Early life
Born in Tenafly, New Jersey, on November 28, 1950, Edward Allen Harris is the second child of Robert L Harris, a bookseller, and Margaret Harris, a travel agent. The middle child of three sons, he was an avid football player at Tenafly High School and New York's Columbia University, where he studied for two years before dropping out.
By then his dreams of becoming an athlete had come to an end, and when he transferred to Oklahoma State University, he decided to go from jock to theatre kid. He graduated in 1973, and went on to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts in 1975.
Hollywood breakthrough
Over the next seven years he performed in more than a dozen plays and began making minor appearances on popular TV shows such as ChiPs and The Rockford Files. His breakthrough role as astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff came five years after his big screen debut in 1978's Coma. From then on, Ed continued his journey into full-time Hollywood casting, snagging his first lead role in James Cameron's The Abyss in 1989.
A well-received ensemble role in 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross followed, as did his first Oscar nomination, for Apollo 13, in 1996. With that gong, it seems, Tinseltown finally caught on he would appear on Oscar shortlists three more times over in the next six years. Later movies which Ed has starred in include The Tuman Show, The Hours, National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Top Gun: Maverick. He has also returned to starring roles on television, including parts in the miniseries Empire Falls, Game Change, and in the HBO series Westworld.
Personal life
Though it has been rumored in the past that Ed and his wife, actress Amy Madigan, met and married on the set of 1984's Place In The Heart, Amy has made it clear that they actually fell in love two years earlier while working on a stage production together. They did, however, wed in Waxahachie, Texas, while filming the movie in 1983.
Ed and Amy have worked together on at least half a dozen projects, including 2000's acclaimed film Pollock. They share one daughter together, Lily, who was born May 3, 1993.
