Donald Patrick Harvey II (born May 31, 1960) is an American actor.

Early life

Harvey was born and raised in

St. Clair Shores, Michigan St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake Saint Clair (North America), Lake St. Clair in Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of d ...

, the sixth of eight children. He started acting while attending

Lake Shore High School Lake Shore High School is a high school located in the lakefront community of St. Clair Shores, Michigan. The school, a part of Lake Shore Public Schools, serves grades 9–12. The mascot for Lake Shore are the Shorians. Lake Shore High Schoo ...

, having performed in several shows before graduating in 1978. He then moved on to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he studied English and economics along with two years of classical ballet. Upon his 1982 graduation from the University of Michigan with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree, he attended the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

and received a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree in acting in 1985. After graduation, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to pursue film, television and theatre work.

Career

Harvey began appearing in films in the late 1980s and has appeared in over 70 feature films. One of his first roles was as a dirty cop in

Brian de Palma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...

's film ''

The Untouchables Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to: American history * Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness * ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley * ''The U ...

''. The following year, Harvey had one of his more prominent screen roles as " Black Sox" conspirator Swede Risberg in

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and ''L ...

' ''

Eight Men Out ''Eight Men Out'' is a 1988 American sports drama film based on Eliot Asinof's 1963 book ''Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series''. It was written and directed by John Sayles. The film is a dramatization of Major League Baseball's ...

'' (1988). Subsequently, Harvey had secondary roles in such high-profile productions as ''

Casualties of War ''Casualties of War'' is a 1989 American war drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Rabe, based primarily on an article written by Daniel Lang for ''The New Yorker'' in 1969, which was later published as a book. The film star ...

'' (1989) (his second

film), ''

Die Hard 2 ''Die Hard 2'' (also known by its tagline ''Die Harder'')The film's onscreen title is ''Die Hard 2'', as also given at the initial home-video release'official website The film's original advertising used "Die Harder" as a tagline, and many rele ...

'' (1990), and '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), in addition to the made-for-cable feature ''Better Off Dead'' (1993). His television work includes performances on ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

'', ''

NYPD Blue ''NYPD Blue'' is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble c ...

'', '' The Pretender, The Deuce,

Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

'', ''

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

'', and ''

We Own This City ''We Own This City'' is an American miniseries based on the nonfiction book of the same name by '' Baltimore Sun'' reporter Justin Fenton. The miniseries was developed and written by George Pelecanos and David Simon, and directed by Reinaldo ...

''.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

*
Don Harvey Official website

Soap Central article on Harvey
1960 births Living people American male film actors American male television actors American male voice actors Male actors from Michigan People from St. Clair Shores, Michigan University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Yale School of Drama alumni 20th-century American male actors {{US-film-actor-1960s-stub