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Bruce Davison (born June 28, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker.
Davison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Marian E. and Clair W. Davison, who divorced when he was three years old. He was raised by his mother, a secretary, and also spent weekends with his father, who was an architect and draftsman for the Army Engineers. Davison entered Penn State as an art major but stumbled into acting when he accompanied a friend to an audition.
Davison made his Broadway debut in Tiger at the Gates in 1968. He also appeared as John Merrick in The Elephant Man and in The Glass Menagerie opposite Jessica Tandy.
In 1983, Davison was cast by Joseph Papp in the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival production of King Richard III. Additional off-Broadway credits include Love Letters, The Cocktail Hour, and Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive.
In Los Angeles, Davison has appeared on stage in Streamers and The Normal Heart, winning the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and Drama-Logue Award for his performances. Other LA theatre credits include The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (directed by Henry Fonda) and a stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Davison was one of a quartet of newcomers including Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, and Catherine Burns when he made his film debut in Last Summer in 1969. Two years later he portrayed the title role in Willard. He also appeared in Mame, Mother, Jugs & Speed, The Lathe of Heaven, Six Degrees of Separation, and numerous television series before being cast in his breakthrough role, a gay man whose lover is dying of AIDS, in Longtime Companion (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is familiar to movie audiences for Runaway Jury, Apt Pupil, and his role as Senator Robert Kelly in the X-Men movie franchise. Though his character died in the first film, Davison appeared in X2 as a shapeshifting impostor of Kelly.
Davison's many television credits include Marcus Welby, M.D., Love, American Style, The Waltons, Lou Grant, Murder, She Wrote, Designing Women, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, V, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, CSI: Miami, the Stephen King mini-series Kingdom Hospital, and a recurring role on The Practice. At present Davison appears in the recurring role of defense attorney Doug Hellman in the CBS drama Close to Home.
In 2001, Davison directed the TV film Off Season, which starred his Lovelife co-star Sherilyn Fenn, Rory Culkin, Hume Cronyn, and Adam Arkin.
Davison lives in Los Angeles.
