Peter Gallagher

One of America's most respected actors, Peter Gallagher has starred on stage, television and in film, delivering stellar performances with every role he tackles.

Gallagher, who grew up in Armonk, New York, developed an interest for acting as a teenager starring in school plays and musicals. After graduating from Tufts University, he made his professional stage debut in the 1977 revival of Hair, followed by a starring role in the Broadway production Grease.

Peter Gallagher appeared on Broadway with Glenn Close in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, but first achieved fame for his role in Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). Peter Gallagher also starred as Sky Masterson in the 1992 Broadway Revival of Guys and Dolls.

Peter Gallagher played a potential career threat to Tim Robbins's studio executive in The Player (1992); the comatose "fianc" of Sandra Bullock in While You Were Sleeping (1995); an egotistical real estate salesman having an affair with Annette Bening in American Beauty (1999); a villainous media executive in Mr. Deeds (2002); and a political reporter exposing media ethics during a presidential debate in The Last Debate.

From 2003 to 2007, Peter Gallagher starred as Sandy Cohen, a Jewish public defender and corporate lawyer, on the Fox television show The O.C., a show which has introduced him to a whole new generation of TV viewers. Peter Gallagher hosts an annual award ceremony named "The Sandy Cohen Awards" or The Sandys, which, in honor of his character on The O.C., gives a scholarship to a law school student at UC Berkeley who wants to become a public defender.

Peter Gallagher released an album entitled 7 Days in Memphis in 2005, on the Sony BMG label. This includes a studio recording of his performance of "Don't Give Up On Me" (originally by Solomon Burke), which was featured in an episode of The O.C. Peter Gallagher also has a video for his single "Still I Long For Your Kiss", in which he starred with his TV-wife Kelly Rowan. Peter Gallagher is also a keen video gamer. Peter Gallagher has completed the "Career Mode" in Top Spin for the Xbox and is known to anonymously enter online competitions.

On April 5, 2007, Peter Gallagher received the Light on the Hill award at Tufts University. The award is given to notable alumni from Tufts who have demonstrated ambition, achievement, and active citizenship. Peter Gallagher sang with the Beelzebubs and gave a speech to a full crowd in Cohen Auditorium.

As of March 2015, Gallagher is co-starring on Broadway in On the Twentieth Century.