James Cromwell

James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor.

Cromwell was born in Los Angeles, California and was raised in Manhattan, New York. His mother was actress Kay Johnson and his father was actor, director and producer John Cromwell, who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

He was educated at The Hill School, Middlebury College and Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he studied engineering. Like both his parents, he was drawn to the theater, doing everything from Shakespeare to experimental plays.

His first television performance was in a 1974 episode of The Rockford Files playing Terry. A few weeks later, he began a recurring role as Stretch Cunningham on All in the Family. In 1975 he took his first lead role on television as Bill Lewis in the short-lived Hot L Baltimore, and a year later made his film debut in Neil Simon's classic detective spoof Murder by Death. While he continued with regular television work for the rest of the 1980s, he made real inroads in movie business for his roles in the James Garner-Shirley Jones film Tank, as a corrupt deputy sheriff and his first appearance as Mr. Skolnick, father of main character Lewis in the comedy film Revenge of the Nerds. He would reprise this role three more times in each of the "Nerds" sequels.

His notable film roles in the 1990s include his Oscar nominated performance as Farmer Arthur Hoggett in Babe (1995) and Captain Dudley Liam Smith in Curtis Hanson's film adaptation of James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential (1997), which was a breakout role for him, and made him more bankable in Hollywood. Cromwell had additional success on television in the movie RKO 281, portraying newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst (and receiving his first Emmy nomination at the 2000 Emmy Awards). He takes on the role of 41st president George Herbert Walker Bush in Oliver Stone's W., released on October 17, 2008, and chronicles the unlikely rise to power of his son George Walker Bush, who became president number 43. In an interview Cromwell revealed that Stone had originally offered the role to Warren Beatty and Harrison Ford.

He has three children and has been married twice. Anne Ulvestad (27 November 1976 - 1986) (divorced) 3 children Julie Cobb actress (29 May 1986 - present) (filed for divorce)

Cromwell is known for his unusually tall stature; he stands at 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m), making him the tallest person ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. He has long been an advocate of leftist causes. In an October 2008 interview he strongly attacked the Republican party and the Bush administration, saying their pursuit of the American empire would "either destroy us or the entire planet."