Stephen Lang Biography

Stephen Lang (born July 11, 1952) is an American actor and playwright. He started in Broadway theatre, but is more widely known for his film roles in Gods and Generals (2003) and Avatar (2009). From 2004 to 2006, he was a co-artistic director of the Actors Studio.

Personal life

Lang was born in New York City, the youngest child of Theresa (ne Volmer, d. 2008) and Eugene Lang, a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist. He has two elder siblings - Jane, an attorney and activist, and David, who served as an executive at REFAC, the company their father founded in 1952. Lang's father has donated much of his net worth (in excess of $150 million) to charity and will not leave an inheritance to his children, believing they each needed to learn to become self-sufficient. Lang's mother was of German-Irish Catholic descent, and his father is Jewish (Lang's paternal grandparents were immigrants from Hungary).

Lang attended school in Jamaica Estates, Queens. For high school, he attended George School, a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, PA. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1973 with a degree in English Literature; on May 30, 2010, Swarthmore awarded him an Honorary Degree from College in recognition of his distinguished career in theatre, television, and film. His youngest son, Noah, received his bachelor's degree during the same ceremony. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Jacksonville University and was an artist in residence at Northeastern University in 2011. In the fall of 2015, Lang served as a Jury Member for the Woodstock Film Festival.

Lang has been married to Kristina Watson, a costume designer and teacher, since June 1, 1980. They have four children.

Career

Lang played Harold (Happy) Loman in the 1984 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman and the 1985 television film with Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman, and appeared in the first Hannibal Lecter film Manhunter (1986), as reporter Freddy Lounds. He played attorney David Abrams in the television series Crime Story (1986-88). He played the title role in the NBC movie Babe Ruth (1991). He later played the "One Armed Man" in the 2000 revival of The Fugitive starring Tim Daly. The series was a modest success but lasted only one season because of its large production budget.

In 1992, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his lead role in The Speed of Darkness. His film role in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) garnered him widespread critical acclaim, but its limited release prevented the film from reaching a wider audience. On stage, he was the first to play the role of Colonel Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men, a role made famous on film (1992) by Jack Nicholson. He is the winner of over half a dozen theatre awards including the Drama Desk and Helen Hayes awards.

In films, he played Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett in Gettysburg (1993) and the lead role of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in the Gettysburg prequel Gods and Generals (2003), both from director Ronald F. Maxwell. He considers Gods and Generals to be his finest performance. Arguably, his most famous film role, before Avatar, was his portrayal of the villainous Ike Clanton in the successful Western Tombstone (1993) with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.

Shortly before Arthur Miller's death in February 2005, Lang appeared in his long-time friend's last play, titled Finishing the Picture. It premiered in 2004 at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where Lang had the second run of his own play Beyond Glory, which had premiered in Arlington, Virginia, early in 2004, and his Tony-nominated portrayal for The Speed of Darkness. Lang also performed Beyond Glory, a one-man show, for troops deployed overseas. In 2006, he played the role of Colonel Littlefield in John Patrick Shanley's play Defiance. He brought Beyond Glory to Roundabout's Off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre in 2007. Since its New York City premiere, Beyond Glory has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award and a Lucille Lortel Award both for outstanding solo performance.

Lang has a role in the ESPN mini-series The Bronx is Burning, as well as roles in independent features Save Me and From Mexico With Love. He plays a lead role in James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar as the villainous Colonel Quaritch.

In 2009, he appeared in Michael Mann's film Public Enemies as Texas Ranger Charles Winstead, the man widely considered to have fired the shots that killed John Dillinger and in Grant Heslov's The Men Who Stare at Goats alongside Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Ewan McGregor and George Clooney.

Also in 2009, he narrated the audiobook Road Rage"?which combines the short stories "Duel" by Richard Matheson and "Throttle" by Stephen King and Joe Hill"?and guest-starred in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent Season 8 finale, "Revolution" in the role of Axel Kaspers. In 2010 he performed the narration for "The Gettysburg Story: Battlefield Auto Tour," the top-selling audio tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield at Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, PA. Written and produced by filmmaker Jake Boritt and based on works by historian Gabor Boritt it tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg National Cemetery. Lang is also the narrator of the companion Public Television documentary The Gettysburg Story presented by Maryland Public Television.

Lang played the villain Khalar Zym in the 2011 Conan the Barbarian reboot starring Jason Momoa. He also played one of the leads, Nathaniel Taylor, in the Steven Spielberg-produced TV series Terra Nova.

In February 2012, he signed on to play Mary Shannon's estranged father in a three episode arc on the final season of the USA television series In Plain Sight.

In 2013 Lang appeared in The Monkey's Paw for Chiller TV.

Lang has been confirmed as reprising his role as Colonel Miles Quaritch in the upcoming sequels to Avatar.

He plays Increase Mather, in a recurring role, on WGN America's first original scripted series, Salem.

Lang is part of the cast of AMC's martial arts drama Into the Badlands, and played The Blind Man in Fede Alvarez's horror-thriller Don't Breathe (2016).

In February 2016, Lang was reportedly lobbying for the role of Cable in the Deadpool sequel through captioned instagram pictures.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Death of a Salesman	Happy
1985	Twice in a Lifetime	Keith
1986	Band of the Hand	Joe
1986	Manhunter	Freddy Lounds
1987	Project X	Watts
1989	Last Exit to Brooklyn	Harry Black
1991	'	Party Crasher
1991	Another You	Dibbs
1992	Human Cargo	Aramco Contractor
1993	Guilty as Sin	Phil Garson
1993	Gettysburg	Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett
1993	The Making of Gettysburg	Himself/Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett	Video Documentary
1993	Tombstone	Ike Clanton
1994	Baseball	Himself	Documentary Mini series by Ken Burns
1995	Tall Tale	Jonas Hackett
1995	'	Michael Tyler
1996	Loose Women	Prophet Buddy
1996	The West	Himself	Documentary mini-series by Ken Burns
1996	Gang in Blue	Moose Tavola
1996	'	Alex Laughton
1997	Shadow Conspiracy	The Agent
1997	Niagara, Niagara	Claude
1997	Fire Down Below	Earl Kellogg
1998	Escape: Human Cargo	Dennis McNatt	TV movie produced by Showtime.
1999	Story of a Bad Boy	Spygo
2000	Trixie	Jacob Slotnick
2000	Running Mates	Ron Noble (Financier) (uncredited)	TV movie Shown on the TNT Network.
2001	'	Simon Bacig
2002	D-Tox	Jack
2002	The Making of Tombstone	Himself/Ike Clanton
2003	'	Mr. Travitt
2003	Code 11-14	Justin Shaw
2003	Gods and Generals	Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson	Winner - MovieGuide Awards Grace Award for Acting
2003	Gods and Generals: Journey to the Past	Himself/Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
2006	'	Coach Galgano
2007	Save Me	Ted
2008	From Mexico with Love	Big Al Stevens
2008	Medal of Honor	Narrator	PBS documentary
2009	Public Enemies	Charles Winstead
2009	'	General Hopgood
2009	Avatar	Col. Miles Quaritch	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated"?Teen Choice Award Choice Movie Villain Nominated"?Teen Choice Award Choice Movie Fight (shared with Sam Worthington) Nominated"?MTV Movie Award for Best Villain Nominated"?MTV Movie Award for Best Fight (shared with Sam Worthington) Nominated"?Scream Award for Best Villain
2010	Christina	Inspector Edgar Reinhardt
2010	False Creek Stories	Narrator
2010	White Irish Drinkers	Patrick
2011	Conan the Barbarian	Khalar Zym
2011	Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You	Barry Rogers
2013	Officer Down	Lieutenant Jake LaRussa
2013	Pawn	Charlie
2013	The Gettysburg Story	Himself/Narrator	Documentary
2013	Pioneer	Ferris
2013	The Monkey's Paw	Tony Cobb
2014	The Nut Job	King
2014	In the Blood	Casey
2014	Jarhead 2: Field of Fire	Major James Gavins
2014	A Good Marriage	Holt Ramsey
2014	Gutshot Straight	Duffy
2014	23 Blast	Coach Farris
2015	Exeter	Father Conway
2015	Band of Robbers	Injun Joe
2015	Gridlocked	Korver
2015	Beyond Glory: Tour of Duty	Himself	Documentary
2015	Isolation	William
2016	Don't Breathe	The Blind Man
2017	Solar Eclipse - Depth of Darkness	Raina	Post-production
2017	Hostiles		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986-1988	Crime Story	Attorney David Abrams	26 episodes
1989	The Equalizer	Joseph Morrison	Episode: "Lullaby of Darkness"
1995	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Criminal Gun Shooter	Episode: "Bullets Over Bel-Air"
1997	The Outer Limits	Dr. James Houghton	Episode: "New Lease"
1997	Liberty! The American Revolution	George Washington	6 episodes
2000-2001	The Fugitive	Ben Charnquist	5 episodes
2002	Ed	Jack Foster	Episode: "Wheel of Justice"
2003	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Michael Baxter	Episode: "Escape"
2005	Johnny Zero	Officer Tanner	Episode: "To Serve and to Protect"
2005	Law & Order	Terry Dorn	Episode: "New York Minute"
2007	The Bronx Is Burning	Inspector Dowd	3 episodes
2009	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Axel Kaspers	Episode: "Revolution"
2009	Psych	Mr. Salamatchla	Episode: "Shawn Gets the Yips"
2011	Terra Nova	Commander Nathaniel Taylor	13 episodes
2012	In Plain Sight	James Wiley Shannon	3 episodes
2014-2015	Salem	Increase Mather	9 episodes
2015	To Appomattox	John Brown	Upcoming series
2015	Into the Badlands	Waldo	5 episodes

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	Call of Duty: Ghosts	Elias Walker