Robert Sean Leonard
- Category : Actor
- Type : MGE
- Profile : 5/1 - Heretical / Investigator
- Definition : Split - Small (2,10,15,29,33,36,59)
- Incarnation Cross : LAX Migration 1
Biography
Robert Sean Leonard (born Robert Lawrence Leonard; February 28, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. James Wilson on the television series House, M.D. and Neil Perry in the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society. He regularly stars in Broadway and off-Broadway productions.
Life and career
Leonard was born in Westwood, New Jersey, the son of Joyce P. (née Peterson), a nurse, and Robert Howard Leonard, a teacher of Spanish. He grew up in Ridgewood, where he attended Ridgewood High School before moving on to Fordham University and later Columbia University School of General Studies (GS). Because he shares his birth name with another actor, he uses the name of his brother Sean for his Screen Actors Guild membership.
Leonard is a three-time Tony Award nominee (1993, 2001 and 2003), winning in 2001 (Best Actor – Featured Play) for his role as A. E. Housman in Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love. He had a prior association with Stoppard's work, playing the role of Valentine in the New York premiere of Arcadia at Lincoln Center in 1995. His 2003 Tony nomination was for his portrayal of Edmund Tyrone in a well-received revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night that co-starred Philip Seymour Hoffman and Brian Dennehy. Leonard has also appeared in Broadway musical productions, in 2001 replacing Craig Bierko as the lead performer in a successful revival of The Music Man. On February 8, 2011, it was announced that Leonard would co-star as Paul Verrall in the 2011 Broadway revival of Born Yesterday beginning in March.
In 1997 Leonard received rave reviews for his role in the Christopher Reeve-directed television film, In the Gloaming. Entertainment Weekly said that, in the film, Leonard "does a first-rate job of juggling Danny's mixture of despair, neediness, and mordant jokiness."
From 2004 he played Dr. James Wilson, head of the oncology department, on the FOX TV series House, M.D., until the series ended in 2012. In 2007 Leonard appeared on Entertainment's Weekly's 100 list as "Dr. Underrated."
Leonard maintains a good friendship with House, M.D. co-star Hugh Laurie, as well as childhood friend, Dead Poets Society and Tape co-star, Ethan Hawke, with whom he founded the Malaparte theater company, along with James Waterston, Steve Zahn, and Frank Whaley.
Leonard has two daughters, Eleanor and Claudia, with his wife, Gabriella Salick.
