Harry Hamlin biography
Date of birth : 1951-10-30
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Pasadena, California, United States
Nationality : American
Category : Arts and Entertainment
Last modified : 2011-08-25
Credited as : Film and television actor, Clash of the Titans, L.A. Law
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Hamlin was born in Pasadena, California, the son of Bernice (née Robinson) and Chauncey Jerome Hamlin, Jr., an aeronautical engineer who once worked with scientist Wernher von Braun. As a teenager, he attended Flintridge Preparatory School, near Pasadena, and The Hill School, a private boarding school in Pennsylvania, where he played soccer and lacrosse and acted in the school's musicals and plays. Hamlin attended University of California, Berkeley and is an alumnus of the Theta Zeta chapter of the national fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon, of which he was President in 1972. Hamlin graduated from Yale University with a BA in Drama and Psychology in 1974. Hamlin then attended the American Conservatory Theatre's Advanced Actor Training Program from which he was subsequently awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting.
Hamlin made his film debut as a John Garfieldesque prizefighter in the 1930s spoof Movie, Movie (1978). Three years later, he played Perseus in the Ray Harryhausen co-produced Clash of the Titans (1981). Also appearing in this film was international sex symbol Ursula Andress, who became Hamlin's "constant companion" over the next few years, a liaison that resulted in a son. Even as his film career dwindled down to such forgettable fare as Blue Skies Again (1983), in which he played an immature Ted Turner type, Hamlin's career flourished on television. He starred in a 1979 TV miniseries adaptation of James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan, played a courageous astronaut on the 1985 multi-episode production Space, and essayed the role of a straying politician in the 1988 two-parter Favorite Son. Hamlin's best-known TV assignment, which he launched in 1986, was the role of amorous litigation attorney Michael Kuzak on the popular NBC series L.A. Law. He is divorced from actress Nicollette Sheridan.
Hamlin continued to find steady work throughout the 90s, appearing on numerous TV shows such as The Outer Limits, Remember WENN, and The Nanny, and even providing voice work for Batman: The Animated Series. The actor also took roles in various films and TV movies like Allie & Me and Badge of Betrayal. After marrying soap actress Lisa Rinna in 1997, he entered the new millennium with no plans to slow down, reuniting with the L.A. Law cast in 2002 for L.A. Law: The Movie, and taking a recurring role on the TV show Veronica Mars as the movie star father of the character Logan. Interestingly enough, in an episode of the show Hamlin's character swears under oath that in 1987 he was People Magazine's Sexiest Man of the Year, and Hamlin was in fact given that very title that same year.
Filmography:
2008 Strange Wilderness
2001 Roads to Riches (AKA: Strange Hearts)
2001 Perfume
2000 Shoot or Be Shot
1998 Frogs for Snakes
1997 Allie & Me
Made for television films:
2010 You Lucky Dog
2002 Disappearance
2001 Sex, Lies and Obsession
1999 Silent Predators
1998 Stranger in Town
1998 The Hunted
1998 Like Father, Like Santa
1997 Time to Say Goodbye?
Television series:
2011 Curb Your Enthusiasm
2010 Army Wives
2009 Harper's Island