Jeff Daniels Biography (3)
It was the role of Jed Jenkins in the New York production of Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July, however, that won Daniels his first widespread recognition. Over the next several years, Daniels played Jed in three different productions: Off-Broadway at Circle Rep (1978), in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum (1979) and finally on Broadway (1980) where he won a Drama Desk Nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Following the filming of Fifth of July for television, Daniels returned to Circle Rep to star in a one-man adaptation of Dalton Trumbo's World War I novel, Johnny Got His Gun, for which he won a 1983 Obie Award.
On television, Daniels reprised his role in Fifth of July with co-star Richard Thomas for American Playhouse and Showtime, starred opposite Valerie Harper in Invasion of Privacy, with Brad Davis in A Rumor of War, starred in Alan Arkin's The Visit, Robert Altman's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, The Jackie Presser Story with Brian Dennehy, in No Place Like Home with Christine Lahti and as George Washington in A&E's film The Crossing in January of 2000. In the Fall of 1999, he played Dr. Gary Plecki in Cheaters for HBO, a story based on the teacher responsible for the 1995 cheating scandal in the Chicago Academic Decathlon Competition.
Daniels made his feature film debut in Milos Forman's Ragtime, followed by the popular success of his next project, Terms of Endearment, as Debra Winger's philandering husband. Next came two leading roles (as Tom Baxter and Gil Sheperd) in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo, which was such a turning point in Daniels' career that he would name his theatre company after the film.
A listing of some of Daniels' other film credits includes: Mike Nichols' Heartburn (1986), Marie (1985), Jonathon Demme's Something Wild (1986), Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987), Peter Yates' House on Carroll Street (1988), David Leland's Checking Out (1989), Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990), Arachnophobia (1990), Gettysburg (1993), Speed (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), Fly Away Home (1996), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Trial and Error (1997), Pleasantville (1998), My Favorite Martian (1999), All the Rage (1999), Chasing Sleep (2000) and the upcoming Gods and Generals for Warner Bros. Pictures.
In 1991, Daniels established the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan, a not-for-profit professional theatre featuring Midwestern actors, directors, playwrights and designers. In eleven years, the PRTC has gained a national reputation as a home for new American plays. Daniels has written several plays for the Purple Rose, including Shoe Man, which won the Detroit News 1990-1991 Best New Play Award. Other plays include The Tropical Pickle (1992), The Vast Difference (1993), The Kingdom's Coming (1994), Escanaba in da Moonlight (1995), Apartment 3A (1996) and Boomtown (1998), which Daniels also directed. Across the Way, his newest play, opened the Purple Rose Theatre Company's 2002-2003 season.
Recently, Daniels formed Purple Rose Films, a Michigan based production company, as an outlet for his desire to act, write and direct his own independent films. He wrote, directed and starred in the film version of his most popular play, Escanaba in da Moonlight, which was self-distributed and became an enormous independent success, grossing $2.3 million.
Super Sucker, Daniels' second feature writing, directing and acting venture was shot in Jackson, Michigan in the Spring of 2001. A wild comedy about a door to door vacuum salesman, the film won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the HBO sponsored U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in February 2002 and was recently accepted at CineVegas, the Las Vegas Film Festival, and also appeared at the East Lansing Film Festival and the Waterfront Film Festival.
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