Michael Stuhlbarg

Personal life and education

Stuhlbarg was born in Long Beach, California, the son of Susan and Mort Stuhlbarg, a philanthropist. He was raised as a Reform Jew. Stuhlbarg trained at The Juilliard School in New York City, where he was a member of the Drama Division's Group 21 (1988–1992). He graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1992.

Stuhlbarg also studied acting at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Vilnius Conservatory in Lithuania, the British American Drama Academy at Oxford, and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain at the University of London. He also studied mime with Marcel Marceau. Stuhlbarg is married to Mai-Linh Lofgren.

Career

Stuhlbarg appeared in several stage productions, including award-winning performances in Old Wicked Songs in 1996, Long Day's Journey into Night in 1997, and The Pillowman in 2005 (for which he won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play and received his first Tony Award nomination). He has appeared in a number of television shows, including Law & Order, Ugly Betty, The American Experience and Fargo.

His film credits began with a handful of minor roles, including playing a lawyer in Body of Lies and a hedge fund consultant in Cold Souls.

He was then cast in the starring role of the Coen brothers' 2009 dark comedy A Serious Man, in which he portrayed the troubled 1960s university professor Larry Gopnik. His role as Gopnik was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Starting in 2010, Stuhlbarg portrayed organized crime boss Arnold Rothstein in a major role in the first four seasons of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

Stuhlbarg starred in an adaptation of André Aciman's novel Call Me by Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Filming began in May 2016, and the movie premiered at Sundance in 2017.