David Russell Strathairn was born on January 26, 1949, in San Francisco, California. He is the son of Mary Frances (Frazier),a nurse, and Thomas Scott Strathairn, Jr., a physician. Strathairn has two siblings, Tom and Anne. His ancestry includes English, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and one sixteenth Chinese, from his paternal grandmother.
Strathairn attended Williams College, where he demonstrated a strong interest in the theatre, and befriended John Sayles, with whom he would frequently collaborate. After graduating, he traveled to Florida to visit his grandfather, but the grandfather passed away before he arrived. Strathairn then decided to join the Ringling Brothers Clown College and worked as a clown for six months in a traveling circus.
Strathairn relocated to New York State and spent several years hitchhiking across America to work in local theaters during the summers. During one of these summers, he reunited with Sayles, which led to his role in the highly acclaimed Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980),Sayles' directorial debut. Strathairn went on to develop an extensive resume of supporting roles, including notable films such as Lovesick (1983),Silkwood (1983),L.A. Confidential (1997),and A Map of the World (1999).
Strathairn has collaborated with Sayles on several occasions, including The Brother from Another Planet (1984),Matewan (1987),Eight Men Out (1988),City of Hope (1991),and Passion Fish (1992). His performance in Limbo (1999) is particularly notable, as he co-starred with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
After a string of successful supporting roles in the early 2000s, Strathairn found himself cast as the leading man in Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005),playing the iconic newsman Edward R. Murrow. He received numerous award mentions, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Strathairn has since balanced work in both low-budget independent films and big-budget Hollywood productions. He has appeared in films such as The Notorious Bettie Page (2005),The Sensation of Sight (2006),My Blueberry Nights (2007),and Howl (2010),as well as The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Bourne Legacy (2012),and Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln (2012),in which he played Secretary of State William Seward.
Strathairn has also worked extensively in television, including narration work for PBS shows and appearances in series such as The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (1987),Big Apple (2001),The Sopranos (1999),Monk (2002),and Alphas (2011). He won an Emmy Award for Temple Grandin (2010) and received an Emmy nomination for Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012).
Strathairn married nurse Logan Goodman in 1980, and they have two children together.
