Craig T. Nelson

Early career

Nelson began his show business career as a comedian.^[1] He was an early member of The Groundlings improv and sketch comedy troupe.^[11] Nelson, Barry Levinson, and Rudy De Luca formed their own comedy team and were regular performers at The Comedy Store^[1] and on the short-lived The Tim Conway Comedy Hour (1970).^[12] In 1973, Nelson left the comedy world, explaining "the standup comedy life was pretty unfulfilling for me"^[12] and he settled in Montgomery Creek, California where there was no electricity and no running water; "it was contentment, The Waltons", he said.^[10] Nelson had different jobs during that time including janitor, plumber, carpenter, surveyor, and high school teacher in Burney, CA. He returned to acting five years later.^[12]

Film

Nelson was featured as a prosecuting attorney who opposes Al Pacino in the 1979 film ...And Justice for All, co-written by Levinson. He then played Capt. William Woodbridge in Private Benjamin (1980), Deputy Warden Ward Wilson in Stir Crazy (1980), and Steve Freeling in Poltergeist (1982), returning to the role for the sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986). In 1983, Nelson appeared in Silkwood, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep. That same year, he played the high school football coach of Tom Cruise in the drama All the Right Moves and was one of the stars of director Sam Peckinpah's final film, The Osterman Weekend.^[13] He appeared in many other motion picture roles including Major Reeves in The Killing Fields (1984), Peter Dellaplane in Action Jackson (1988), Chief Howard Hyde in Turner & Hooch (1989), Ed Peters in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), and Alex Cullen in The Devil's Advocate (1997).

Television

Nelson's first TV series was the short-lived ABC series Call to Glory from 1984 to 1985. He became well-known when he starred as college football coach Hayden Fox in the ABC sitcom Coach from 1989 to 1997,^[14][15] and for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He also directed many episodes of the show. He then starred as chief of Washington, D.C.'s police department Jack Mannion in the CBS drama The District from 2000 to 2004. He went on to play the role of the Prison Warden in the NBC sitcom My Name Is Earl in 2007.

Later career

Nelson provided the voice of Bob Parr (also known as Mr. Incredible) in the animated film The Incredibles (2004), and returned to the role for its long awaited sequel, Incredibles 2 (2018).^[16] Nelson also reprised the role again in the video games Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure and in the Disney Infinity video game series, except for the video game and The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, where he was replaced by actor Richard McGonagle.^[17]

Nelson's subsequent films include 2005's The Family Stone as Diane Keaton's husband, 2007's Blades of Glory as an ice skating coach, 2009's The Proposal as Ryan Reynolds's skeptical father, 2010's The Company Men as a greedy CEO, and 2018's Book Club.

Nelson made a three-episode guest appearance on CSI: NY from 2008 to 2009 as a "nemesis" of Gary Sinise's Taylor.^[18] From 2010 to 2015, he starred in the NBC comedy-drama Parenthood as Ezekiel "Zeek" Braverman, the family patriarch. His production company is Family Tree Productions.^[19]

From 2019 to 2024, Nelson was part of the cast of Young Sheldon playing Dale Ballard, a local sports store owner, Missy's baseball coach, and Meemaw's boyfriend. In 2024, he continued the role on its spin-off Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage.

Film

Television

Video games

Theme parks