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Aidan Quinn

Aidan Quinn is an American actor whose career has moved comfortably between film, television and the stage. Born in Chicago on March 8, 1959, he was raised in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, as well as Dublin and Birr in County Offaly, Ireland. Acting was not always the plan: at nineteen, while working as a roofer, Quinn realized that he wanted to perform. He later trained at the Piven Theatre Workshop. His first significant film role came in Reckless, followed by his breakthrough as Dez, the romantic interest opposite Rosanna Arquette, in Desperately Seeking Susan. That early run quickly established the breadth of his work. In the television film An Early Frost, Quinn played a young gay lawyer dying of AIDS and received his first Emmy nomination. He then made a brief appearance as Robert De Niro’s brother in The Mission and played escaped convict Richard “Stick” Montgomery opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez in Stakeout. Quinn’s 1990s film work included The Handmaid’s Tale, Benny & Joon, Legends of the Fall, Haunted and Practical Magic. He also appeared in Michael Collins, starred in This Is My Father, Song for a Raggy Boy and Evelyn, and had a cameo as the captain of a doomed Arctic vessel in the Francis Ford Coppola-produced Frankenstein adaptation. Television has remained an equally important part of his career. Quinn portrayed Paul McCartney in the 2000 drama Two of Us, played Kerry Max Cook in The Exonerated and led the short-lived NBC series The Book of Daniel. His performance in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee brought a second Emmy nomination in 2007. Later roles included William Rainsferd in Sarah’s Key, Dermot in the Canadian-Irish drama Stay and a co-starring part in the CBS series Elementary. Across those projects, Quinn has taken on romantic leads, historical figures, troubled professionals and supporting characters, building a body of work defined less by one signature part than by sustained range across the screen.