Gabriel Macht

Handsome and skilled without any apparent effort, American actor Gabriel Macht, assembled an impressive string of reviews for work in film and theater and on television, often surpassing in quality the project in which he appeared. Along a typical road to stardom, Macht rode decidingly on the path adjacent and on his own clock. Briefly a child actor, Macht withdrew from show business but returned with steely resolve as an adult actor, usually being cast as the pretty boy with heart.

Macht moved from television movies like "The Audrey Hepburn Story" (ABC, 2000) in which he effectively played no less than movie legend William Holden, to a lead role in the sci-fi drama, "The Others" (NBC, 2000). Macht's standout work in highly anticipated films with big name clout, as in "American Outlaws" (2001), "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001), and "The Recruit" (2003) earned him favorable notices. Macht drew much attention in "A Love Song for Bobby Long" (2004), where he played troubled writer Lawson Pines. The actor eased through both Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd" (2006), and the comedy "Because I Said So" (2007) before scoring his biggest role then to date as the action lead in the comic book-turned-film "The Spirit" (2008) before navigating sub-zero temperatures in the action thriller, "Whiteout" (2009).

In 2011, Macht transistioned into television stardom as the star of the cable hit legal drama "Suits" (USA 2011- ). Although he had the chops as a child, Macht wisely opted out of the business to age gracefully into a successful, marketable and talented adult actor who quickly became a force to reckon with on the screen.

Macht was born Jan. 22 1972 in The Bronx, NY to his father, veteran television and theater actor, Stephen Macht, and his mother, Suzanne Pulier, a museum curator. When Macht was five, the family - which had grown to include three other children - relocated to California to allow the senior Macht closer proximity to his work. His future actor son stepped into the family business at age eight when, inspired by his father's work in the movie "The Immigrants" (1978), appeared under the name Gabriel Swann in the child- separated-from-mother drama, "Why Would I Lie?" (1980). The movie featured Macht opposite Treat Williams, and garnered the new actor a 1982 Young Artist Award nomination as Best Young Motion Picture Actor. That was the extent of his youth in film.

As he explained: "My parents took me out of the business to have as normal a childhood as you could have living in Los Angeles." Macht attended Beverly Hills High School where he remained active in the performing arts program, and during break, enrolled in a Carnegie Mellon summer pre-college drama program. After graduation from high school in 1990, Macht beelined back to Carnegie's School of Drama and thrived. Once Macht graduated college, he stayed in New York City for six years and worked in the theater before rerouting himself back to Los Angeles, with his eyes trained on that path.

Bouncing back into the biz like he had never left, Macht quickly landed on "Beverly Hills 90210" (FOX, 1990-2000) before traveling to Washington in 1994 to work in the theater production of "What the Butler Saw," followed by appearing off-Broadway as Elvis Presley ('The Visitor') in Steve Martin's celebrated 1995 production of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." The Hallmark TV Western "Follow the River" (ABC, 1995) was followed by appearances on "Spin City" (ABC, 1996-2002), the Jennifer Aniston feature romance "The Object of My Affection" (1998), and on the cult favorite series, "Sex and the City" (HBO 1998-2004).

Macht kept busy with bits in the gender-challenged "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" (1998) and Sarah Michelle Geller's somewhat magical "Simply Irresistible" (1999) before producing and starred in the little-seen film, "The Bookie's Lament" ("Not for Nothin' ") (2000). It was after the biopic "The Audrey Hepburn Story" (ABC 2000) opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt - where he effectively channeled screen icon William Holden - that Macht snagged the role of Dr. Mark Gabriel on the short-lived supernatural series, "The Others" (NBC, 2000). After the series cancellation, Macht began appearing in a successive string of films - big budget and big action - but most were generally not as successful as studios assumed they would be, as with "American Outlaws" (2001), the Western that featured Macht as Frank James, the older, wiser and more pragmatic brother of outlaw Jesse James (Colin Farrell).

In the war-thriller "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001), starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson, Macht - the pilot of aviator Wilson - meets a brutal death after his plane is shot down over Bosnia. In peril as Officer Seale, Macht was part of an undercover operative crew which included Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock in the action comedy "Bad Company" (2002) before joining Al Pacino and Colin Farrell as a fellow CIA entrant in the action thriller, "The Recruit" (2003). In the Shainee Gabel-directed drama, "A Love Song for Bobby Long" (2004), starring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson, Macht played alongside Travolta's Bobby as a similarly drunk, aspiring writer who attempts to pen a novel about his mentor. Despite starring onscreen with two of the biggest names in the business, Macht walked with more than his share of the kudos.

Also in 2004, Macht married Australian actress Jacinda Barrett. After a couple of TV guest star spots that followed, Macht was cast in a supporting part by director Robert De Niro alongside Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in the underperforming "The Good Shepherd" (2006), the dramatic thriller about the evolution of the CIA, which received decidedly mixed reviews. Consistently landing work, Macht was the dark horse romantic interest in the generally panned Michael Lehmann film, "Because I Said So." (2007), starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore. Despite moderate box-office and less than favorable film reviews - most of which bashed Keaton's umpteenth onscreen performance as a neurotic middle-aged woman - the actor emerged unscathed, flying just enough under the radar to not be negatively affected.

Despite much buildup, "The Spirit" (2008) was crushed upon opening. This was to be Macht's lock on leading-man status, as he was handpicked by comic book king Frank Miller to portray the title character, Denny Colt (The Spirit). Even though Macht said the experience was "a dream come true," fans and critics stayed away in droves. Also from a graphic novel, the actor's next project was "Whiteout" (2009), the action thriller starring Kate Beckinsale and Macht as the unusual UN Investigator Pryce, who probes into a murder in Antarctica. Despite an interesting premise, the film was iced upon opening.

In the crime-comedy "Middle Men" (2009), Macht united with real life wife Barrett, Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi and James Caan for a trip down the rabbit hole into to a world of virtual porn, drugs and mobsters. In the Edward Zwick drama "Love and Other Drugs" (2010), Macht joined Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in the filmed adaptation of the novel Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman. The following year, Macht starred as legal mastermind Harvey Specter in the legal drama "Suits" (USA 2011- ) opposite co-star Patrick J. Adams as his college-dropout aide. The same year, Macht co-starred in the indie comedy "A Bag of Hammers" (2011).