Photo by Yfat Yossifor
Jeff Daniels is 66 years old today.
An actor, musician and playwright, Daniels founded a nonprofit theater company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan. He has performed in a number of stage productions, both on and off Broadway, and has been nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actor for the Broadway play, God of Carnage (2009), along with his other three castmates.
His film debut was in, Ragtime, in 1981. For his work, he has received four Golden Globe Award nominations, including as Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy/Musical for Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) (hence the name of his theater company).
He has also received nominations by the Screen Actors Guild, Satellite Awards, and several others for his work in The Squid and the Whale (London Critics Circle Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Chlotrudis Awards and Gotham Awards).
He played Debra Winger’s husband in the 1983 Oscar-winning film, Terms of Endearment. He starred as Will McAvoy in Aaron Sorkin's HBO television series, The Newsroom, for which he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2013.
Daniels has focused on recording a number of songs that he has written throughout his life, apparently marking key moments. He has kept busy with frequent gigs and five full-length albums, Jeff Daniels Live and Unplugged, Jeff Daniels Live at The Purple Rose Theater, Grandfather's Hat, Keep It Right Here and Together Again. Proceeds from the album sales benefit The Purple Rose Theater.
Daniels has been married to his high school sweetheart, Kathleen Rosemary Treado since 1979. In 1986, Daniels moved his home to Chelsea, Michigan, where the couple had grown up. They have three children.
Here, Daniels performs “Have a Good Life and Die” on the Late, Late Show