Jason Butler Harner (born October 9, 1970) in Elmira, New York is an American actor.
Jason Butler Harner grew up in suburban Virginia, where he had the opportunity of seeing a handful of plays at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. He graduated from T. C. Williams High School, Alexandria, Virginia in 1988. Harner states: "I am so grateful for the experiences I had with the T.C. Williams theater department. Designing and building sets, problem solving with peers, and stretching my imagination affected me in ways crucial to my development and career. Without the quality education and theater opportunities available to me at T.C. Williams ... who would I be?"
He graduated from Theatre VCU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting in 1992. After graduating from VCU, he was an apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and subsequently moved to New York City and received an Master of Fine Arts in the Graduate Acting Program from Tisch School of the Arts in 1997. Harner returned to VCU as a Master Teacher during their 2007-08 Guest Artist program.
Jason Butler Harner completed filming for Changeling in December 2007. He plays Gordon Stewart Northcott, a mechanic accused of murder. Harner described his character as "a horrible, horrible, wonderful person." Samuel Blumenfeld of Le Monde called the scene featuring Northcott's execution by hanging "unbearable" due to Eastwood's attention to detail, saying "There is no more convincing plea against the death penalty." Eastwood said that for a supporter of capital punishment, Nortcott was an ideal candidate: "In a perfect world, the death penalty might be the appropriate response to such a murderer." But he said that "Whether you're for or against the death penalty, you must recognize that there is something barbaric in making the execution public." Eastwood argued that in putting the guilty party before the families of his victims, "justice" may be done, but after such a spectacle, "what tranquillity can hope to find?" The scene's realism was deliberate: the viewer hears the sound of Nortcott's neck breaking, his body swings, and his feet gesticulate. Eastwood said, "I know it's unbearable to watch, and that was the desired effect."
He is currently appearing in the HBO miniseries, John Adams as Oliver Wolcott, Jr., the second United States Secretary of the Treasury.
