Paul McCrane

Paul McCrane Headshot

Actor • Director

Birth Date: January 19, 1961

Age: 63 years old

Birth Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

For many television viewers, actor Paul McCrane is forever identified as the ill-tempered Dr. Robert Romano, whose reign of terror as chief of staff on "ER" (NBC, 1994-2004) ended spectacularly when a falling helicopter crushed him on the roof of County General. But McCrane's lengthy career showed a much wider range of talent, including a Grammy-winning turn as a talented art school student in "Fame" (1980) as well as stints on sitcoms and the Broadway stage. McCrane began his on-screen career as sensitive young men in "Fame" and "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984), but by the mid-1980s, he shed his youthful appearance for a grittier look and segued into explosive character turns in "RoboCop" (1986) and "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994). Meanwhile, "ER" brought him widespread attention as a character that audiences loved to hate, and the exposure afforded him turns on "From the Earth to the Moon" (HBO, 1998) and "24" (Fox, 2001-2010). He went on to play a driven, but slightly unstable district attorney on the popular legal series, "Harry's Law" (NBC, 2010- ), which solidified McCrane's status as one of the small screen's most dependable character actors.

Born on Jan. 19, 1961 in Philadelphia, PA, McCrane he was raised in Bucks County by his father, John, an actor and writer, and his mother, Eileen, a nurse. At Holy Ghost Preparatory School, McCrane developed an appetite for performing in numerous school plays, which led to his first professional role as Shirley Knight's son in John Guare's "Landscape of the Body" (1977) at 16 years old. The following year, he appeared opposite Diane Lane in the o-ff-Broadway production of Elizabeth Swados' musical "Runaways," which was presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival. McCrane made his screen debut as a bit player in "Rocky II" (1979) as a young boy who asked Sylvester Stallone's boxing champ to sign his arm cast. The following year, he won critical praise as Montgomery, an aspiring young singer struggling with his sexual identity in Alan Parker's Oscar-winning "Fame" (1980). McCrane also penned "Is It Okay If I Call You Mine?" and "Dogs in the Yard," the two songs his character sings in the film. Both were featured on the chart-topping soundtrack album, which earned him a shared Grammy in 1981.

Despite its success, "Fame" failed to ignite McCrane's movie career. Instead, he bounced between television and the stage for most of the early 1980s, including a Broadway revival of "The Iceman Cometh" (1985) opposite Jason Robards. His most significant feature of the period aside from "Fame" was the misbegotten film adaptation of John Irving's "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984), where he again played a troubled gay character. In the late 1980s, McCrane mounted a screen comeback as a character actor when his trademark mane of red hair started to recede and his youthful features had morphed into a chiseled appearance. The physical changed allowed him to make an ideal choice for tough, verbally aggressive figures on both sides of the law. He wowed audiences as Emil, the most psychotic member of crime boss Kurtwood Smith's gang in Paul Verhoeven's futuristic action classic "Robocop" (1986) and settled briefly into a string of antagonistic roles in features and television, including a skeptical small town deputy in Chuck Russell's remake of "The Blob" (1988) and a Phil Spector-esque record producer in the second season of "Wiseguy" (CBS, 1987-1990).

In 1990, McCrane joined the cast of the ambitious, but short-lived "Cop Rock" (ABC), while dividing much of his time between the small screen and the stage. The former offered him a wider selection of roles beyond his recent character turns in features, including Vanity Fair editor John Bishop in "Zelda" (TNT, 1993), with Natasha Richardson as Zelda Fitzgerald, and a rare romantic turn as Cecilia Peck's love interest in Arthur Penn's "The Portrait" (TNT, 1993), starring Peck's famous father, Gregory Peck, and Lauren Bacall. Meanwhile, McCrane's stage efforts during the period included the original Broadway run of "Six Degrees of Separation" (1991). After a brief return to antagonistic roles as the sadistic Guard Trout in "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), McCrane settled into steady television work where he demonstrated his versatility in a wide variety of roles. He was a series regular on the short-lived sitcom "Champs" (ABC, 1996) for producer Gary David Goldberg, before terrifying "X-Files" (Fox, 1993-2002) viewers as Leonard Betts, a mutant who could regenerate his body by devouring cancerous cells.

In 1997, McCrane landed the role that brought him his greatest exposure: the brash, bigoted but brilliant Dr. Robert "Rocket" Romano on "ER." Romano's talents as a surgeon were matched only by his boundless ego and combative nature, which put him at odds with nearly every member of the County General Hospital staff, until his fateful death in a freakish helicopter crash. For his efforts, McCrane received two Screen Actors Guild nominations with his cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, but more importantly, a permanent place in the minds of many viewers as one of the great hissable TV villains. Though "ER" commanded the majority of McCrane's attention until 2003, he made appearances on several other series, including a turn as Gemini and Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad in the miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon," and later as Graem Bauer, the duplicitous brother of Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer on "24." In 2011, he enjoyed a rare comedic turn on "Harry's Law," a comedy-drama legal series by David E. Kelley. McCrane played district attorney Josh Peyton, the intense, self-absorbed courtroom combatant to the earthy Harriet "Harry" Korn (Kathy Bates). At first, the role seemed a reprisal Robert Romano, McCrane grew the character into his own. Once again, McCrane found himself in awards contention, this time for an Emmy as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Credits

All RiseStream

Director
Series
2019

All RiseStream

Guest Star
Jonas Laski
Series
2019

Take the 10

Actor
Carey
Movie
2017

Secrets and LiesStream

Director
Series
2015
35%

ExtantStream

Director
Series
2014
77%

Chicago P.D.Stream

Director
Series
2014

BetrayalStream

Director
Series
2013
8%

Golden Boy

Director
Series
2013

Chicago FireStream

Director
Series
2012

NashvilleStream

Director
Series
2012
91%

Vegas

Director
Series
2012
67%

Major CrimesStream

Director
Series
2012

Major CrimesStream

Guest Star
Series
2012

ScandalStream

Director
Series
2012
93%

Atlas Shrugged: Part 2

Actor
Wesley Mouch
Movie
2012

Harry's Law

Guest Star
Series
2011
43%

The DefendersStream

Director
Series
2010
74%

Detroit 1-8-7Stream

Director
Series
2010
81%

TV's Greatest Surprises: A Paley Center for Media Special

Guest
Show
2010

Miami Medical

Director
Show
2010

The Forgotten

Director
Show
2009

Lie to MeStream

Director
Series
2009

Eleventh HourStream

Director
Series
2008
35%

Ugly BettyStream

Guest Star
District Attorney Weitz
Series
2006
97%

SharkStream

Director
Series
2006
52%

JerichoStream

Director
Series
2006
54%

Close to Home

Guest Star
Show
2005

The CloserStream

Director
Series
2005
83%

Grey's AnatomyStream

Director
Series
2005
84%

HouseStream

Director
Series
2004
90%

Without a TraceStream

Director
Series
2002

New Suit

Actor
Braggy Shoot
Movie
2002

24Stream

Guest Star
Graem Bauer
Series
2001
87%

Citizen Baines

Guest Star
Show
2001

CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationStream

Director
Series
2000

CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationStream

Guest Star
Series
2000

Law & Order: Special Victims UnitStream

Director
Series
1999
78%

From the Earth to the MoonStream

Actor
Pete Conrad
Miniseries
1998

From the Earth to the MoonStream

Guest Star
Pete Conrad
Miniseries
1998

The PracticeStream

Guest Star
Series
1997

Champs

Actor
Dr. Herb Barton
Show
1996

ERStream

Actor
Robert Romano
Series
1994

ERStream

Director
Series
1994

ERStream

Guest Star
Robert Romano
Series
1994

Chicago Hope

Guest Star
Series
1994

Under Suspicion

Actor
Det. Patrick Clark
Show
1994

Heaven and Hell: North and South, Book III

Guest Star
Klawdell
Show
1994

The X-FilesStream

Guest Star
Leonard Morris Betts
Series
1993
74%

The Portrait

Actor
Bartel
Movie
1993

With Murder in Mind

Actor
Movie
1992

The CommishStream

Guest Star
Neil Perry
Series
1991

Cop Rock

Actor
Det. Bo McIntire
Series
1990
53%

Law & OrderStream

Guest Star
Series
1990

Le Pouvoir de la mort

Actor
Movie
1989

Dinero, Poder y Crimen

Actor
Movie
1989

WiseguyStream

Guest Star
Johnny Medley
Series
1987

RoboCopStream

Actor
Emil Antonowsky
Movie
1987
92%

The Equalizer

Guest Star
Crocker
Series
1985

Secretos de un Hotel

Actor
Movie
1984

Purple Hearts

Actor
Brenner
Movie
1984

The Hotel New Hampshire

Actor
Frank
Movie
1984

Hill Street BluesStream

Guest Star
Albert Sawyer
Series
1981
97%

We're Fighting Back

Actor
`'Preacher'`
Movie
1981

FameStream

Actor
Montgomery MacNeil
Movie
1980
79%