Tom Berenger

Other films he appeared in include Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), The Dogs of War (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Eddie and the Cruisers (1983), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), Betrayed (1988), The Field (1990), Gettysburg (1993), The Substitute (1996), Training Day (2001), and Inception (2010). He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance as Jim Vance in the 2012 miniseries Hatfields & McCoys.

Tom Berenger studied at University of Missouri and Rich East High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is film production. Distinctions recorded are Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.

• Birth Name — Thomas Michael Moore • Born — 31 May 1949 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Education — University of Missouri (BA) • Occupation — * Actor • producer • television writer • Years Active — 1968–present • Children — 6

Berenger was born Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago, on May 31, 1949, to a Catholic family of Irish ancestry with his great-grandfather and grandmother settling in Chicago. He has a sister, Susan. His father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times and a traveling salesman. Moore graduated in 1967 from Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois. He studied journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, but decided to seek an acting career following his graduation in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Moore selected "Berenger" as his professional name after he was forced to change his surname professionally, as there was already a "Tom Moore" in the Actors' Equity Association.

Berenger worked in regional theatre and in 1972, he worked as a flight attendant with Eastern Airlines, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He transferred to New York in 1973. He worked in soap operas and had a starring role as lawyer Tim Siegel on One Life to Live. His feature film debut was the lead in Rush It, an independent film that was shot in 1976 but unreleased until 1978. In 1977, he had a supporting role as the killer of the lead character (played by Diane Keaton) in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, based on the murder of schoolteacher Roseann Quinn. In 1978, he had a starring role in the Canadian film In Praise of Older Women. In 1979, he played Butch Cassidy in Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, a role he got in part because of his resemblance to Paul Newman, who played the character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Berenger starred in several significant films in the 1980s, including The Big Chill (1983), Eddie and the Cruisers (1983), Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985), Platoon (1986), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), Shoot to Kill (1988), and Major League (1989). In 1986, he received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the Staff Sergeant Barnes in Platoon (this performance won him a Golden Globe Award for "Best Supporting Actor"). A role for which he has become well known for is Thomas Beckett, the main character in the mid-1990s film Sniper (which would later be followed by six sequels, featuring Berenger in the starring role for four). Other notable films from that period in which he was featured include Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Shattered (1991), Sliver (1993), and Chasers (1994). When asked in a 1999 interview to name his favorite film out of those in which he had acted, Berenger said it was too difficult to choose but that the one he had watched most frequently was his 1993 film Gettysburg, where he played the role of Confederate General James Longstreet. He established the Tom Berenger Acting Scholarship Fund in 1988 to award theatre students for excellence in performance. In more recent years, Berenger has continued to have an active acting career in film and television, although often at a supporting level. One of his most notable television appearances was on Cheers in its last season as Rebecca Howe's blue collar-plumber love interest, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series". He also began a career as a producer in the 1990s. Berenger co-produced the 1997 miniseries Rough Riders, also starring as Theodore Roosevelt. Berenger was also seen on the box art and promotional content for Novalogic's Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, as his roles in Sniper 2 and Sniper 3 were very similar to what was chosen for the game's artwork. He starred in the mini-series version of Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes, as a celebrated author who realizes the warped painting he recently purchased is alive with illustrations of impending doom for him in "The Road Virus Heads North". Berenger stars opposite Armand Assante and Busta Rhymes in the dramatic thriller Breaking Point, which had a limited release starting in December 2009. Berenger appeared in the 2010 science fiction thriller Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cillian Murphy, where he played a business executive who served as a mentor to and was an associate of the father of Murphy's character. It was his first major film role since Training Day in 2001. In 2012, he appeared in the television miniseries Hatfields & McCoys as Jim Vance, uncle of protagonist Devil Anse Hatfield (Kevin Costner). On September 23, 2012, Berenger won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for the role. In 2022, it was announced that Berenger would star in the comedy film Plan B, alongside Jon Heder and Shannon Elizabeth.

Berenger has been married four times and has six children. He married Laura Moretti in Sedona, Arizona, in early September 2012.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1975–76 — One Life to Live — Tim Siegel — 66 episodes • 1977 — Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye — Billy Sutton — Television film • 1979 — Flesh & Blood — Bobby Fallon • 1986 — If Tomorrow Comes — Jeff Stevens — Miniseries • 1991 — Dream On — Nick Spencer — 1 episode • 1993 — Cheers — Don Santry — 2 episodes • 1995 — Body Language — Gavin St. Claire — Television film • The Avenging Angel — Miles Utley • 1997 — Rough Riders — Theodore Roosevelt — Miniseries • 1999 — In the Company of Spies — Kevin Jefferson — Television film • 2000 — Law & Order — Dean Tyler — Episode: "Panic" • Cutaway — Red Line — Television film • 2001 — Jackson County War — Cain Hammett • 2002 — Ally McBeal — Harrison Wyatt — Episode: "Nine One Nine" • The Junction Boys — Paul 'Bear' Bryant — Television film • Sniper 2 — MGySgt. Thomas J. "Tom" Beckett • 2003 — Third Watch — Aaron Noble — 4 episodes • Peacemakers — Marshal Jared Stone — 9 episodes • 2004 — Capital City — Senator Foxworthy — Television film • 2005 — Into the West — Colonel J. Chivington — Episode: "Hell on Wheels" • Detective — Sergeant Malcolm Ainslie — Television film • 2006 — Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King — Richard Kinnell — Episode: "The Road Virus Heads North" • 2007 — America's Iliad: The Siege of Charleston — Narrator (voice) — Television film • 2007–08 — October Road — Bob 'The Commander' Garrett — 19 episodes • 2008 — Amber Alert: Terror on the Highway — Larsan — Television film • 2011 — XIII: The Series — Rainer Gerhardt — 6 episodes • 2012 — Hatfields & McCoys — Jim Vance — Miniseries • 2013–15 — Major Crimes — Jackson Raydor — 7 episodes • 2014 — Hawaii Five-0 — Eddie Williams — Episode: "Ma lalo o ka 'ili" • 2017 — Training Day — District Attorney Stanley 'Stan' Gursky — Episode: "Elegy" (reprised character from 2001 film of the same name)