Martin Donovan

Early life

Donovan was born Martin Paul Smith in Reseda, California, to Roman Catholic middle-class parents, Gayne Paul Smith and Agnes Mary Regan. He and his three siblings were raised Catholic.

He graduated from Crespi Carmelite High School and attended Pierce College for two years. He attended American Theater Arts, a combined conservatory and theater company in Los Angeles, where he appeared in the plays Richard's Cork Leg by Brendan Behan and Private Life of the Master Race by Bertold Brecht. In 1983, he and his wife, Vivian, moved to New York City, where he took odd jobs like installing drapery to support his family. He joined the off-off-Broadway Cucaracha Theater on Greenwich Street.

Career

Donovan has appeared in fourteen episodes of the Showtime television series Weeds, which stars Mary-Louise Parker, for which he was nominated for a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by An Ensemble in a Comedy Series. He has also acted with Parker in Saved!, Pipe Dream and The Portrait of A Lady. In The Portrait of A Lady, he won the National Society of Film Critics' Award for best supporting actor.

In 2009, he starred opposite Virginia Madsen in The Haunting in Connecticut. Recently he was seen in The Sentinel with Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Douglas as well as The Quiet with Edie Falco. In 2007 he appeared in the suspense horror film Wind Chill. Other recent film appearances include The United States of Leland, The Opposite of Sex, Living Out Loud, In a Savage Land, Hollow Reed, Onegin, and Nadja.

Donovan had a long association with celebrated director Hal Hartley, starring in several of his films including Amateur which was selected for both the Cannes and New York Film Festivals. Other Hartley collaborations are Simple Men, which was also an official Cannes selection; Trust, Surviving Desire, Flirt and The Book of Life, which was shown at the New York Film Festival. Donovan starred in Shadows and Lies. As well as Hal Hartley, Donovan has also appeared in films directed by Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Donovan made his television series début in Peter Berg's Wonderland. His recent TV credits include Masters of Horror (episode "Right to Die"); the FX telefilm RFK and the Fox series Pasadena. Other television credits are The Great Gatsby, and HBO's When Trumpets Fade. In 2011 he took a major role in the Starz original drama series Boss. In 2014 he starred in the Lifetime post-apocalyptic series The Lottery.

Writing/directing

In 2010, Donovan wrote, directed and starred in Collaborator, portraying a once-successful playwright who is taken hostage while visiting his mother and childhood home.

Personal life

Donovan married actress Vivian Lanko in 1984; they have two sons. They lived in New York City for many years before relocating to Vancouver, Canada.