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William Atherton

William Atherton
Atherton in 2009
Born	William Atherton Knight[1] (1947-07-30) July 30, 1947 (age 76)[2] Orange, Connecticut, U.S.
Education	Carnegie Mellon University (BFA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Bobbi Goldin ​ (m. 1980)​

William Atherton (born July 30, 1947) is an American actor. He had starring roles in The Sugarland Express (1974), The Day of the Locust (1975), The Hindenburg (1975) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), but is most recognized for supporting roles in Ghostbusters and Die Hard film series.

Early life[edit]

Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut. He studied acting at the Drama School at Carnegie Tech and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1969.^[3]

Career[edit]

Atherton was successful on the New York stage immediately after graduating and worked with many of the country's leading playwrights including David Rabe, John Guare, and Arthur Miller, winning numerous awards for his work on and off Broadway.^[4]

He got his big break playing hapless fugitive Clovis Poplin in The Sugarland Express (1974), the feature film debut of Steven Spielberg. After this, he garnered major roles in dark dramas such as The Day of the Locust (1975) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977),^[5] as well as the big-budget disaster film The Hindenburg (1975).^[6] The Day of the Locust had a troubled production; he walked off the set in frustration and refused to film his final scene.^[7] He provided lead vocals for "What'll I Do", the main title theme for the Robert Redford film version of The Great Gatsby.

Atherton also starred as cowboy Jim Lloyd in the miniseries Centennial (1978), based on the novel by James Michener. He appeared in the comedy Ghostbusters (1984) as the officious and condescending EPA agent Walter Peck.

Martha Coolidge chose Atherton to play Professor Jerry Hathaway in the teen comedy Real Genius (1985). Atherton played reporter Richard "Dick" Thornburg in the blockbuster action film Die Hard (1988), and reprised the role in its sequel Die Hard 2 (1990).^[8]

Other film credits include No Mercy (1986), The Pelican Brief (1993), Bio-Dome (1996), Mad City (1997), The Crow: Salvation (2000), The Last Samurai (2003), Grim Prairie Tales (1990), the TV movies Buried Alive (1990), Headspace (2005) and Virus (1995). He has also made guest appearances on such television series as The Twilight Zone, Murder, She Wrote, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order, The Equalizer, Boston Legal, Castle and Monk. Atherton provided the voice of Dr. DestinyonJustice League. He had a recurring role in NBC's detective drama Life.

His 2007 appearances included the film The Girl Next Door, an adaptation of the best-selling Jack Ketchum novel of the same name. He also reprised his role as Walter Peck in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, released on June 16, 2009.^[9]

Atherton was cast in the final season of ABC's Lost.^[10] He appeared in the musical Gigi for the Reprise Theatre in Los Angeles as『Honoré Lachailles』in 2011.^[11]

Following his work on the musical, he stepped into a comedic role in Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012), produced by Will Ferrell's Funny or Die, Gary Sanchez Productions and Abso Lutely Productions.^[12][13]

In summer 2014, Atherton was cast in a recurring role as Viceroy Mercado in the Syfy series Defiance'ssecond season.

Atherton co-starred in the 2017 Netflix thriller, Clinical,^[14] and appears in several upcoming documentaries on his most iconic films. The first to be released is the 2019 Cleanin' Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters which features the original 1984 cast.^[15]

Personal life[edit]

Atherton has been married to writer Bobbi Goldin since December 8, 1980.^[16]OnThe Phil Donahue Show in 1981, Atherton claimed that he was once homosexual but changed due to the Aesthetic RealismofEli Siegel.^[17]

Atherton has sung in various productions in later years. In 2011, he performed "I Remember It Well," a popular song from Gigi with his former Reprise Theater co-star, Millicent Martin, at a sold-out performance in Palm Springs for Michael Childers' One Night Only, benefiting the Jewish Family Service of the Desert.^[18] He returned in 2013 to the same sold-out event to sing the classic, "Isn't It Romantic?"^[19]

Atherton appeared with his former Centennial costar Stephanie Zimbalist in the Gregory Peck Reading Series, a project of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles benefiting the Los Angeles Public Library. Roddy McDowall was host for the event.^[20]

In December 2018, Atherton participated in the Library Foundation's reading of excerpts from book editor and critic, David Kipen's best-seller, Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018.^[21]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

Video games[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Atherton.

• William AthertonatIMDb
• William Atherton at the Internet Broadway Database
• William Atherton at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• William Atherton at the TCM Movie Database
• William AthertonatAllMovie