Ken Howard
Ken Howard is an actor, born 1944.
Howard's early reputation was built on stage and on statesmen. He won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1970 for Child's Play, and he played Thomas Jefferson in the 1972 film of 1776, a role that fixed him in the public mind as the tall, decent, articulate American. Television then gave him The White Shadow, where from 1978 to 1981 he played Ken Reeves, a former Chicago Bulls player coaching high school basketball, which remains the role that defined him on television.
The second half of the career is a study in institutional casting. Once an actor can convincingly run a room, films keep hiring him to run rooms. He is Don Jeffries in Michael Clayton, Harlan Fiske Stone in J. Edgar, the committee chairman in Clear and Present Danger, a part in The Net, a judge in The Judge, a mop company executive in Joy, Hank Hooper in 30 Rock. These are small parts, and he does something specific with them: he plays authority as fatigue rather than power, men who have made this decision many times before and would like the meeting to end.
The best of the late work is Phelan Beale in Grey Gardens, which won him a Primetime Emmy for supporting actor in a miniseries or movie. He continued working steadily until his death in 2016.
Movies (18)
- Rambo (2008)
- The Judge (2014)
- Clear and Present Danger (1994)
- The Net (1995)
- The Wedding Ringer (2015)
- In Her Shoes (2005)
- Joy (2015)
- Michael Clayton (2007)
- J. Edgar (2011)
- Oscar (1991)
- Dreamer: Inspired By a True Story (2005)
- Grey Gardens (2009)
- A.C.O.D. (2013)
- At First Sight (1999)
- 1776 (1972)
- Better Living Through Chemistry (2014)
- Smother (2008)
- Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991)
TV (12)
Where to start with Ken Howard
For an efficient introduction, Michael Clayton. He is on screen briefly and uses it to establish an entire corporate hierarchy, which is the job he was better at than almost anyone.
Grey Gardens is the performance to watch properly, the one that finally got him an Emmy and the only late role that gives him an interior life rather than a function. 1776 is the historical curiosity and still the most fun he looks on screen. The White Shadow is the series that made him famous and holds up better than most 1970s network drama, largely because it takes its teenagers seriously. 30 Rock is the comic version of his whole persona, a folksy network owner with steel underneath, and J. Edgar and The Judge show how reliably directors reached for him to fill a bench or a boardroom.