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Name: Philip Baker Hall
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Date of Birth:
September 10, 1931
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Place of Birth:
Toledo, Ohio, USA
Mini-bio:
Primarily a supporting and character actor, Philip Baker Hall has also played the occasional lead on stage, screen, and television. Hall made his film debut playing a priest in Cowards (1970). He then... read more appeared in three television series during the mid-'70s, including Man From Atlantis (1977). He became best known during the '80s for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Robert Altman's brilliant Secret Honor (1984), for which Hall also wrote the screenplay. Though the film garnered mixed reviews, the actor's portrayal of Nixon was hailed as a tour de force. Through the '80s and '90s, Hall continued to work steadily in films and on television; his talents were perhaps best, and most famously, utilized by director Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast Hall in substantial roles in Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), and Magnolia (1999), the last of which saw the actor in fine form as a game show host dying of cancer. Hall also had a memorable turn as a private investigator who is far too convinced of the infallibility of his own instincts in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999); that same year, he gave a strong performance as CBS producer Don Hewitt in Michael Mann's The Insider. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Philip Baker Hall mini-bio: Baker Hall shot to cult fame when he turned in an electrifying performance as Sydney, the veteran gambler, in Paul Thomas Anderson's debut feature, Sydney (1996). However, it was his underrated work in the same director's star-studded Magnolia (1999) that really caught the mass film public's attention. His performance as the legendary quiz show presenter "Jimmy Gator" was an incredible performance. He has since been in a few blockbuster movies, like The Sum of All Fears (2002), and stars in Dogville (2003), directed by Lars von Trier.
