John Slattery was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Joan
(Mulhern), a CPA, and John "Jack" Slattery, a leather merchant, both of
Irish descent. John landed his first TV gig on the 1988 series
The Dirty Dozen (1988)
and has worked steadily since then. His television career has included
the short-lived series
Under Cover (1991),
Homefront (1991),
Maggie (1998) and
Feds (1997); and the mini-series
A Woman of Independent Means (1995)
with Sally Field and
From the Earth to the Moon (1998),
in which he played Walter Mondale. By
having recurring roles on
Will & Grace (1998) as Will's
big brother, "Sam";
Judging Amy (1999) as Amy's
estranged husband; and
Sex and the City (1998) as a
very kinky politician, John has become one of the most in-demand
character actors. In 2001, he had a role on NBC's comedy-drama
Ed (2000), where he played the confident,
cool, aloof high school principal "Dennis Martino". This role earned
him much notoriety, and made him the subject of debate among
Ed (2000) fans. John has also had a long,
successful and diverse career in the theater. He made his theater debut
in the 1989 play "The Lisbon Traviata", which also starred
Nathan Lane. He has had several
successful collaborations with the playwright
Richard Greenberg and
appeared in the author's "The Extra Man", "Night and Her Stars" and
"Three Days of Rain", for which he earned critical praise for his dual
roles of father and son. In 1993, John made his Broadway debut starring
opposite Nathan Lane in
Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rd
Floor". Returning to the theater in 2000, John starred in a revival of
Harold Pinter's "Betrayal". Making his
feature film debut in 1996, John had a small role in the movie
City Hall (1996). He then appeared
in the movies Eraser (1996),
Where's Marlowe? (1998),
Traffic (2000), and the Anthony Hopkins/Chris Rock vehicle Bad Company (2002)_, before finding greater fame as one of the stars of the television series Mad Men (2007).
