- Born
- Birth nameJames Todd Spader
- Nickname
- Jimmy
- Height5′ 9¾″ (1.77 m)
- James Todd Spader was born on February 7, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of teachers Jean (Fraser) and Stoddard Greenwood "Todd" Spader. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover with director Peter Sellars; he dropped out in eleventh grade. He bused tables, shoveled manure, and taught yoga before landing his first roles. Spader's first major film role was as Brooke Shields' brother in the romance drama Endless Love (1981). Spader graduated from television movies to Brat Pack films, playing the scoundrel. In Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), he played a sexual voyeur who complicates the lives of three Baton Rouge residents. This performance earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival and led to bigger and more varied roles. His best known role is the colorful attorney Alan Shore on the David E. Kelley television series The Practice (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004).
He won 3 prime time Emmy Awards in the Best Actor, Drama category for playing the same character Alan Shore in two different television series 'The Practice' and 'Boston Legal' out of the 4 nominations he received for the same between the years 2004-2008. He also received a Golden Globe and several Screen Actor Guild Award Best Actor nominations for reprising this role.- IMDb mini biography by: <z115aa@tamvm1.tamu.edu> and Ishani Verma
- SpouseVictoria Spader(1987 - 2004) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenNathaniel Spader
- ParentsJean FraserStoddard Greenwood Spader
- Rich smooth voice with slow long drawl
- Often plays spoiled or smarmy yuppies
- Often plays morally ambiguous characters
- Has an eidetic memory. He can look at a script and he remembers what the pages look like. As he films a scene, he "reads" the page. The only reason he screws up a line is if very similar words (e.g. "it" and "is") are written fairly close together.
- He was working as a janitor at a rehearsal studio run by acting teacher & casting director Trent Gough in Times Square when he landed his first feature film Endless Love (1981).
- Has very poor eyesight, and cannot wear contact lenses. Has said that in roles in which he does not wear his eyeglasses, he can barely make out the face of the actor across from him in the scene.
- Loves cooking and is an excellent chef.
- Is quick to point out that, unlike the sleazy, sneaky characters he is best known for playing, he is actually a nice, friendly man in real life.
- If I don't need the money, I don't work. I don't mind going to somebody and saying, "Okay, this is how much money I need to pay my bills for the next six months. If you pay me that, I'll do the film.".
- [Why did he accept the lead in Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)?] I took the film because I was interested in doing that part. Looking at work as stepping stones is something I don't have any time or energy for. It seems a shame to look at your work as some sort of means to an end, because the end is death, you know? The means is the flesh and blood, so you had better enjoy it. Fuck the end.
- If I don't need the money, I don't work. I'm going to spend time with my family and friends, and I'm going to travel and read and listen to music and try to learn a little bit more about how to be a human being, as opposed to learning how to be somebody else.
- Studio people are afraid of Crash (1996). It makes a statement about whoever releases the film. Miramax took a lot of flak for releasing Kids (1995). The same will happen for whoever releases Crash (1996).
- I have my own artistic sensibilities and Crash (1996) complements them. It is a provocative, challenging, disturbing film made for adults. It's not a skeleton in the closet for me.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content