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Peter Gallagher: Steven Soderbergh
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Peter Killian Gallagher was born on August 19, 1955 in New York. He has appeared on Broadway, but first achieved fame for his role in Steven Soderbergh's "sex, lies, and videotape". He hosts an annual award ceremony named "The Sandy Cohen Awards" after his character on The O.C. that gives a scholarship to a law school student at UC Berkeley who wants to become a public defender. He currently stars as Sandy Cohen on The O.C., a public defender and corporate lawyer. Sandy Cohen is a public defender and corporate lawyer who is the husband of Kirsten and father of Seth Cohen. He takes in Ryan Atwood, a troubled teen, and later adopts him after his own mother abandoned him.
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Peter Killian Gallagher (born August 19 , 1955 in Armonk, New York ) is an American actor of Irish Catholic descent, first becoming famous for his role in Steven Soderbergh 's Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). He currently stars as the pater familias Sandy Cohen , a public defender and corporate lawyer, on the Fox television show The O.C. . He has recently become quite well-known, as his trademark is his large bushy eyebrows. He now hosts an annual award ceremony named "The Sandy Cohen Awards", or The Sandys , which in honor of his character now give a scholarship to a law school student at UC Berkeley who wants to become a public defender .
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Gallagher made his film debut as a Fabian-like singer in "The Idolmaker" (1980) and followed with Randal Kleiser's menage-a-trois romance "Summer Lovers" (1981). He began to play ne'er-do-wells in "Dreamchild" (1985), cast as a reporter who hustles the elderly inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice and his breakthrough came as the arrogant, adulterous yuppie lawyer in Steven Soderbergh's "sex, lies and videotape" (1989). Gallagher displayed his aptitude for comedy as aggressive Hollywood executive Larry Levy in Robert Altman's "The Player" and a vacuous news anchor in Tim Robbins' "Bob Roberts" (both 1992) before returning to presumptuous lawyer mode with a supporting role in Harold Becker's thriller, "Malice" (1993). Altman featured him in "Short Cuts" (... 1993) as a helicopter pilot who extracts revenge on his cheating wife. The actor has remained a fixture in films, alternating between supporting roles in mainstream fare (e.g., the comatose yuppie in 1995's "While You Were Sleeping", the arrogant attorney in 1996's "Last Dance") and leads in smaller, independent features (especially Soderbergh's underrated 1995 noir thriller "The Underneath" and 1996's "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday").
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Having enjoyed extensive film work with directors/producers/writers Robert Altman and Steven Soderbergh, Gallagher was featured in Altman’s highly acclaimed film, “The Player,” followed by “Short Cuts” and “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” features that were directed and produced respectively by Mr. Altman. Gallagher first teamed with Soderbergh on the 1989 feature, “sex, lies and videotape” earning him international critical acclaim. Six years later, Soderbergh expressly wrote the lead role in “The Underneath” for Gallagher. He will be seen this summer in New Line Cinema’s “How To Deal,” starring as Mandy Moore’s somewhat eccentric disc jockey father.
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A striking actor with raven hair and piercing blue-green eyes, Gallagher has worked extensively on stage and screen. After appearing in the original Broadway production of Grease in the '70s, Gallagher segued into TV and film projects in the '80s, usually playing leads on the small screen and supporting parts on the big one. His convincing turn as a cheating yuppie in the Steven Soderbergh film Sex, Lies, and Videotape led to roles in high-profile projects such as Robert Altman's The Player and Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts. His career chugged along at a respectable pace until a part as a California patriarch on the hit prime-time soap The O.C. kicked it into overdrive in 2003.
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On the small screen, Gallagher has generally been associated with quality productions debuting as Karl Malden's medical student son in the TV-movie and short-lived spin-off series "Skag" (NBC, 1980). Other notable roles include a supporting role to Art Carney and James Cagney in "Terrible Joe Moran" (CBS, 1984), the accused murderer Leo Frank in "The Murder of Mary Phagan" (NBC, 1988), as one of the navy officers in Altman's TV remake of "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" (CBS, 1988), and as the prime suspect in a murder case who is romanced by a female undercover cop (Mare Winningham) in the superior "True Betrayal" (ABC, 1990). In 1993, Gallagher was featured in two short films made for the Showtime network's "Fallen Angels" anthology series: Tom Cruise's "The Frightening Frammis" and Steven Soderbergh's "The Quiet Room". He ... scored as an ambitious advertising executive with a conscience in the drama "White Mile" (HBO, 1994). More recently, he co-starred as a fictitious passenger on the doomed liner in the CBS miniseries "Titanic" (1996), an overworked FBI agent investigating a terrorist incident in "Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing" (HBO, 1997) and was featured in the NBC remake of "Brave New World" (1998).
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