Richard Dale Jenkins (born May 4, 1947) is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and has appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s before coming to prominence in the early 2000s for playing the deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series Six Feet Under. He has since established himself in Hollywood by appearing in lead roles in the films The Visitor and The Cabin in the Woods
Jenkins was born and raised in DeKalb, a university town in Illinois. His mother, Mary Elizabeth (née Wheeler), was a housewife, and his father, Dale Stevens Jenkins, was a dentist. Before he was an actor, Jenkins drove a linen truck (his boss was actor John C. Reilly’s father). Jenkins earned a degree in drama from Illinois Wesleyan University before relocating to Rhode Island. While attending Illinois Wesleyan, Jenkins was a member of Phi Gamma Delta.
Since his film debut in the television movie Feasting with Panthers (1974), he has steadily been working in film. Some of his earlier film credits include Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), and Snow Falling On Cedars (1999). He is also an occasional collaborator with the director siblings the Farrelly brothers, who have worked with Jenkins in There’s Something About Mary (1998), Outside Providence (1999), Me, Myself, and Irene (2000), and Say It Isn’t So (2001). He has also worked frequently with the Coen Brothers: The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and Burn After Reading (2008). He has also been in North Country (2005).
Although known primarily for supporting parts, he had a critically acclaimed lead role in The Visitor (2008), for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Jenkins won the International Press Academy’s Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
Jenkins has been cast in the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard horror The Cabin in the Woods (2010).
He married Sharon R. Friedrick on August 23, 1969 and together they have two children, Sarah Pamela and Andrew Dale. He currently resides in Cumberland, Rhode Island
1985, Silverado,
1986, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Manhattan Project,
1987, Rachel River, The Witches of Eastwick,
1988, Little Nikita, Stealing Home,
1989, Sea of Love, Blaze, How I Got Into College,
1990, When You Remember Me, Challenger, Blue Steel,
1993, Undercover Blues, And the Band Played On,
1994, It Could Happen to You, Trapped in Paradise, Wolf,
1995, How to Make an American Quilt, The Indian in the Cupboard,
1996, Flirting with Disaster, A Couch in New York, The Boys Next Door, Eddie,
1997, Absolute Power,
1998, There’s Something About Mary, The Impostors,
1999, Random Hearts, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Mod Squad, Outside Providence, The Confession,
2000, What Planet Are You From?, Me, Myself & Irene,
2001, Say It Isn’t So, The Man Who Wasn’t There, One Night at McCool’s,
2002, Stealing Harvard, Changing Lanes, Sins of the Father,
2003, Cheaper by the Dozen, Intolerable Cruelty, The Core, The Mudge Boy,
2004, Shall We Dance, I ♥ Huckabees,
2005, Fun with Dick and Jane, Rumor Has It…, North Country,
2007, The Kingdom,
2008, The Visitor, The Broken, Step Brothers, Burn After Reading, The Tale of Despereaux,
2009, Waiting for Forever,
2010, Dear John, Eat Pray Love, Norman, Let Me In,
2011, Friends with Benefits, The Rum Diary, The Cabin in the Woods,