This page uses content from the James Spader biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American actor best known for his eccentric roles in movies such as sex, lies, and videotape (for which he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival), Stargate, and Secretary.

Spader attended The Pike School, where his mother taught art and Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, where his father, Todd, taught. The family lived on campus, and Spader is one of the school's most famous alumni. Afterwards he attended Phillips Academy, but he dropped out in the eleventh grade to pursue acting in New York City.

He met his wife, Victoria, while working in a yoga studio soon after he moved to New York in the early 1980s. She often traveled with him, either on location or just on the road. They married in 1987 and had two sons, Sebastian and Elijah. They divorced in 2004.

Known for his mastery of the smarmy, sexually deviant yuppie, Spader got his start in Pretty in Pink. He also played Alan Shore, the lead of the mostly-new cast which creator David E. Kelley put in place in 2003 for ABC's The Practice (for which he won an Emmy Award) and was given the lead in that show's spin-off, Boston Legal for which he won an Emmy in 2005 and thus became one of the few actors to win consecutive Emmys for playing the same character in two different series, (another being co-star William Shatner).

Offbeat and private, Spader has always narrowly avoided mainstream success, but he is widely acclaimed as one of the most talented, albeit unwilling, actors of his generation.

In October 2006, Spader narrated China Revealed, the first episode of Discovery Channel's documentary series Discovery Atlas.

Filmography

• Endless Love (1981)
• The New Kids (1985)
• Tuff Turf (1985)
• Pretty in Pink (1986)
• Baby Boom (1987)
• Less Than Zero (1987)
• Mannequin (1987)
• Wall Street (1987)
• Jack's Back (1988)
• The Rachel Papers (1989)
• Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
• Bad Influence (1990)
• White Palace (1990)
• True Colors (1991)
• Bob Roberts (1992)
• Storyville (1992)
• The Music of Chance (1993)
• Dream Lover (1994)
• Wolf (1994)
• Stargate (1994)
• 2 Days in the Valley (1996)
• Crash (1996)
• Keys to Tulsa (1997)
• Driftwood (1997)
• Critical Care (1997)
• Curtain Call (1999)
• Supernova (2000)
• Slow Burn (2000)
• The Watcher (2000)
• Speaking of Sex (2001)
• The Stickup (2001)
• Secretary (2002)
• I Witness (2003)
• Alien Hunter (2003)
• The Pentagon Papers (2003)
• Shadow of Fear (2004)
• Discovery Atlas China Revealed (2006)

External links

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