William H Macy

His self-definition as a “stereotypical middle-class type, WASP and Lutheran, an ordinary guy…” has led him to play roles in commercial films and especially in independent cinema, where he has exploited a talent that has earned him many awards. . Interested in transmitting his experience, he is an acting teacher as well as a theater director and screenwriter. Not an ordinary guy…

William Hall Macy, Jr. was born on March 13, 1950 in Miami, in the state of Florida in the United States. He is the son of a decorated World War II pilot and a war widow who brought a son to the marriage, Fred. He would teach William to play the guitar, who after overcoming his shyness as a teenager, began to sing in a talent show with much approval from the public. After finishing high school he created a folk-rock group called The Minnensingers and although they were already throwing tables at him, he enrolled in Veterinary Medicine at Bethany University. It would not take long for him to head towards acting at said university to end up at the aforementioned Goddard College, a Vermont school of arts under the tutelage of David Mamet .

His encounter with the famous playwright was definitive and after graduating from said school in 1971, together they founded, with fellow screenwriter Steven Schachter, the successful theater company St. Nicholas Theater Company in the city of Chicago. Macy, who had already interpreted both classical and contemporary pieces in his training period, played characters in Mamet works here, such as “The Water Engine” and “American Buffalo”, being nominated for successive roles in the Joseph Jefferson Awards. Together with Mamet he would conceive the interpretation technique “Practical Aesthetics”, based among others on the teachings of the Stanislavski method, and they would found the theater company The Atlantic Theater Company in New York in 1985. In this city, to which he would move in 1980, he worked in more than fifty Broadway and off-Broadway plays, At the same time, he took advantage of his voice by recording announcements, some of whose slogans would become famous over time. In that same year she would make her film debut with the romantic comedy Amor por surprise. This would be followed by some works for television, such asThe Boy Who Loved Trolls (1984) where he would lend his voice to the turtle Socrates, as well as in the sitcom Kate & Allie and in the hospital series General Hospital and Emergency . His consequent work for this medium has led him to win two Emmys in the category of leading actor and script in the telefilm Door to Door (2002). He would also get the Screen Actors Guild Award for this film, as well as for his work in the comedy series Shameless (2014).

Without a doubt, his greatest recognition would come with the Oscar nomination for playing Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo  (1996), directed by the Coen brothers. This relaunched his career, although he was already coming off a fruitful collaboration with Mamet on various films, such as House of Games (1987), Things Change (1988), Homicide (1991) and Oleanna (1994). Post  Fargo are State and Main (2003) and Spartan (2004).

Woody Allen had also knocked on his door for Radio Days (1987) and Shadows and Fog (1991). Steven Zaillian asked him for In Search of Bobby Fischer (1993) and Civil Action (1998) and with Paul Thomas Anderson he also doubled in Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999).

Other noteworthy titles are the romantic comedy Benny & Joon (1993) by Jeremiah S. Chechik , the thriller The Client (1994), directed by Joel Schumacher , and the dramas Professor Holland (1995), where he shared the bill with Oscar-winners Richard Dreyfuss and Olympia Dukakis, and Ghosts of the Past (1996), by Rob Reiner, along with Whoopi Goldberg and Alec Baldwin.

In 1997, he married fellow actress Felicity Huffman (the unforgettable Lynette Scavo in the Desperate Housewives series ), whom he met as a student at the Atlantic Theater Company. From their union 2 children were born, Sofia and George. From that year is Air Force One , by Wolfgang Petersen, along with Harrison Ford. A year later he would shoot Pleasantville , by Gary Ross, along with Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon, as well as Psycho , the remake of the classic directed by Gus Van Sant . In 2001 he would shoot Joe Johnston’s Jurassic Park III , with the Coens and Spielberg in production. After the remarkable Welcome to Collinwood andSeabiscuit and together with an ensemble cast we would see him in Bobby , by Emilio Estévez , and collaborating with David Lynch in Inland Empire . From 2011 is The innocent , based on the novel by Michael Connelly, along with Marisa Tomei. The Sessions , from 2012, would earn her partner Helen Hunt multiple nominations. In 2014 he could finally share the screen with his wife, Felicity Huffman, in the drama Cake , since they had not worked together since Things Change (1988). The film premiered in a section of the Toronto International Film Festival.

His most current work for television is in the series Shameless (2011), an American version of the original UK series of the same name, which tells the story of a dysfunctional family in which the head of the family spends most of the day drunk and their children live in absolute neglect. The North American adaptation comes to us from the hands of John Wells ( The West Wing of the White House). Macy adores her, as he believes that “the best stuff is on TV right now”. He also enjoys carpentry (he was featured on the cover of a DIY magazine) and confesses to not holding his own in the kitchen: “Once in a while I do something good, but if you put a gun to my head, I wouldn’t know how to repeat it”. Felicity will forgive you. We are left with her impeccable work that stems from her wise reflections: “the actor’s job is not to be funny. That’s the scriptwriter’s job. The actor’s job is to be believable, and then humor will emerge.”