James Hanlon (born 1966) is an American

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

; he also served as a

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 ...

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

. He executive produced and directed the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

''.

Early life and education

Hanlon was born in the South Bronx and grew up in New York City in a large Irish Catholic family. He attended the highly ranked Mount St. Michael Academy, where he was part of the nationally ranked track team and lettered in track all four years. While attending college in New York, Hanlon attended an acting class with a friend. He soon started classes and eventually graduated from The Acting Studio and Chelsea Rep.

Career

Hanlon performed in 27 plays in New York and regionally. He worked with Tony Award-winning director

Vivian Matalon Vivian Matalon (11 October 1929 – 15 August 2018) was a British theatre director. Born in Manchester, Matalon began his career as an actor in a series of forgettable British films, but his greatest success has been as a director of West End, ...

in the play Money/Mercy by Stephen Temperley produced at The Acting Studio - New York / Chelsea Repertory Company and soon after started guest starring for TV shows filming in New York City. In between acting jobs, Hanlon worked at ''The New York Daily News'' in the advertising department. He worked at '' The Daily News'' from 1986 to 1992. In 1992, he joined the

New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...

as a firefighter. His brother had bet him $500 he couldn't pass the test. Hanlon attained a perfect score and was appointed soon after. Hanlon was assigned and working in a busy fire division. He wanted to show people what the life of a fireman was really like; this had never been done before. In 2001, Hanlon convinced the Fire Commissioner to allow him to shoot a documentary about Tony Benetatos, a probationary, or "probie", firefighter. During filming, the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

took place. Hanlon finally released his documentary as the series ''

'', which aired on

. Hanlon won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

, a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

and the Edward R. Murrow Award for the documentary. Hanlon retired as a decorated FDNY firefighter. He moved to Southern California and lives in Malibu. He quickly applied to and attended the directing program at UCLA. He is an American television director of shows such as '' NCIS: Los Angeles'', ''Chicago Fire'', ''Animal Kingdom'' and ''Grey's Anatomy'', and ''Station 19''. He has appeared as an actor in episodes of ''

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 ...

'', ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO. An adaptation of Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City (newspaper column), newspaper column and 1996 book anthology of the ...

'', ''

Criminal Minds ''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis (writer), Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was r ...

'' and ''

Law and Order In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...

'', among other roles. In 2016, for the 15th anniversary of his award-winning 9/11 documentary series, Hanlon went back to New York City. He served as executive producer, director and cinematographer for

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

's ''9/11: Fifteen Years Later''.

References

2022 the New York Chapter of Arts & Sciences Awarded James Hanlon with it highest achievement. The Governors EMMY Award was given to James Hanlon for his outstanding Directing and Producing of the 9/11 doc- series for 20 years.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanlon, James 1966 births American male film actors American male television actors People from the Bronx Living people American television directors Film directors from New York City