Richard Backus

Last updated
Richard Backus
Richard Backus Soldier's Home 1977.jpg
Richard Backus in a publicity photo for Soldier's Home , 1977
Born (1945-03-28) March 28, 1945 (age 79)
Occupation(s)Actor, writer
SpouseSharon Romeyko (m. 1985)

Richard Backus (born March 28, 1945) is an American actor and television writer. He has been nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for writing and one for acting. [1] [2]

Contents

Biography

Richard Backus was born in Goffstown, New Hampshire on March 28, 1945. He attended Harvard University. [3] He has been married to Sharon Romeyko since January 27, 1985. [4]

Acting career

Richard Backus made his Broadway theatre debut at the Booth Theatre in the original production of Butterflies Are Free . The production began in October 1969 with Backus cast as the understudy for Keir Dullea in the role of Don Baker. He was first appeared in the role, which we would later take over, in 1971. [3] [5]

Since then, he has appeared in several other Broadway productions, including Ah, Wilderness! , Camelot , and most recently You Never Can Tell . [5] Other venues at which Backus has appeared include the American Shakespeare Theatre, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. [3]

Backus has also acted in film and television. In the seventies, Backus was in Deathdream and portrayed scheming but well-meaning Jason Saxton on Lovers and Friends . He later replaced Eric Roberts in the role of Ted Bancroft on Another World . From 1980 through 1981, he portrayed Barry Ryan on the soap opera Ryan's Hope , [4] a performance for which he was nominated for the 1981 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role in a Daytime Drama Series. [2]

Writing career

Richard Backus has been a screenwriter since as early as 1989. He has worked on three television shows: As the World Turns , One Life to Live , and Days of Our Lives . As the World Turns and One Life to Live have each earned Backus two nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team. [2] The writing team behind One Life to Live was also nominated for the 2004 Writers Guild of America Award for Daytime Serials. [6]

Partial filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Alexander</span> American actor (born 1959)

Jay Scott Greenspan, known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor and comedian. Over the course of his career he has received an Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for four Golden Globe Awards. He gained stardom for his role as George Costanza in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series and was nominated for seven consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and four Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actor in Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Giamatti</span> American actor (born 1967)

Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globes, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Kline</span> American actor (born 1947)

Kevin Delaney Kline is an American actor. Kline is known for his over five decade career as a leading man on stage and screen. He is the recipient of an Academy Award and three Tony Awards, and has been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2003, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Lane</span> American actor (born 1956)

Nathan Lane is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been seen on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. Lane has received numerous awards, including three Tony Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards, the Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie Metcalf</span> American actress (born 1955)

Laura Elizabeth Metcalf is an American actress and comedian. Known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning more than four decades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judith Light</span> American actress (born 1949)

Judith Ellen Light is an American actress. She made her professional stage debut in 1970, before making her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of A Doll's House. Her breakthrough role was in the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live from 1977 to 1983, where she played the role of Karen Wolek; for this role, she won two consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1980 and 1981. In 2024, Light won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Poker Face.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockard Channing</span> American actress (born 1944)

Stockard Channing is an American actress. She played Betty Rizzo in the film Grease (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing (1999–2006). She also originated the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation; the 1993 film version earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She was also one of two comic foils of The Number Painter on Sesame Street.

Michael Frank Park is an American actor, best known for his roles as Jack Snyder on As the World Turns, Larry Murphy in the original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen (2016), and reporter Tom Holloway in the third season of the Netflix series Stranger Things (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Langella</span> American actor (born 1938)

Frank A. Langella Jr. is an American actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He eschewed the career of a traditional film star by making the stage the focal point of his career, appearing frequently on Broadway. He has received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, an Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Elise Goldsberry</span> American actress, singer (b. 1971)

Renée Elise Goldsberry is an American actress and singer known for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Nettie Harris in the original Broadway cast of The Color Purple, and Mimi Marquez in Rent. She has portrayed many roles on television, including Geneva Pine on The Good Wife, and Evangeline Williamson on One Life to Live, for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Since 2021, she has starred in the Netflix musical comedy Girls5eva. Also that year, she received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her performance in the Disney+ live stage recording of Hamilton, which was released in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Smart</span> American actress (born 1951)

Jean Elizabeth Smart is an American actress. She has received numerous accolades including five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, four Critics' Choice Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for a Tony Award and a Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Morse</span> American actor (1931–2022)

Robert Alan Morse was an American actor. Morse, known for his gap-toothed boyishness, started his career as a star on Broadway acting in musicals and plays before expanding into film and television. He earned numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Thomas J. Pelphrey is an American actor. He is known for playing the roles of Jonathan Randall on the CBS television series Guiding Light, Mick Dante on the CBS television series As the World Turns, Kurt Bunker on the Cinemax television series Banshee, Ward Meachum on the Netflix series Iron Fist, Ben Davis on the Netflix series Ozark, Perry Abbott on the Prime Video series Outer Range, Don Crowder on the Max limited series Love & Death, Joe Mankiewicz in David Fincher's film Mank, and Jason Derek Brown in the true crime film American Murderer. For his performance on Ozark, Pelphrey received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Conroy</span> American actress

Frances Hardman Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth Fisher on the television series Six Feet Under (2001–2005), for which she won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and received four Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for playing the older version of Moira O'Hara in season one of the television anthology series American Horror Story, which garnered Conroy her first Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television nomination, and as well a Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Conroy subsequently portrayed The Angel of Death, Myrtle Snow, Gloria Mott, Mama Polk, Bebe Babbitt, and Belle Noir on seven further seasons of the show: Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse, and Double Feature, respectively. Conroy is the fourth actor who has appeared in most seasons of the show. For her performance in Coven, she was nominated again for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Nouri</span> American actor (b. 1945)

Michael Nouri is an American screen and stage actor. He is best known for his television roles, including Dr. Neil Roberts on The O.C., Phil Grey on Damages, Caleb Cortlandt on All My Children, Eli David in NCIS, and Bob Schwartz on Yellowstone. He is also known for his starring roles in the films Flashdance (1983) and The Hidden (1987), and has appeared in several Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including the original production of Victor/Victoria. He is a Saturn Award and Daytime Emmy Award nominee.

Lonny Price is an American director, actor, and writer, primarily in theatre. He is best known for his New York directing work, including Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, Company, and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his creation of the role of Charley Kringas in the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along, Neil Kellerman in Dirty Dancing, and Ronnie Crawford in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lois Smith</span> American actress

Lois Arlene Smith is an American character actress whose career spans eight decades. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film East of Eden, and later played supporting roles in a number of movies, including Five Easy Pieces (1970), Resurrection (1980), Fatal Attraction (1987), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Falling Down (1993), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Dead Man Walking (1995), Twister (1996), Minority Report (2002), The Nice Guys (2016), Lady Bird (2017), and The French Dispatch (2021).

Franc Luz is an American actor of stage, film, and television seen in popular leading dramatic film roles in the 1980s and 1990s. These credits were supplemented with TV guest appearances and several regular roles in TV series. Luz is perhaps best known for his parts in The Nest, Ghost Town, When Harry Met Sally..., and, to Star Trek fans, as the symbiont Odan in a 1991 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the season 4 episode "The Host".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Friedman</span> American actor (born 1949)

Peter Friedman is an American stage, film, and television actor. He made his Broadway debut in the Eugene O'Neill play The Great God Brown in 1972. His other Broadway credits include roles in The Rules of the Game (1974), Piaf (1981), The Heidi Chronicles (1989), and Twelve Angry Men (2004). He earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nomination for his role as Tateh in Ragtime (1998).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Fryman</span> American television producer and director (born 1959)

Pamela Gail Fryman is an American sitcom director and producer. She directed all but twelve episodes of the television series How I Met Your Mother.

References

  1. New York Times
  2. 1 2 3 "Richard Backus - Awards". imdb.com. 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  3. 1 2 3 Ian Herbert, ed. (1981). "BACKUS, Richard". Who's Who in the Theatre. Vol. 1. Gale Research Company. p. 33. ISSN   0083-9833.
  4. 1 2 Richard Backus at IMDb
  5. 1 2 Richard Backus at the Internet Broadway Database
  6. "2004 WGA Award Nominees; 2004 Producers Guild Award Winners". The Futon Critic. 2004-01-20. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
Preceded by Head Writer of As the World Turns (with Juliet Law Packer)
March 1993-January 1994
Succeeded by