Michael Nouri
Michael Nouri is an actor, born 1945.
Flashdance made Nouri a leading man in 1983, as Nick Hurley. It is the credit that follows him around and it is misleading, because the actual career is four decades of American television, mostly playing men with authority and a compromise sitting somewhere behind them.
Look at the run. Dr Neil Roberts on The O.C. from 2004 to 2007, Phil Grey on Damages from 2007 to 2011, Eli David on NCIS from 2008 to 2013, Caleb Cortlandt on All My Children in 2010 and 2011, Bob Schwartz on Yellowstone from 2018 to 2020. Five substantial recurring roles across sixteen years on five completely different kinds of show is a harder trick to pull off than one hit.
The other film worth knowing is The Hidden in 1987, where he plays Tom Beck in a science-fiction thriller that has held onto a cult audience. Otherwise he has been the reliable senior presence in other people's pictures: Max in The Terminal, Dr Spence in Finding Forrester, Congressman Stewart in Last Holiday, Chairman Bergen in The Proposal, Joe DiMaggio in 61*, Mr Tose in Invincible.
He has worked on Broadway and off-Broadway as well, including the original production of Victor/Victoria, and this catalog carries the 1995 Victor/Victoria in which he plays King Marchand. He has been nominated for a Saturn Award and a Daytime Emmy.
Movies (27)
- The Proposal (2009)
- The Terminal (2004)
- Flashdance (1983)
- Invincible (2006)
- Last Holiday (2006)
- Swiped (2025)
- Finding Forrester (2000)
- The Hidden (1987)
- Dark Desire (2012)
- Captain America (1990)
- Lovely & Amazing (2002)
- Woman Walks Ahead (2018)
- Gangster Wars (1981)
- 61* (2001)
- Teleios (2017)
- Con Man (2018)
- American Yakuza (1993)
- Hologram Man (1995)
- Inner Sanctum II (1994)
- Victor/Victoria (1995)
- GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986)
- Any Day Now (2012)
- Black Ice (1992)
- To the Limit (1995)
- Fortunes of War (1994)
- The Squeeze (2015)
- The Grotto (2022)
TV (17)
Where to start with Michael Nouri
The famous credit is Flashdance, worth seeing once, largely to understand how differently leading men were photographed in 1983. It is not his best work.
The Hidden is. A lean, nasty science-fiction thriller from 1987 that plays better now than its reputation implies, and the closest thing he has to a great leading performance. Take that one first if you only take one.
After that, go to the television. NCIS and Damages are the two recurring roles with real writing behind them, and Damages is by a distance the better show. The O.C. is the nostalgia option, Yellowstone is the recent one, and The Terminal and Finding Forrester are the supporting film parts that show how well he wears a suit and how little that ever got him.