James Spader Biography

Big screen star James Spader’s turn as Alan Shore on television’s The Practice and Boston Legal earned him Emmys in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Spader has been in the movies since the 1980s, a decade in which he became known for playing wicked preppies and yuppies in movies such as Pretty in Pink (1986), Less Than Zero (1987) and Wall Street (1987, with Michael Douglas). He won a Best Actor award at Cannes for his performance as a voyeur in Steven Soderbergh‘s sex, lies and videotape (1989), laying the foundation for a career as a sexy oddball. Never quite the leading man the critics expected, Spader has nonetheless had a successful career as a character actor and quirky protagonist. His movies include Bad Influence (1990, with Rob Lowe), Stargate (1994, with Kurt Russell), the film version of J.G. Ballard‘s Crash (1997, with Holly Hunter) and Secretary (2002, with Maggie Gyllenhaal). He joined the cast of the television series The Practice in 2003, then continued to play the same character in the show’s spin-off, Boston Legal, from 2004 to 2008 (with co-star William Shatner). Spader joined the cast of The Office in 2011.