Philip Baker Hall

A classic late-bloomer who launched his career well after most others had come and gone, actor Philip Baker Hall was one of few performers of a certain age able to achieve Hollywood stardom. After starting a family and teaching high school English for a living, Hall changed course to become a prominent theater actor, landing roles both on and off-Broadway while slowly carving out a career on screen. He had a number of less-than-memorable appearances before landing his breakout role as a demented Richard Nixon in the one-man show, "Secret Honor" (1983), which director Robert Altman turned into an acclaimed but often overlooked film the following year. But the industry recognition he received led to bigger and better roles. Hall landed supporting parts in films like "Midnight Run" (1988) and "Say Anything" (1989), and played the fast-talking Lt. Bookman in a classic third season episode of "Seinfeld" (NBC, 1989-1998). But it was his relationship with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson that propelled Hall into a popular and widely recognized performer. Starting with Anderson's short film, "Coffee and Cigarettes" (1992), which was later turned into the feature-length "Hard Eight" (1996), Hall appeared in a number of the director's films, including "Boggie Nights" (1997) and most notably "Magnolia" (1999). From there, Hall was in-demand as a character actor, landing big movies like "The Insider" (1999), "The Sum of All Fears" (2002), "Bruce Almighty" (2003) and "Zodiac" (2007), defying the odds and proving that sometimes life could really begin after 60.