Craig T Nelson

Early life

Nelson was born in Spokane, Washington, the son of Vera Margaret (nee Spindler), a dancer, and Armand Gilbert Nelson, a businessman. Nelson has a brown belt in karate. In high school, Nelson was the quarterback of the football team and also played baseball. He attended Central Washington University studying criminology as he wanted to work for the CIA. He dropped out and went to Yakima Valley Community College to study English literature, but he dropped out again. He spent a semester abroad studying communications at Northfielde Universitat Herisau in Switzerland. He eventually received a drama scholarship to the University of Arizona. Nelson did summer stock theatre in Cripple Creek, Colorado. He then moved to the west, where he worked as a security guard at a soap factory in the day and took acting classes at night.

Career

Nelson began his show business career as a comedian. He was an early member of The Groundlings comedy troupe. Nelson, Barry Levinson, and Rudy De Luca formed their own comedy team and were regular performers at The Comedy Store. In 1973, Nelson left the comedy world, explaining "the standup comedy life was pretty unfulfilling for me" and he settled in Mount Shasta where there was no electricity and no running water; "it was contentment, The Waltons, he said. Nelson had different jobs during that time including janitor, plumber, carpenter, surveyor, and teacher. He returned to acting five years later.

He was featured as a prosecuting attorney who opposes Al Pacino in the 1979 film ...And Justice for All, co-written by Levinson. In 1983, Nelson appeared in Silkwood, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep, as the high school football coach of Tom Cruise in the drama All the Right Moves and as one of the stars of director Sam Peckinpah's final film, The Osterman Weekend.

He has appeared in many other motion pictures (most notably the Poltergeist series) and had featured roles in five television shows (Coach, Call to Glory, The District, My Name Is Earl, and Parenthood). Coach ran from 1989 to 1997, with Nelson starring as college football coach Hayden Fox.

He voiced Mr. Incredible in the 2004 animated film The Incredibles. He then reprised the role again in the video game, Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure and Disney Infinity.

During the early 1990s, he made a guest appearance in the music video for country singer Garth Brooks's song "We Shall Be Free". Nelson made a three-episode guest appearance on CSI: NY as a "nemesis" to Gary Sinise’s Taylor.

His most recent films include 2009's The Proposal as Ryan Reynolds' skeptical father and 2010's The Company Men as a greedy CEO. From 2010 to 2015, he has starred in the television show Parenthood as Zeek Braverman, the family patriarch.

Personal life

Nelson stated in an interview with Glenn Beck that he had been on welfare and collected food stamps. "I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No."

Nelson has three children from his previous marriage to Robin McCarthy: Tiffany, Chris and Noah. Chris is a science fiction writer. Noah is also a writer; he wrote for The District and CSI: NY. Noah was married to actress Ashley Jones in 2003. The couple divorced in 2009.

His second wife Doria Cook-Nelson is a freelance writer, president of a martial arts association, karate instructor and tai chi teacher who had a featured role in the movie musical Mame.

Nelson is a motorsports fan and an avid racer. He first participated in the 1991 Toyota Celebrity Long Beach Grand Prix and finished third. In 1994, Craig founded Screaming Eagles Racing with John Christie and entered and drove a Toyota-engined Spice SE90 in the IMSA 1994 WSC, a Lexus-engined Spice SE90 in 1995 and a Ford-engined Riley & Scott MkIII in the 1996 and 1997 championships.