Born:
February 07, 1960
in
Boston, Massachusetts
Best Known For:
The Practice and Boston Legal.
Early-life:
James Todd Spader was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 7, 1960. He attended schools where his parents taught. He dropped out of school in the eleventh grade to study acting at the Michael Chekhov School in New York. He made ends meet with a variety of jobs, including yoga instructor, stable boy and busboy.
Career:
Spader's first major acting role came alongside Brooke Shields in the movie Endless Love (1981). He went on to star in Pretty in Pink (1986), Mannequin (1987), Less Than Zero (1987), Baby Boom (1987), Wall Street (1987), and Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989). Projects in the 1990s included White Palace (1990), True Colors (1991), The Music of Chance (1993), Stargate (1994), and Crash (1996). In 2002 he starred alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal in the critically acclaimed Secretary (2002). He went on to achieve further acclaim on the small screen in the Practice and Boston Legal. More recently, Spader put in a memorable performance in the film Lincoln (2012), and returned to the small screen in NBC drama The Blacklist.
Quote:
"I've had a lazy career, sometimes one film a year, sometimes none. I'm walking around in the street and doing this other thing, living, that I'm much more interested in. I just do some acting on the side."
Trivia:
Spader has a photographic memory. He won Emmys for playing the same character in both The Practice and Boston Legal.