February 19 - Jeff Daniels

On this day, in 1955, Jeff Warren Daniels, was born in Clarke County, Georgia. After residing in his native state for a whole six weeks, Jeff's family moved north to Chelsea, Michigan, a small town the actor still claims as home today. Following high school, Jeff became part of the theater program at Central Michigan University. In the summer of 1976, he changed allegiances to Eastern Michigan University to be a part of their Bicentennial Repertory program. Marshall W. Mason guest directed the program and was impressed enough with Jeff to invite him to New York City to join the Circle Repertory Theatre.

Jeff has enjoyed a long and varied career on the stages of New York. After performing with Circle Rep during the 1977-78 season, he was part of the inaugural show, The Shortchanged Review, at Second Stage Theatre in 1979. He's been nominated for two Drama Desk Awards for two different Lanford Wilson plays, Fifth of July on Broadway and Lemon Sky off-Broadway. He's won an Obie Award off-Broadway for his performance in Circle Rep's Johnny Got His Gun and earned a Tony nomination for God of Carnage, a 2009 Broadway production that also starred James Gandolfini. A second Tony nomination came his way in 2016 for Blackbird.

Image courtesy woodyallenpages.com

Jeff made the leap to the big screen in 1981 as part of the cast of Ragtime. He followed that up as Flap Horton in Terms of Endearment and by his third film, Woody Allen's 1985 comedy The Purple Rose of Cairo, he'd already earned a Golden Globe nomination. Another Golden Globe nomination came just a year later for Something Wild with Melanie Griffith. Dozens of films came after that with the two that he is arguably most remembered for being characters that are polar opposites: Harry Dunne in 1994's Dumb and Dumber and diner owner Bill Johnson in 1998's Pleasantville.

Image copyright Hollywood Pictures

Jeff joined the Disney family in 1990 as Dr. Ross Jennings in the horror comedy Arachnophobia, which was the first movie released under the Hollywood Pictures brand. His biggest Disney hit came six years later when he put his own spin on Roger in the live action version of 101 Dalmatians opposite Glen Close. Jeff's next contribution to the company was the disappointing sci-fi comedy My Favorite Martian in 1999. He also appeared in two films under the Miramax brand during the years Disney owned it, 2002's The Hours with Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman and 2007's The Lookout with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Image copyright Netflix

In more recent years, Jeff enjoyed a three season turn as Will McAvoy on the HBO series The Newsroom, earning himself a Golden Globe nomination, a SAG Award nomination and three consecutive Emmy nominations resulting in an Emmy statue on his mantle. His work the Netflix series Godless won him another Emmy just last year. He also returned to Broadway late last year as Atticus Finch in a new production of To Kill a Mockingbird. Theater not your thing? Maybe you'd prefer to listen to Jeff's musical stylings on one of his six albums or any of his frequent gigs, featuring songs he writes himself.

When he isn't earning Emmy Awards or Tony nominations, Jeff is writing plays for and performing with the Purple Rose Theatre Company which he started in his hometown of Chelsea in 1991. The non-profit troupe produces four shows each season, develops plays based on life in the Great Lakes region (like Jeff's own hit Escanaba in da Moonlight) and has an internship program that gives seven young adults every year the skills they need to succeed in the world of theater, all of it inspired by the time he spent decades ago at the Circle Rep. Happy birthday, Jeff, may you keep passing it on for years to come.