David Strathairn Filmography

Trumbo

Actors: Joan Allen, Brian Dennehy, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Nathan Lane

Synopsis: A documentary adaptation of the popular regional theatrical monologue -- in which such heavyweights as Paul Newman, Nathan Lane, and Joe Mantegna essayed the lead on various occasions -- Trumbo recounts the life and times of legendary Hollywood scribe-turned-HUAC scapegoat Dalton Trumbo. As with Read More

My Blueberry Nights

Actors: Jude Law, Norah Jones, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn, Chan Marshall

Synopsis: Legendary filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directs Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, and Norah Jones in his first English-language feature film -- a romantic road movie detailing the cross-country journey of a woman who sets off across the United States in hopes of mending her broken heart. Elizabeth Read More

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Actors: Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Sarah Bolger, Andrew McCarthy

Synopsis: Mark S. Waters's adaptation of the popular fantasy novels The Spiderwick Chronicles tells the tale of the Graces, a family who must adapt to their new strange surroundings. As the story begins, twin brothers Jared and Simon, along with their sister Mallory and their mother, move away from the big Read More

The Sensation of Sight

Actors: David Strathairn, Ian Somerhalder, Daniel Gillies, Jane Adams, Ann Cusack, Joseph Mazzello, Elisabeth Waterston, Scott Wilson

Synopsis: First-time American writer director Aaron Wiederspahn's moody drama The Sensation of Sight concerns Finn, a middle-aged English teacher caught up in the unrelenting throes of a mid-life crisis. Driven by the guilt associated with a tragic incident for which he considers himself responsible, he Read More

The Bourne Ultimatum

Actors: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney

Synopsis: Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) races to solve the mystery of his past while being hunted by members of the very organization he was hired into as director Paul Greengrass brings author Robert Ludlum's popular character back to the big screen for his third feature outing. David Strathairn, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen Read More

Fracture

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike, Embeth Davidtz

Synopsis: A structural engineer (Anthony Hopkins) and an ambitious young district attorney (Ryan Gosling) become locked in a deadly battle of wits when the former is found innocent in the attempted murder of his wife in director Gregory Hoblit's tense tale of courtroom mind games. Ted Crawford (Hopkins) is Read More

Hereafter

Actors: David Strathairn

Synopsis: An American clothing designer who has traveled to Thailand with his family to visit a remote factory that produces his garments must struggle to locate his wife and children when the Southeast Asian country is devastated by the 2004 tsunami. Oscar nominee David Strathairn stars in a film scripted Read More

The Supreme Court [TV Documentary Series]

Steel Toes

Actors: David Strathairn, Andrew Walker, Marina Orsini, Ivan Smith

Synopsis: Academy award nominee David Strathairn stars in co-directors David Gow and Mark Adam's fiery tale of a Jewish, court appointed lawyer assigned the task of defending a murderous neo-Nazi skinhead. David Dunkleman (Strathairn) is a Jewish liberal humanist and a lawyer who works for the court system. Read More

We Are Marshall

Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Anthony Mackie, David Strathairn, Ian McShane

Synopsis: A true story of tragedy, hope, and resilience comes to the screen in this sports drama. Huntington, WV, is home to Marshall University, a school where college football is a way of life. Huntington is also a town that learned to deal with tragedy in the fall of 1970 when Marshall's "Thundering Read More

The Notorious Bettie Page

Actors: Gretchen Mol, Christopher Bauer, Jared Harris, Sarah Paulson, Cara Seymour

Synopsis: Celebrated and vilified in equal measure, the pinup goddess Bettie Page inspired a legion of followers -- and an indecency scandal -- by appearing in a series of nude, sado-masochistic, and/or revealing magazine spreads in the 1950s. An era later, writer/director Mary Harron casts a knowing eye Read More

Good Night, and Good Luck.

Actors: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Robert Downey, Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Frank Langella

Synopsis: George Clooney pays homage to one of the icons of American broadcast journalism, Edward R. Murrow, in this fact-based drama, which was Clooney's second feature film as a director. In 1953, Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn) was one of the best-known newsmen on television as host of both Read More

Missing in America

Actors: Danny Glover, Linda Hamilton, David Strathairn, Ron Perlman, Zoë Weizenbaum

Synopsis: A reclusive Vietnam veteran finds his quiet life thrown into chaos upon receiving an unexpected visitor in this tale of friendship and healing starring Danny Glover, Linda Hamilton, and Ron Perlman. Though 35 years have passed since Jake (Glover) returned to American soil after fighting in the Read More

Heavens Fall

Actors: Timothy Hutton, David Strathairn, Leelee Sobieski, Anthony Mackie

Synopsis: The tragic court case that forever altered the course of American jurisprudence is dramatized for the screen in this courtroom docudrama starring Timothy Hutton, David Straithairn, Leelee Sobieski, Anthomy Mack and Bill Sage. The year is 1931, and nine black hobos have been accused of raping two Read More

Willa Cather: The Road is All

Synopsis: Few events had as much impact on the life of young Willa Cather than her move from a lavish Virginia home to the endless prairies of Nebraska. A profound influence on the developing writer's style and storytelling, the creativity afforded to Cather by that fateful move fueled such acclaimed works Read More

Twisted

Actors: Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia, David Strathairn, Russell Wong

Synopsis: Philip Kaufman directs the detective thriller Twisted (originally to be titled The Blackout Murders), with a script by up-and-coming filmmaker Sarah Thorp. Ashley Judd plays troubled police detective Jessica Shepard, who works under the jurisdiction of the man who raised her as his daughter Read More

Paradise

Actors: David Strathairn, Barbara Hershey

Synopsis: The Lord works in mysterious ways, and when astronaut Bobby Paradise (David Strathairn) has a divine vision during a moon mission gone wrong, he returns to terra firma a changed man. Subsequently devoting his entire existence to God and the ministry in order to do better spread the gospel, Bobby Read More

Relative Evil

Synopsis: Studies say that the majority of homicides are committed by someone the victim knows, and 17-year-old J.J. White (Jonathan Tucker) is about to find that out the hard way. Upon returning to his working-class home from a court-ordered stay at rehab, J.J.'s struggle to remain sober is complicated by Read More

Blue Car

Actors: Agnes Bruckner, David Strathairn, Margaret Colin, Frances Fisher, Regan Arnold

Synopsis: The coming-of-age drama Blue Car is the directorial debut feature from actress Karen Moncrieff. Played by newcomer Agnes Bruckner, quiet high school student Meg lives in an apartment complex where she takes care of her troubled little sister, Lily (Regan Arnold), while her emotionally unavailable Read More

Return of the Secaucus 7

Actors: Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, Adam Le Fevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp, Jean Passanante, Karen Trott, Mark Arnott

Synopsis: College friends reunite for a New England summer weekend in this low-budget first feature by accomplished independent filmmaker John Sayles. A predecessor of the well-paced, character-driven films in Sayles' future, Secaucus Seven also looks ahead to the 1980s ensemble movies that it Read More

Harrison's Flowers

Actors: Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, Elias Koteas, Adrien Brody, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: French director Elie Chouraqui adapts the novel of the same name into this drama, that, although set in 1991, became tragically topical in the weeks before its release due to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Andie MacDowell stars as Sarah, a photo editor for Newsweek and Read More

Speakeasy

Synopsis: A runner-up in HBO's popular series Project Greenlight, this touching tale of common threads and self-discovery stars David Strathairn, Nicky Katt, and Christopher McDonald. Brought together by a car accident, Bruce Hickman (Strathairn) and Frank Marnikov (Katt) soon discover that they are Read More

Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story

Actors: William Hurt, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn, Ron Silver, Peter Boyle

Synopsis: Originally presented in two parts by the CBS network, Master Spy is the true story of Robert Hanssen, a disgruntled FBI agent who, for 20 years, systematically sold out his country to the former Soviet Union. The film depicts Hanssen (played by William Hurt) as hyper-intelligent and Read More

Ball in the House

Actors: Jonathan Tucker, Jennifer Tilly, David Strathairn, Dan Moran, Deirdre O'Connell

Synopsis: Following up on her crowd pleasing 1998 film Finding North, Tanya Wexler directs this tweaked coming-of-age drama about a troubled teen and his even more troubled family. Having just come out of detox for drugs and alcohol, JJ (Jonathan Tucker) returns home hoping for a little comfort and solace Read More

The Miracle Worker

Actors: Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Alison Elliott, David Strathairn, Lucas Black

Synopsis: Originally telecast November 12, 2000, on ABC, The Miracle Worker was the third film version of the classic biographical play by William Gibson. Following in the footsteps of Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert as the young Helen Keller is Hallie Kate Eisenberg, who skyrocketed to TV fame in 2000 as Read More

Freedom Song

Actors: Danny Glover, Vicellous Shannon, Loretta Devine, Glynn E. Turman

Synopsis: This made-for-TV movie focuses on the grassroots efforts of a Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to combat the entrenched racism of the segregated South. The film focuses on Owen Walker (Vicellus Reon Shannon), a youth who longs to address the injustices of his hometown in rural Read More

A Map of the World

Actors: Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore, David Strathairn, Ron Lea, Arliss Howard

Synopsis: In this contemporary drama, Sigourney Weaver plays a woman out of her element and at the end of her rope. Alice Goodwin is a wife and mother who finds that the pressures of her life are starting to become more than she can bear. Alice works part-time as a school nurse while her husband Howard (David Strathairn Read More

Limbo

Actors: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn, Vanessa Martinez, Kris Kristofferson, Casey Siemaszko, Kathryn Grody, Rita Taggart, Michael Laskin

Synopsis: Writer/director John Sayles once again takes his audience to a place they may never have been before (this time both psychologically and geographically). Joe Gastineau (David Strathairn) lives in Juneau, Alaska, where his life has been stuck in neutral for about 25 years. When he was young, Joe Read More

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Actors: Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, Dominic West, David Strathairn, Sophie Marceau

Synopsis: With William Shakespeare now a hot commodity at the box office (and his body of work conveniently out of copyright), the usual trickle of film adaptations of the Bard's work is becoming a small flood, and director Michael Hoffman has assembled a cast of leading stage and screen actors for this Read More

A Good Baby

Actors: Henry Thomas, David Strathairn, Cara Seymour, Danny Nelson, Jayne Morgan

Synopsis: A small town's secrets prove deeper and more mysterious than they initially seemed in A Good Baby. Toker (played by Henry Thomas) is a young man living in a small North Carolina community, where he prefers to keep to himself. One day, while taking a walk in the woods, Toker finds a baby, and Read More

Bad Manners

Actors: Caroleen Feeney, David Strathairn, Bonnie Bedelia, Saul Rubinek

Synopsis: Two couples share an evening of bad karma in this domestic drama. Matt (Saul Rubinek) is a musicologist who has devised a computer program that can spontaneously compose music; however, one of the first pieces it comes up with features a prominent quote from "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." His Read More

Simon Birch

Actors: Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt, David Strathairn

Synopsis: This comedy-drama features a narration by Jim Carrey, looking back to childhood in a manner similar to the narration on TV's The Wonder Years. The film is the directorial debut of writer Mark Steven Johnson, scripter of Grumpy Old Men and its sequel. Johnson adapted only a small portion of John Irving Read More

The Climb

Actors: John Hurt, David Strathairn, Gregory Smith

Synopsis: Directed by Bob Swaim, The Climb chronicles the efforts of a father and son trying to prove their bravery. Set in the 1950's and shot in New Zealand, 12-year-old Danny (Gregory Smith) is determined to reach the highest point of the town, which, in this case, is a 203-foot radio tower. The tower in Read More

With Friends Like These...

Actors: Adam Arkin, Robert Costanzo, Beverly D'Angelo, Elle MacPherson, Amy Madigan

Synopsis: Life among insecure, middle-aged character actors, former New Yorkers in L.A., is the main plot focus of this Philip Frank Messina comedy about four friends who want the same role in the next Martin Scorsese gangster flick. Balding Johnny DiMartino (Robert Costanzo) is so excited by the news of a Read More

The Giraffe

Actors: Maria Schrader, Dani Levy, David Strathairn, Nicole Heesters, Jeffrey Wright

Synopsis: Dani Levy directed and co-stars in this German-Austrian political thriller. Lena Katz (Maria Schrader), living in New York, is the granddaughter of Jewish chocolate-factory owner Eliah Goldberg (Lukas Ammann), whose factory in Germany has been recently set on fire by some anti-Semitic thugs. In Read More

Evidence of Blood

Actors: David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell

Synopsis: When a local sheriff mysteriously dies, a world-famous, award-winning crime novelist launches a private investigation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

L.A. Confidential

Actors: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling novel by James Ellroy, this award-winning crime drama explores both the dark side of the Los Angeles police force and Southern California's criminal underbelly in the early '50s, when Hollywood was still seen as America's capital of sophistication, glitter, and glamour. Read More

The Song of Hiawatha

Actors: Michael Rooker, Litefoot, Irene Bedard, Graham Greene, Russell Means

Synopsis: This screen adaptation of the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tells the tale of Hiawatha (Litefoot), a Native American brave, and his great love for the beautiful Minehaha (Irene Bedard). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide Read More

In the Gloaming

Actors: Glenn Close, Robert Sean Leonard, David Strathairn, Bridget Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg

Synopsis: Actor Christopher Reeve made his directorial debut with this dramatic made-for-cable movie about the effects of AIDS on a family. Robert Sean Leonard stars as Danny, a son who returns home to his parents to be with them in the final days of his battle against AIDS. The stress of the situation Read More

Beyond the Call

Actors: Sissy Spacek, David Strathairn, Arliss Howard, Janet Wright, Lindsay Murrell

Synopsis: In this well-wrought, moving drama from Hallmark Productions, a wife and mother puts her home life on the line when she launches a campaign to keep her ex-boyfriend, a convicted killer, off death row. Pam O'Brien (Sissy Spacek) loved Russell Gates (David Strathairn) in high school, but afterwards Read More

Losing Isaiah

Actors: Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, David Strathairn, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Daisy Eagan

Synopsis: Two women of dramatically different social, economic, and ethnic circumstances find themselves locked into a bitter child custody dispute in this emotionally powerful drama. Khailia Richards (Halle Berry) is a poor and drug-addicted single mother who, while stumbling out of a crack house one Read More

Dolores Claiborne

Actors: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judy Parfitt, Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn

Synopsis: A daughter who has come to imagine the worst about her mother learns the facts are quite different -- and more shocking than she ever imagined -- in this adaptation of Stephen King's best-selling novel. Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates) has spent nearly a quarter of a century looking after a Read More

Home for the Holidays

Actors: Holly Hunter, Robert Downey, Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Geraldine Chaplin

Synopsis: It's been said that while most people love their families, they don't always like them very much, and that emotional dividing line is the heart of this comedy directed by Jodie Foster. Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) usually approaches family reunions with a certain trepidation, but as she prepares Read More

The River Wild

Actors: Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, Joseph Mazzello, John C. Reilly

Synopsis: In a change-of-pace role designed to prove that she could carry high-concept genre films as well as character-driven dramas, Meryl Streep headlined this fast-paced adventure as Gail, a whitewater rafting guide. For a vacation, Gail is accompanying her son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello) and workaholic Read More

A Dangerous Woman

Actors: Debra Winger, Barbara Hershey, Gabriel Byrne, David Strathairn, Chloe Webb

Synopsis: Debra Winger's performance as a slow, mentally disturbed woman in A Dangerous Woman, raises the film far above its conventional, violence-ridden plot. Winger plays Martha, a quiet, lonely woman who has adjusted to a life without a man as she toils away at her small job at a dry cleaners in a small Read More

Lost in Yonkers

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Mercedes Ruehl, Irene Worth, Brad Stoll, Mike Damus, David Strathairn

Synopsis: An adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, semi-autobiographical stage play by popular dramatist Neil Simon, this comedy-drama focuses on the difficulties faced by two young brothers forced to live with a group of eccentric relatives. Arty (Mike Damus) and Jay (Brad Stoll) are young teenagers Read More

April One

The Firm

Actors: Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney, Ed Harris

Synopsis: In this drama, based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham, Mitch McDeer (Tom Cruise) is a young man from a poor Southern family who has struggled through Harvard Law School to graduate fifth in his class. Mitch is entertaining offers from major firms in New York and Chicago, but when Read More

Arthur Miller's The American Clock

Actors: Eddie Bracken, Loren Dean, Mary McDonnell, Joanna Miles, Kelly Preston, David Strathairn, Darren McGavin, John Rubinstein

Synopsis: This made-for-cable version of Arthur Miller's play The American Clock was adapted for television by Frank Galati. Inspired partly by Studs Terkel's oral history Hard Times, and partly by Miller's own recollections, the film is set at the beginning of the Depression. When the stock market crashes Read More

Passion Fish

Actors: Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, David Strathairn, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Nora Dunn

Synopsis: With his trademark emphasis on character development and dialogue, writer/director John Sayles tells the story of May-Alice Culhane (Mary McDonnell), a New York soap opera actress left paralyzed by a car accident. As the film opens, she lies in a hospital bed, confused and scared, watching her own Read More

Sneakers

Actors: Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, David Strathairn

Synopsis: In this tech-thriller from director Phil Alden Robinson, a group of five renegade computer hackers, led by Martin Bishop (Robert Redford), are hired by the government to steal a black box, containing a code-breaking machine, from the mathematician who invented the device. The government is able to Read More

Bob Roberts

Actors: Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Brian Doyle-Murray, Gore Vidal

Synopsis: In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating Read More

A League of Their Own

Actors: Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Lori Petty, Madonna, Jon Lovitz, Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Pullman

Synopsis: The All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943, when most of the men of baseball-playing age were far away in Europe and Asia fighting World War II. The league flourished until after World War II, when, with the men's return, the league was consigned to oblivion. Director Penny Marshall Read More

Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even

Actors: Hillary Wolf, David Strathairn, Margaret Whitton, Griffin Dunne, Patricia Kalember

Synopsis: Joan Micklin Silver tries her mighty best to wring something substantial out of Frank Mugavero's banal sit-com screenplay concerning the effect of divorce on the divorced parents' off-spring. Hillary Wolf stars as Laura Chartoff, a lonely thirteen-year-old girl who is the victim of multiple Read More

Shadows and Fog

Actors: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, Madonna, Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin, Donald Pleasence

Synopsis: Woody Allen's black-and-white curiosity piece is a mixture of influences -- from German silent film expressionism to Franz Kafka's nightmare worlds to the contemporary fables of Wim Wenders. Woody Allen plays the nebbish clerk Kleinman (in a throwback to his characters from Sleeper and Love and Death