John Heard (actor)

John Heard, Jr. (born March 7, 1945) is an American actor known for his recurring role as Peter McCallister, in the first two installments of the Home Alone movie series.

He starred or was featured in films including Awakenings, Cutter's Way, Chilly Scenes of Winter, Cat People, Deceived, The Milagro Beanfield War, The Pelican Brief, and White Chicks, and the TV-movie Sharknado.

Early life

Heard was born in Washington, D.C., the son of John and Helen Heard. He attended Gonzaga College High School; Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts; and Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C.

Acting career

In the 1970s, Heard appeared on the stage, television and film. He appeared off-Broadway in 1974 in Mark Medoff's play The Wager and at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in 1977 in a series of new plays. In 1979 he played Arthur Dimmesdale in a television production of The Scarlet Letter. Heard won Obie Awards for his performances in Othello and Split in 1979-80. He was the male lead in the 1979 film Head Over Heels (which was renamed and rereleased as Chilly Scenes of Winter in 1982).

In 1981, he had the starring role of Alex Cutter in the film Cutter's Way. He played the lover of Nastassja Kinski, one of the main characters, in the remake of Cat People. In 1984, he portrayed photographer George Cooper in C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) alongside future Home Alone co-star Daniel Stern. The Trip to Bountiful is a 1985 film in which he had a starring role. In Heaven Help Us (also known as Catholic Boys), John Heard played as a monk named Brother Timothy in the 1985 comedy-drama film. In After Hours that same year, Heard was bartender Tom Schorr.

In 1988 he was seen in the film The Milagro Beanfield War. Later that year he had a notable role playing Paul, Tom Hanks's adult corporate competitor and jilted boyfriend of Elizabeth Perkins, in Big. He co-starred with Bette Midler in Beaches in 1988, and played real-life Ku Klux Klan leader D.C. Stephenson in the TV-miniseries Cross of Fire in 1989. In 1991 he starred in Deceived (opposite Goldie Hawn) playing Jack Saunders. He also starred in Gladiator opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr.

In 1990, Heard starred in the philosophical film Mindwalk, in which three characters from different socialitical and poetical backgrounds express their opinions on the human experience; that year, he was also featured in the hugely successful comedy Home Alone (and also starred in its 1992 sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York) and in Awakenings alongside Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. Also in 1992, he played Daugherty in the film Radio Flyer. In 1993 he played FBI agent Gavin Vereek in The Pelican Brief. In 1994 he played the part of David Manning in the ABC miniseries Out on a Limb, which depicted Shirley MacLaine's written account, of the same name, of her journey toward acceptance of spiritual and extraterrestrial realities. He starred with Samuel L. Jackson in 1997's One Eight Seven and was featured in the 2000 miniseries Perfect Murder, Perfect Town. He has had roles on The Sopranos as crooked cop Vin Makazian for which he received an Emmy nomination as outstanding guest actor, and on Battlestar Galactica as Commander Barry Garner.

He had recurring roles on CSI: Miami (as Kenwall Duquesne, father of Calleigh Duquesne) and Prison Break (as Frank Tancredi, governor of Illinois and father of Sara Tancredi). Among other film and television roles in the 2000s and 2010s, he played the mayor of Chicago on two episodes of the Fox series The Chicago Code.

He has been announced he will playing the elderly billionaire in the adaption of John Grisham's novel The Testament.

Asked about his career in 2008, Heard replied,

I guess I went from being a young leading man to being just kind of a hack actor. ... When I came to Hollywood, I was pretty much a stage actor, and I expected everybody to be quiet. And they weren't. They were doing their job, and you're expected to do your job, and you're sort of this ongoing co-existence. I was a little bit of an arrogant jerk. Now, it's a little bit more like, 'Okay, I realize you have to pat me down with powder every three seconds.' And I stand there, and I'm a little more tolerant.... I think I had my time. I dropped the ball, as my father would say. I think I could have done more with my career than I did, and I sort of got sidetracked. But that's OK, that's alright, that's the way it is. No sour grapes. I mean, I don't have any regrets. Except that I could have played some bigger parts.

Personal life

Heard was married for six days to actress Margot Kidder in 1979. He has a son, John Matthew "Jack" Heard, with ex-girlfriend Melissa Leo. Heard was arrested in 1991 and charged with third-degree assault for allegedly slapping Leo. In 1997, he was found guilty of trespassing Leo's home in Baltimore, Maryland's Fell's Point neighborhood, but acquitted of charges of trespassing at their son's school. He has two other former wives, Sharon Heard and Lana Pritchard. Sharon and Heard have two children together, son Max and a daughter named Annika. Heard and Pritchard married on May 24, 2010, in Los Angeles.