Timothy Hutton
(born August 16, 1960,
Malibu
,
California
, U.S.) is an American actor whose subtle portrayal of a young man’s psychological
anguish
in the
film
Ordinary People
(1980) earned him critical acclaim and an
Academy Award
for best supporting actor.
Hutton’s parents divorced when he was a small child, and he lived with his mother until his teens, when he reconnected with his father, actor
Jim Hutton (whose best-known role was the title character in the 1975?76 television series
Ellery Queen
). He lived with his father while attending
high school
in
Los Angeles
, and
acting
in a high-school play awakened his desire for a career as an actor.
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Oscar-Worthy Movie Trivia
Hutton’s first credit was in a television movie,
Zuma Beach
(1978). He won notice for his performance as the younger brother of a man who was killed in the
Vietnam War
in the TV movie
Friendly Fire
(1979), and he appeared in several other TV movies before being cast in
Ordinary People
, his first feature film. His performance as the guilt-ridden son who survived a boating accident in which his elder brother lost his life won him a
Golden Globe Award
as well as the Oscar. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his lead role in the TV movie
A Long Way Home
(1981), and he received another Golden Globe nomination for his role as a cadet who leads his classmates in an armed barricade of their military school to prevent its being turned over to developers in the film
Taps
(1981).
Hutton starred in
Sydney Lumet
’s
Daniel
(1983), based on
E.L. Doctorow
’s 1971 novel
The Book of Daniel
; played an anthropologist in the
science fiction
movie
Iceman
(1984); and costarred with
Sean Penn
in
John Schlesinger
’s
The Falcon and the Snowman
(1985). His turn as a graffiti artist in
Turk 182!
(1985) was less successful. Hutton appeared in the melodrama
A Time of Destiny
(1988); the sports
drama
Everybody’s All-American
(1988); Lumet’s police thriller
Q & A
(1990);
George A. Romero
’s
The Dark Half
(1993), based on a
Stephen King
novel; the TV movie
Zelda
(1993), in which he played
F. Scott Fitzgerald
; Ted Demme’s
romantic
comedy
Beautiful Girls
(1996); and the thriller
Playing God
(1997), in which he took the part of the villain. Hutton also appeared in
John Sayles
’s
Sunshine State
(2002). His later films included
All the Money in the World
(2017),
Beautiful Boy
(2018), and
The Glorias
(2020).
Hutton continued to appear on television. He starred with Maury Chaykin in the series
A Nero Wolfe Mystery
(2000?02) and was a cast member in the show
Kidnapped
(2006?07). He starred in
Leverage
(2008?12), and he received an
Emmy Award
nomination in 2015 for his work in
American Crime
(2015?17). Hutton then starred in the sitcom
Almost Family
(2019), playing a fertility doctor who, as a sperm donor, fathered a number of children. In addition, he had recurring roles in
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
,
The Haunting of Hill House
, and
How to Get Away with Murder
.
In 2020 a Canadian woman publicly accused Hutton of raping her in 1983, when she was 14 years old; she had filed a criminal complaint in 2019. Hutton strenuously
denied
the allegation.
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