Peter Gallagher
Birthday:
Birthplace:
New York, New York, USA
A handsome, brooding actor equally at home in mainstream Hollywood fare and in American independent projects -- as well as on the theatrical stage -- Peter Gallagher was born August 19, 1955, in Armonk, NY. While attending Tufts University, he spent his summers appearing with area theater groups, and after graduating in 1977, he acted on Broadway in a revival of Hair. Gallagher then starred as Danny Zuko in Grease, a performance which led to his portrayal of a '50s-era pop singer in his film debut, 1980's The Idolmaker. Summer Lovers followed two years later, but proved such a miserable experience that Gallagher fled Hollywood to return to the stage. He won a Theatre World Award that same year for his work in the Broadway musical A Doll's Life, and earned a Clarence Derwent Award in 1984 for his turn in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing.In 1985, Gallagher returned to film in the Dennis Potter-scripted Dreamchild, followed in 1987 by My Little Girl. After garnering a Tony nomination for his work in a controversial revival of Long Day's Journey into Night, he enjoyed his motion picture breakthrough as an adulterous attorney in Steven Soderbergh's influential 1989 debut sex, lies, and videotape. The performance earned Gallagher considerable credibility within the independent filmmaking community, but his next several efforts were more mainstream productions like 1990's Tune in Tomorrow and the television drama Love and Lies. However, a subsequent turn in Peter Sellars' 1991 avant-silent The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez brought acclaim from art-house audiences, and with a lead role in Robert Altman's 1992 comeback The Player, Gallagher's stock rose even higher. That same year, the actor wowed theater audiences with his portrayal of Sky Masterson in the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls, a widely praised production that also starred Nathan Lane.Over the following years, Gallagher split his time between edgier material (Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts, Altman's Short Cuts, and Soderbergh's The Underneath) and lighter, glossier projects (Malice, While You Were Sleeping, and To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday). In 1999, he gave smarm a good, or at least convincing, name, starring as a sleazy physician in The House on Haunted Hill, a remake of William Castle's 1958 horror classic, and as a similarly repugnant real estate salesman in American Beauty. Gallagher would spend the following years enjoying particular fame in the realm of TV, starring on such successful shows as The O.C., Californication, Rescue Me, and Covert Affairs. Gallagher would also remain active in film, however, in movies like Burlsesque and Conviction.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean's American Pie |
|
— | 2022 |
No Score Yet | Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas |
|
— | 2021 |
No Score Yet | One December Night |
|
— | 2021 |
95% | Palm Springs |
|
— | 2020 |
18% | After |
|
— | 2019 |
32% | A Bad Moms Christmas |
|
$72.1M | 2017 |
25% | Literally, Right Before Aaron |
|
— | 2017 |
No Score Yet | Center Stage: On Pointe |
|
— | 2016 |
85% | Hello, My Name is Doris |
|
$14.5M | 2016 |
9% | Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You |
|
— | 2012 |
41% | Step Up Revolution |
|
$35.1M | 2012 |
37% | Burlesque |
|
$39.5M | 2010 |
68% | Conviction |
|
$6.8M | 2010 |
66% | Adam |
|
$2.2M | 2009 |
No Score Yet | The War Boys |
|
— | 2009 |
60% | Center Stage: Turn It Up |
|
— | 2008 |
No Score Yet | Gas Hole |
|
— | 2008 |
50% | The Flying Scotsman |
|
$78.8k | 2006 |
27% | How to Deal |
|
$14.2M | 2003 |
No Score Yet | The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina |
|
— | 2002 |
22% | Mr. Deeds |
|
$126.3M | 2002 |
No Score Yet | The Feast of All Saints |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Virtual Obsession |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Protection |
|
— | 2001 |
11% | Perfume |
|
— | 2001 |
42% | Center Stage |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Cupid & Cate |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Other Voices |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | The Last Debate |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Brotherhood of Murder |
|
— | 1999 |
31% | House on Haunted Hill |
|
— | 1999 |
87% | American Beauty |
|
— | 1999 |
No Score Yet | Brave New World |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | Johnny Skidmarks |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | Host |
|
— | 1998 |
39% | The Man Who Knew Too Little |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | Path to Paradise: World Trade Center Bombing |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | Trial of Adolf Eichmann |
|
— | 1997 |
No Score Yet | Titanic |
|
— | 1996 |
14% | To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday |
|
— | 1996 |
32% | Last Dance |
|
— | 1996 |
63% | The Underneath |
|
— | 1995 |
81% | While You Were Sleeping |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | Cafe Society |
|
— | 1995 |
75% | Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (Mrs. Parker and the Round Table) |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | White Mile |
|
— | 1994 |
59% | The Hudsucker Proxy |
|
— | 1994 |
95% | Short Cuts |
|
— | 1993 |
57% | Malice |
|
— | 1993 |
56% | Watch It |
|
— | 1993 |
43% | Mother's Boys |
|
— | 1993 |
95% | Bob Roberts |
|
— | 1992 |
98% | The Player |
|
— | 1992 |
58% | Late for Dinner |
|
— | 1991 |
57% | Mortal Thoughts |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | An Inconvenient Woman |
|
— | 1991 |
50% | Tune in Tomorrow... (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter) |
|
— | 1990 |
96% | Sex, Lies, and Videotape |
|
— | 1989 |
27% | High Spirits |
|
— | 1988 |
No Score Yet | The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial |
|
— | 1988 |
No Score Yet | The Murder of Mary Phagan |
|
— | 1988 |
No Score Yet | My Little Girl |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | Long Day's Journey into Night |
|
— | 1987 |
100% | Dreamchild |
|
— | 1985 |
22% | Summer Lovers |
|
— | 1982 |
89% | The Idolmaker |
|
— | 1980 |
No Score Yet | Skag |
|
— | 1979 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
84% |
Grey's Anatomy
2005
|
|
|
88% |
Grace and Frankie
2015
|
|
|
81% |
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
2020-2021
|
|
|
78% |
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
|
|
|
79% |
The Gifted
2017-2019
|
|
|
95% |
New Girl
2011-2020
|
|
|
90% |
Togetherness
2015-2016
|
|
|
93% |
The Good Wife
2009-2016
|
|
|
93% |
Covert Affairs
2010-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Wendy Williams Show
2008
|
|
|
44% |
Bedlam
2011-2012
|
|
|
84% |
How I Met Your Mother
2005-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Talk
2010
|
|
|
21% |
Whitney
2011-2013
|
|
|
89% |
Rescue Me
2004-2011
|
|
|
57% |
Californication
2007-2014
|
|
|
52% |
Shark
2006-2008
|
|
|
67% |
The O.C.
2003-2007
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Mystery!
1980-2007
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Family Guy
1999
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Great Performances
1972
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
American Experience
1988
|
|
|
91% |
Homicide: Life on the Street
1993-1999
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
American Playhouse
1982-1996
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Page to Screen
2000
|
|
|
38% |
The Secret Lives of Men
1998
|
|
|
Quotes from Peter Gallagher's Characters
James Ritchie: | Am I talking to an actor now or a human being? |
Hawkins: | Neither, sir. I'm a policeman. |
Lucy Eleanor Moderatz: | You give up your seat every day in the train. |
Peter Callaghan: | Well... But that's not heroic |
Lucy Eleanor Moderatz: | It is to the person who sits in it. |
Saul Tuttle: | I couldn't love you anymore if you were my own son. But the fact of the matter is, you're... well you're a putz. |
Peter Callaghan: | Is there a point to this? |
Peter Callaghan: | Remember the squirrels? |
Jack Callaghan: | Don't even say it. |
Peter Callaghan: | First, I knocked them out of their nest with a rock. |
Jack Callaghan: | Peter! |
Peter Callaghan: | Then I saved them. |
Jack Callaghan: | You suck! |
Peter Callaghan: | I suck, or the outfit sucks? |
Jack Callaghan: | It's a toss-up. |
Ashley Bartlett Bacon: | Peter Callahan is engaged to me. I object to this wedding! |
Priest: | Get in line |
Ashley's Husband: | And I object to your objection. |
Mary Callaghan: | Who's that? |
Peter Callaghan: | Ashley's husband. |
Midge: | You proposed to a married woman? |
Peter Callaghan: | Yes. And I'm in a coma when my brother makes a play for my- sort of my fiancée. |
Chuck Cedar: | Information is good.. Now will you please stop soaking your ass. |
Chuck Cedar: | As soon as that moron goes back to Cowpie Falls, you are out of here on your fat, Puerto Rican ass. |
Caroline Burnham: | That was exactly what I needed .. the royal treatment, so to speak .. Ugh! I was so stressed out! Ahhh .. ah ... ah! (laughs) |
Buddy Kane: | You know what I do when I feel like that? |
Caroline Burnham: | What? |
Buddy Kane: | I fire a gun .. oh yeah, I go to this little firing range downtown and I .. just pop of a few rounds. |
Caroline Burnham: | I've never fired a gun before. |
Buddy Kane: | Well you've got to try it .. nothing makes you feel more powerful .. well, almost nothing. |
Tess: | Tell me a lie. |
Vince: | I need your fabulous sewing skills. |
Tess: | Tell me a new lie. |
Vince: | I don't love you. |
Buddy Kane: | Man... You are one twisted f*ck. |
Lester Burnham: | Nope. I'm just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose. |
Buddy Kane: | In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times. |
Buddy Kane: | [Carolyn is having sex in a motel room with the Real Estate King] Do you like getting nailed by the King? |
Caroline Burnham: | Yes, your majesty! |