Michael Anthony Thomas Charles Hall (born April 14, 1968), known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, producer and director.
Anthony Michael Hall was born in West Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the only child of blues-jazz singer Mercedes Hall's first marriage. She divorced Hall's father, Larry, an auto-body-shop owner, when their son was six months old. When Hall was three, he and his mother relocated to the West Coast where she found work as a featured singer. After a year and a half, they returned to the East, eventually moving to New York City, where Hall grew up.Hall is of Irish and Italian heritage, and is a Catholic. He has one half-sister, Mary Chestaro, from his mother's second marriage to Thomas Chestaro, a show business manager. His half-sister is pursuing a career as a singer under the name of Mary C. Hall uses the name Michael, rather than Anthony or Anthony Michael. He transposed his first and middle names when he entered show business because another actor named Michael Hall was already a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Hall attended St. Hilda's and St. Hugh's School New York before moving on to Manhattan's Professional Children's School. Hall began his acting career at the age of eight and continued throughout high school, opting not to attend college. "I did not go to college", he said, "but I'm an avid reader in the ongoing process of educating myself." Through the 80s, Hall's mother managed his career, eventually relinquishing that role to her second husband. Hall is committed to aiding at-risk youth through his literacy program, The Anthony Michael Hall Literacy Club, in association with Chapman University. The club provides an opportunity for the students to improve their literacy skills by exploring genres not typically used to enhance literacy, such as films, music and lyrics, scripts, and novels with audio. Following family tradition, Hall is pursuing his other passion, music. He is the lead singer and songwriter for his band, Hall of Mirrors, formed in 1998. The band released an album, Welcome to the Hall of Mirrors, through Hall's own RAM Records label in 1999, with collaborations from former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and Prince's former keyboard player Tommy Barbarella.
Hall briefly dated actress Molly Ringwald after they co-starred in The Breakfast Club together. He has also dated Canadian model Sandra Guerard. When not filming The Dead Zone in Montreal, Canada, he resides in Los Angeles, California.
Hall started his career in commercials when he was seven years old. He was the Honeycomb cereal kid and appeared in several commercials for toys and Bounty. His stage debut was in 1977, when he was cast as the young Steve Allen in Allen's semi-autobiographical play The Wake. He went on to appear in the Lincoln Center Festival's production of St. Joan of the Microphone, and in a play with Woody Allen. In 1980, he made his screen debut in the Emmy-winning TV movie The Gold Bug, in which he played the young Edgar Allan Poe, but it was not until the release of the 1982 Kenny Rogers film Six Pack that he gained real notice.
Hall was offered the starring role in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket in a conversation with Stanley Kubrick, but after an eight-month negotiation, a financial agreement could not be reached. "It was a difficult decision, because in that eight-month period, I read everything I could about the guy, and I was really fascinated by him", Hall said when asked about the film. "I wanted to be a part of that film, but it didn't work out. But all sorts of stories circulated, like I got on set and I was fired, or I was pissed at him for shooting too long. It's all not true." His next film would be 1988's Johnny Be Good, in which he worked with Uma Thurman and fellow Saturday Night Live cast member Robert Downey Jr.. The film was a critical failure, and some critics panned Hall's performance as a high school football star, claiming that he, the movies' reigning geek, was miscast for the role. A review for The Washington Post claimed that the film was "crass, vulgar, and relentlessly brain-dead." After a two-year hiatus due to a drinking problem, Hall returned to acting by starring opposite Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder in Tim Burton's 1990 hit Edward Scissorhands, this time as the film's villain. Now in his twenties, he shifted to more mature roles, trying to establish himself as an adult actor. In 1994, Hall starred and directed his first feature film, a low-budget Showtime comedy named Hail Caesar about a would-be rock star who works in a pencil eraser factory. The film also co-starred Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., and Judd Nelson. In addition, he produced the soundtrack for the film with composer Herbie Tribino. The film featured songs written and performed by Hall. After a series of appearances in low-budget films and guest roles on TV series in the mid and late 1990s, he gained media attention once again in the 1999 Emmy-nominated TNT original movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, co-starring Noah Wyle as Apple Computer's Steve Jobs. Hall was widely praised for his portrayal of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates. "I really fought for this part because I knew it would be the role of a lifetime", Hall said. "It was a thrill and a daunting challenge to play someone of his stature and brilliance."
After making a cameo appearance as himself in the 2000 comedy film Happy Accidents, Hall appeared in several made-for-TV films. Hall began his first regular series role in 2002, starring as Johnny Smith in USA Network's supernatural drama The Dead Zone, a TV series adapted from Stephen King's best-selling novel. He was cast in the show after executive producer Michael Piller saw his performance in Pirates of Silicon Valley. The show debuted on June 16, 2002, and drew higher ratings for a premiere than any other cable series in television history[30] with 6.4 million viewers. The Dead Zone quickly developed a loyal audience, with the show and Hall receiving strong reviews. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote that "Hall's Johnny flashes the qualities - comic timing, great facial expressions - that made him a star in the 1980s movies Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club." The Dead Zone, Hall said, "has transformed my career." The show proved to be one of USA Network's top shows and one of the highest-rated programs on basic cable. The Dead Zone opening credits list Hall as co-producer (seasons 1-3), producer (seasons 5) and co-executive producer (season 6). The show's sixth and final season premiered on June 17, 2007. USA Network officially canceled The Dead Zone in December 2007.
Hall became a regular subject of tabloid media after New York Magazine named him a member of the Brat Pack, the group of young actors who became famous in the 1980s and frequently starred together. In the late 80s, Hall's drinking problem, which began in his early teens, made headlines. Hall eventually quit drinking and became fully sober by 1990. "The truth is, I had my partying nights, but I never really bounced at the bottom", he said. "I never went to rehab...I was able to govern myself and continue my work."
In 1990, Hall's physical appearance in Scissorhands caught audiences off guard. His more muscular image provoked rumors of steroids, but Hall later said that "the weight gain was natural."
Hall's role in the 1993 film, Six Degrees of Separation, managed to make news not because of what occurred onscreen, but rather what failed to occur. Hall played a gay love interest to Will Smith, who had previously agreed to a kissing scene between the two. However, on the day of the shoot, Smith backed off. Smith told the press that he called Denzel Washington for advice, who told him that an onscreen same-sex kiss was a bad career move. When asked about the incident during an interview, Hall said, "I didn't care. I wasn't that comfortable with it, either, and ultimately, we used a camera trick."
The 2001 film Not Another Teen Movie pays tribute to Hall's numerous appearances in the teen-oriented, 80s comedy films parodied by the movie. A brief shot of the sign over the door of a high school cafeteria reveals that the facility is named the "Anthony Michael Dining Hall." In 2006, Hall was ranked # 4 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Teen Stars" and # 41 in "100 Greatest Kid Stars."