
Khaila Richards, a crack-addicted single mother, accidentally leaves her baby in a dumpster while high and returns the next day in a panic to find he ...
The River Wild
1994
as Tom Hartman
Gail and Tom Hartman are struggling to stay together and decide to take a white-water rafting holiday adventure in Montana for their son Roarke's 10th...
April One
1994
as John McCowan
An emotionally troubled man named David takes a minister hostage. John, a police superintendent tries to negotiate with David's demands while fending ...
A Dangerous Woman
1993
as Getso
Martha Horgan is a withdrawn, mentally disabled woman who lives with her aunt, Frances. One of Martha's unusual traits is that she doesn't lie, a qual...
The Firm
1993
as Ray McDeere
Mitch McDeere is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by 'The Firm' and made an offer he doesn't re...
Lost in Yonkers
1993
as Johnny
In the summer of 1942 two young boys are sent to stay with their stern grandmother Kurnitz and their childlike aunt Bella in Yonkers, New York.
The American Clock
1993
as Young Arthur Huntington
Moe, Rose and Lee Baumler are members of an upper class family who find the world completely changed when they lose everything in the stock market cra...
Passion Fish
1992
as Rennie
After an accident leaves her a paraplegic, a former soap opera star struggles to recover both emotionally and mentally, until she meets her newest nur...
Sneakers
1992
as Whistler
When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking 'b...
Bob Roberts
1992
as Mack Laflin
Millionaire conservative Bob Roberts launches an insurgent campaign against incumbent senator Brickley Paiste, firing up crowds at his rallies by sing...
A League of Their Own
1992
as Ira Lowenstein
As America's stock of athletic young men is depleted during World War II, a professional all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest, funded ...
Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even
1992
as Keith
A girl fed up with her quirky, dysfunctional family runs away from home, causing all of them to spend time with each other.
O Pioneers!
1992
as Carl Linstrum
A young woman inherits her father's farm after he dies. Over the years, she overcomes challenges and turns it into a success, all the while yearning f...
City of Hope
1991
as Asteroid
This gritty inner-city film follows various people living in a troubled New Jersey setting, most notably Nick Rinaldi, a disillusioned contractor who ...
Without Warning: The James Brady Story
1991
as Dr. Arthur Kobrine
The story of Ronald Reagan's press secretary who was crippled in the 1981 assassination attempt on the president and who, with his wife, became the li...
Judgment
1990
as Father Frank Aubert
Fact-based story of a Louisiana priest accused of molesting young parishioners, and of the family of one of his victims, caught between their loyalty ...
Memphis Belle
1990
as Craig Harriman
The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bomb...
Heat Wave
1990
as Bill Thomas
A rookie black journalist investigates the tensions of the Watts section of Los Angeles in the bloody summer of 1965.
The Feud
1989
as The Stranger
All Dolph Beeler wanted was a can of paint remover when he went to Bud Bullard's hardware store in Millville. But a simple misunderstandling between t...
Day One
1989
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard leaves Europe, eventually arriving in the United States. With the help of Einstein, he persuades the government to bui...
Eight Men Out
1988
as Eddie Cicotte
Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch are young idealistic players on the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey - a penny-pinching...
Call Me
1988
as Sam
After agreeing to meet an obscene caller at a bar, a young New York reporter witnesses a murder and becomes an unwilling player in a dangerous game of...
Stars & Bars
1988
as Charlie
A British art expert leaves New York to buy a long-lost Renoir from a Georgia eccentric.
Dominick and Eugene
1988
as Martin Chernak
Dominick and Eugene are twins, but Dominick is a little bit slow due do an accident in his youth. They live together, with Dominick working as garbage...
Matewan
1987
as Police Chief Sid Hatfield
Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Keneh...
Broken Vows
1987
as Stuart Chase
When Father Joseph Hennessey visits the home of one of his parishioners to offer last rights,he becomes embroiled in a plot which ultimately shakes hi...
At Close Range
1986
as Tony Pine
Brad Whitewood Jr. lives in rural Pennsylvania and has few prospects. Against his mother's wishes, he seeks out his estranged father, the head of a ga...
When Nature Calls
1985
as Weejun
When construction worker Greg becomes fed-up with his foreman and the "city life", he takes his wife and kids on a wilderness adventure.
The Brother from Another Planet
1984
as Man In Black
An alien slave crash-lands in New York City while being pursued by two Men in Black bounty hunters. His attempt to find a place for himself on Earth p...
Iceman
1984
as Dr. Singe
A team of Arctic researchers find a 40,000 year-old man frozen in ice and bring him back to life. Anthropologist Dr. Stanley Shephard wants to befrie...
Silkwood
1983
as Wesley
The story of Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant who was purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possi...
Lovesick
1983
as Marvin Zuckerman
Sigmund Freud's ghost advises a married New York psychiatrist in love with a patient.
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
1983
as Jerry
This film is made up of three segments that share no plot but have a general thematic relationship. In the first segment, Virginia and her three child...
Return of the Secaucus Seven
1980
as Ron
Seven former college friends, along with a few new friends, gather for a weekend reunion at a summer house in New Hampshire to reminisce about the goo...
By Any Means
N/A
Based on the incredible true story of the notorious mafia hitman who was hired by Hoover’s FBI off-the-books and partnered with a young Black special ...