Eric Roberts

Eric Roberts is an American actor known for a highly prolific career in film, television, and stage work. He was born Eric Anthony Roberts on April 18, 1956, in Biloxi, Mississippi, and grew up in a family connected to acting and theater. His sisters Julia Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan also became actors, and his daughter Emma Roberts later became an actor as well.

Roberts began acting professionally in the 1970s, including daytime television work, before gaining major notice with King of the Gypsies in 1978. That performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination and established him as an intense young dramatic actor. He followed it with roles in Raggedy Man, Star 80, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Coca-Cola Kid, and Runaway Train. His performance as Buck McGeehy in Runaway Train brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a further Golden Globe nomination.

Through the late 1980s and 1990s, Roberts worked steadily across theatrical releases, television films, and genre cinema. His credits from this period include Best of the Best, The Ambulance, Final Analysis, The Specialist, The Immortals, It's My Party, Doctor Who, and the television miniseries In Cold Blood. He also appeared on stage, including his Broadway debut in Burn This, for which he received a Theatre World Award.

Roberts became especially notable for the scale and variety of his screen output. In addition to leading and supporting roles in independent films and action pictures, he appeared in widely seen studio and ensemble projects such as The Cable Guy, National Security, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, The Dark Knight, The Expendables, Lovelace, Inherent Vice, and Babylon. On television, he worked in recurring or guest roles on series including Less than Perfect, Heroes, The Young and the Restless, Suits, and The Righteous Gemstones.