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More Peter Coyote Bios & Profiles

 

The most recent Peter Coyote biography is published on the main page.
 


Biography #2 (for E.T. The Extra Terrestrial)

Peter Coyote is an actor, writer, director and author who has made his mark performing for some of the world's most distinguished filmmakers. Born in the East, Coyote began acting in the early 1980s in such films as Die Laughing, The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper and Tell Me A Riddle. However, it was Walter Hill's Southern Comfort which brought him to the attention of Steven Spielberg, who cast him in E. T The Extra-Terrestrial.

Since then, Coyote has created a series of strong characterizations in a wide range of mainstream and independent feature films, among them Endangered Species, Cross Creek, Timerider, Heartbreakers, Stranger's Kiss, Jagged Edge, The Legend of Billie Jean, Outrageous Fortune, Unforgettable, Moonlight and Valentino, Sphere, Patch Adams, Random Hearts, Steven Soderbe rgh's Erin Brockovich, Red Letters, A Time for Dancing, Jack the Dog, Suddenly Naked, Purpose, A Walk to Remember and Brian De Palma's forthcoming Femme Fatale.

A favorite actor for a host of noted international directors, Coyote has starred in Diane Kurys' A Man in Love; prize-winning Brazilian director Walter Salles' premiere film Exposure; Spanish master Pedro Almodovar's Kika, and Roman Polanski's controversial Bitter Moon.

Coyote has also starred in a number of exceptional television movies and miniseries, among them A Seduction in Travis County, Road to Avonlea, In the Child's Best Interest, The People Vs. Jean Harris, Echoes in the Darkness, Buffalo Girls, Two for Texas, Execution of Justice, The Wednesday Woman and Midwives.

Onstage, Coyote has performed in Paul Sills' Story Theatre and often at San Francisco's Magic Theatre; in Martin Epstein's Charles the Irrelevant (which was written for him); in Autobiography of a Pearl Diver; and in the world premiere of Sam Shepard's True West.

Prior to taking 12 years off to pursue the quest for absolute freedom during the 1960s, Coyote had been an actor-writer-director at the San Francisco Mime Troupe, where one of his plays, Olive Pits, won the troupe a coveted Obie Award from the New York's Village Voice newspaper in 1967. Coyote's critically-acclaimed memoir of his experience in the Sixties, entitled Sleeping Where I Fall, was published in 1998 by Counterpoint Press A c hapter from the book, Carla's Story, won the 1993-94 Pushcart Prize of excellence.

Bio courtesy Universal Pictures for "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" (27-Oct-2002)