Comprehensive information and links about William H. Macy

William H. Macy (born March 13, 1950William H. Macy is an actor, teacher, and director, in theatre, film, and television. He was born in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Georgia and Maryland. After graduating from Allegany High School in Cumberland, Maryland, he entered Bethany College of West Virginia to study veterinary medicine. By his own admission, a "wretched student," he transferred to Goddard College and became involved in theatre.

It was at Goddard College that he met the playwright David Mamet, who was only a couple of years older than Macy. Macy later came to consider Mamet the greatest writer of our time. He moved to Chicago, Illinois after graduating in 1971, and got a job as a bartender to pay the rent. Within a year he and Mamet, among others, founded the successful St. Nicholas Theater Company, where Macy originated roles in a number of Mamet's plays, such as .

After spending some time in Los Angeles, California, he moved to New York, New York in 1980. While living there he had roles in over fifty off-Broadway and Broadway plays.

He has appeared in films that Mamet wrote and.

Macy has also had a number of roles on television. In 2003, he won two Emmy Awards, for the lead role and as co-writer of the made-for-TNT film , a drama based on the true story of Bill Porter, a door-to-door salesman in Portland, Oregon, born with cerebral palsy. Macy is particularly proud of the writing for that film; he turned the commercial-interrupted format of television into an advantage in the film, by breaking the story up into several uninterrupted stories.

His work on , Macy said he wants to star in a big-budget action movie "for the money, for the security of a franchise like that."

He serves as director-in-residence at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, where he teaches a technique called Practical Aesthetics. A book describing the technique, (ISBN 0394744128), is dedicated to Macy and Mamet. Since 1997, he has been married to Academy Award nominated actress Felicity Huffman. The couple has two daughters, Sofia Grace and Georgia Grace.

He should not be confused with actor Bill Macy, who co-starred in the television series