Philip Baker Hall Biography
Born: 1932
Primarily a supporting and character actor, Philip Baker Hall has also played the occasional lead on stage, screen, and television. Hall made his film debut playing a priest in Cowards (1970). He then appeared in three television series during the mid-'70s, including Man_From_Atlantis (1977). He became best known during the '80s for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Robert_Altman's brilliant Secret_Honor (1984), for which Hall also wrote the screenplay. Though the film garnered mixed reviews, the actor's portrayal of Nixon was hailed as a tour de force. Through the '80s and '90s, Hall continued to work steadily in films and on television; his talents were perhaps best, and most famously, utilized by director Paul_Thomas_Anderson, who cast Hall in substantial roles in Hard_Eight (1996), Boogie_Nights (1997), and Magnolia (1999), the last of which saw the actor in fine form as a game show host dying of cancer. Hall also had a memorable turn as a private investigator who is far too convinced of the infallibility of his own instincts in Anthony_Minghella's The_Talented_Mr._Ripley (1999); that same year, he gave a strong performance as CBS producer Don_Hewitt in Michael_Mann's The_Insider. Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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