Keith Gordon

Life and career

Gordon was born in New York City, the son of Mark, an actor and stage director, and Barbara Gordon. He grew up in an atheist Jewish family. Gordon was inspired to become an actor at the age of twelve, after seeing James Earl Jones in a Broadway production of Of Mice and Men. As an actor, Gordon's first feature film was in the 1978 sequel film Jaws 2, as the class clown Doug, then his 1979 turn as the young protagonist Joe Gideon in All That Jazz. His film credits include the 1980 erotic thriller Dressed to Kill, the 1983 horror film Christine (in the role of Arnie Cunningham, the teen who buys Christine and falls under the car's influence), the 1985 cult film The Legend of Billie Jean as Lloyd Muldaur, the son of a District Attorney who aspires to be Attorney General, the 1986 Mark Romanek classic Static (for which he wrote the screenplay), and the 1986 comedy movie Back to School, as Jason Melon. In most of these films, he played a nerd. He was named number 1 in Cinematicals' Top 7 Most Convincing Nerds. His most recent onscreen film appearance was in 2001, in the movie Delivering Milo.

Gordon left acting for directing, making his debut in 1988 with the movie The Chocolate War, about a student who rebels against the rigid hierarchies in his Catholic school. His other films include the 1992 anti-war film A Midnight Clear, about a group of American soldiers in the Ardennes just before and during the Battle of the Bulge, as well as Mother Night (adapted from the novel by Kurt Vonnegut), Waking the Dead, and the film The Singing Detective. He also directed some of the mini-series Wild Palms and appeared in the 2006 Iraq War documentary Whose War?. His directing credits for television include Homicide: Life on the Street, Gideon's Crossing, Dexter, The Bridge, House and the second and third seasons of Fargo.

Award nominations