| William Atherton | |
| Birth Name: | William Atherton Knight[1] |
| Birth Date: | July 30, 1947[2] |
| Birth Place: | Orange, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education: | Carnegie Mellon University (BFA) |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Years Active: | 1972–present |
William Atherton (born July 30, 1947) is an American actor. He had starring roles in The Sugarland Express (1974), The Day of the Locust (1975), The Hindenburg (1975) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), but is most recognized for supporting roles in Ghostbusters and Die Hard film series.
Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut. He studied acting at the Drama School at Carnegie Tech and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1969.[3]
Atherton was successful on the New York stage immediately after graduating and worked with many of the country's leading playwrights including David Rabe, John Guare, and Arthur Miller, winning numerous awards for his work on and off Broadway.[4]
He got his big break playing hapless fugitive Clovis Poplin in The Sugarland Express (1974), the feature film debut of Steven Spielberg.[5] After this, he garnered major roles in dark dramas such as The Day of the Locust (1975) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977),[6] as well as the big-budget disaster film The Hindenburg (1975).[7] The Day of the Locust had a troubled production; he walked off the set in frustration and refused to film his final scene.[8] He provided lead vocals for "What'll I Do", the main title theme for the Robert Redford film version of The Great Gatsby.
Atherton also starred as cowboy Jim Lloyd in the miniseries Centennial (1978), based on the novel by James Michener. He appeared in the comedy Ghostbusters (1984) as the officious and condescending EPA agent Walter Peck.
Martha Coolidge chose Atherton to play Professor Jerry Hathaway in the teen comedy Real Genius (1985). Atherton played reporter Richard "Dick" Thornburg in the blockbuster action film Die Hard (1988), and reprised the role in its sequel Die Hard 2 (1990).[9]
Other film credits include No Mercy (1986), The Pelican Brief (1993), Bio-Dome (1996), Mad City (1997), (2000), The Last Samurai (2003), Grim Prairie Tales (1990), the TV movies Buried Alive (1990), Headspace (2005) and Virus (1995). He has also made guest appearances on such television series as The Twilight Zone, Murder, She Wrote, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order, The Equalizer, Boston Legal, Castle and Monk. Atherton provided the voice of Dr. Destiny on Justice League. He had a recurring role in NBC's detective drama Life.
His 2007 appearances included the film The Girl Next Door, an adaptation of the best-selling Jack Ketchum novel of the same name. He also reprised his role as Walter Peck in , released on June 16, 2009.[10]
Atherton was cast in the final season of ABC's Lost.[11] He appeared in the musical Gigi for the Reprise Theatre in Los Angeles as "Honoré Lachailles" in 2011.[12]
Following his work on the musical, he stepped into a comedic role in Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012), produced by Will Ferrell's Funny or Die, Gary Sanchez Productions and Abso Lutely Productions.[13] [14]
In summer 2014, Atherton was cast in a recurring role as Viceroy Mercado in the Syfy series Defiances second season.
Atherton co-starred in the 2017 Netflix thriller, Clinical,[15] and appears in several upcoming documentaries on his most iconic films. The first to be released is the 2019 Cleanin' Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters which features the original 1984 cast.[16]
Atherton has been married to writer Bobbi Goldin since December 8, 1980.[17] On The Phil Donahue Show in 1981, Atherton claimed that he was once homosexual but changed due to the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel.[18]
Atherton has sung in various productions in later years. In 2011, he performed "I Remember It Well," a popular song from Gigi with his former Reprise Theater co-star, Millicent Martin, at a sold-out performance in Palm Springs for Michael Childers' One Night Only, benefiting the Jewish Family Service of the Desert.[19] He returned in 2013 to the same sold-out event to sing the classic, "Isn't It Romantic?"[20]
Atherton appeared with his former Centennial costar Stephanie Zimbalist in the Gregory Peck Reading Series, a project of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles benefiting the Los Angeles Public Library. Roddy McDowall was host for the event.[21]
In December 2018, Atherton participated in the Library Foundation's reading of excerpts from book editor and critic, David Kipen's best-seller, Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018.[22]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | The New Centurions | Johnson | ||
| 1973 | Class of '44 | Fraternity President | ||
| 1974 | The Great Gatsby | Singing voice for "What'll I Do" | ||
| The Sugarland Express | Clovis Michael Poplin | |||
| 1975 | The Day of the Locust | Tod Hackett | ||
| The Hindenburg | Karl Boerth | |||
| 1976 | Independence | Benjamin Rush | ||
| 1977 | Looking for Mr. Goodbar | James | ||
| 1984 | Ghostbusters | Walter Peck | ||
| 1985 | Real Genius | Professor Jerry Hathaway | ||
| 1986 | No Mercy | Allan Deveneux | ||
| 1988 | Die Hard | Richard Thornburg | ||
| 1990 | Die Hard 2 | Richard Thornburg | ||
| Grim Prairie Tales: Hit the Trail... to Terror | Arthur | |||
| 1991 | Oscar | Overton | ||
| 1993 | The Pelican Brief | Bob Gminski | ||
| 1994 | Saints and Sinners | Terence McCone | ||
| Frank & Jesse | Allan Pinkerton | |||
| 1996 | Bio-Dome | Dr. Noah Faulkner | ||
| 1997 | Hoodlum | Thomas Dewey | ||
| Mad City | Malt Dohlen | |||
| 1998 | Michael Kael vs. the World News Company | James Denit | ||
| 1999 | The Stranger | Arthur | ||
| 2000 | Nathan Randall | |||
| Bread and Roses | Himself – Party Guest | Uncredited | ||
| 2001 | Burning Down the House | Arthur Kranston | ||
| Race to Space | Ralph Stanton | |||
| 2003 | The Last Samurai | Winchester Rep | ||
| Who's Your Daddy? | Uncle Duncan "Duncay" Mack | |||
| 2005 | Into the Sun | Agent Block | ||
| Headspace | Dr. Ira Gold | |||
| 2007 | Kush | King | ||
| Hacia la oscuridad | John | |||
| Totally Baked | Mr. Lyle Funonion | Segment: "FunOnion Boardroom" | ||
| The Girl Next Door | Adult David Moran | |||
| 2008 | Black Crescent Moon | Jo Dexton | ||
| 2010 | The Kane Files: Life of Trial | Daniel Morgan | ||
| 2012 | Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie | Earle Swinter | ||
| Jersey Shore Shark Attack | Dolan | |||
| The Citizen | Winston | |||
| 2013 | Getting Back to Zero | |||
| 2014 | Jinn | Father Westhoff | ||
| 2017 | Clinical | Terry Drummond | ||
| Lowlifes | ||||
| 2018 | Bad Company | |||
| 2019 | Cleanin' Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters | Himself | Documentary film | |
| 2024 | Mayor Walter Peck | [23] | ||
| TBD | Where Did the Adults Go? | Teh Father |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978–1979 | Centennial | Jim Lloyd | 9 episodes Miniseries | |
| 1981 | The House of Mirth | Lawrence Selden | Television film | |
| 1983 | Malibu | Stan Harvey | Television film | |
| 1985, 1987 | The Twilight Zone | Mr. Dundee/Brian Wolfe | 2 episodes | |
| 1985, 1987, 1991 | Murder, She Wrote | Larry Holleran/Greg Dalton/Andy Henley | 3 episodes | |
| 1987, 1989 | The Equalizer | Martin "Alpha" Loeber/Gideon | 3 episodes | |
| 1990 | Buried Alive | Cortland "Cort" van Owen | Television film | |
| 1991 | Tales from the Crypt | Malcolm Mayflower | Episode: "Easel Kill Ya" | |
| 1992 | Diagnosis: Murder – Diagnosis of Murder | Eric Walker | Television film | |
| 1995 | Virus | Dr. Reginald Holloway | Television film | |
| 1996 | Nash Bridges | Dr. Linus Mills | Episode: "Key Witness" | |
| 1997, 1999 | The Practice | D.A. Keith Pratt | 3 episodes | |
| 1998 | The Outer Limits | Franklin Murdoch | Episode: "To Tell the Truth" | |
| 1999 | Introducing Dorothy Dandridge | Darryl Zanuck | Television film | |
| 2001 | Night Visions | William Price | Episode: "Hate Puppet/Darkness" Segment: "Hate Puppet" | |
| 2002, 2004 | Law & Order | Don Snyder/Dan Jensen | 2 episodes | |
| 2003 | Justice League | John Dee / Doctor Destiny | 2 episodes Voice | |
| 2005 | Boston Legal | A.D.A. Howard Zale | Episode: "It Girls and Beyond" | |
| 2006 | Stargate SG-1 | Varta | Episode: "Collateral Damage" | |
| Desperate Housewives | Dr. Barr | 2 episodes | ||
| 2007 | Numb3rs | Warren Pierce | Episode: "Tabu" | |
| 2008 | Monk | Commander Nathan Whitaker | ||
| 2008–2009 | Life | Mickey Rayborn | 8 episodes | |
| 2010 | Lost | Principal Donald Reynolds | Episode: "Dr. Linus" | |
| Ned Bogden | Episode: "Bedtime" | |||
| 2011 | Castle | Dr. Ari Weiss | Episode: "Head Case" | |
| 2012 | Workaholics | Thor Holmvik | Episode: "The Meat Jerking Beef Boys" | |
| 2013 | Defiance | Viceroy Berto Mercado | 5 episodes |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Walter Peck | Voice | |
| 2019 | Planet Coaster | Walter Peck | Voice |
| Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered | Walter Peck | Voice |