David Morse

A decade on stage, first with the Boston Repertory Company and then in New York, came before any of the TV work, which is why he landed St. Elsewhere already knowing how to carry a scene. He played Dr. Jack 'Boomer' Morrison for six seasons (1982-1988), a widower raising a kid inside a collapsing public hospital. The character's quiet exhaustion was more interesting than anything the flashier doctors were doing. He directed two episodes before the show wrapped. St. Elsewhere didn't make him famous exactly, but it made him someone the right directors wanted to call.

The only actor who has played both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln is not a household name, which is its own kind of statement. His current run includes Cabrini (2024) as Archbishop Corrigan, The Gettysburg Address (2025) as Lincoln again, and a recurring role in Apple TV+'s The Last Thing He Told Me. He keeps getting cast in roles that require someone to command a room without announcing it. At 72, he's busier than most actors a generation younger.

The 1994 Northridge earthquake destroyed his home in Sherman Oaks, and he moved the family to Philadelphia, which is one way to put distance between yourself and the industry. He won an Obie and a Lucille Lortel Award for How I Learned to Drive Off-Broadway in 1997, at a time when his film work was already well-established. In 2002, he became the first English-speaking actor nominated for China's Golden Horse Award (for Double Vision). Almost passed on House because he thought the character was 'a total jerk.'