Martin Donovan plays Bill Truitt, a mild-mannered school teacher who has his life turned upside down with the arrival of Dedee, his much-younger half-sister.
Donovan recently was featured in The Portrait of a Lady, directed by Jane Campion. His portrayal of Ralph Touchett, Nicole Kidman's doomed cousin and admirer, earned him the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor. He followed that up with another widely praised role in Angela Pope's controversial Hollow Reed, in which he starred opposite Ian Hart and Joely Richardson.
Donovan recently completed production on two upcoming films: Scott Reynolds' Heaven, with Joanna Going and Richard Schiff, and Richard LaGravenese's The Kiss, opposite Holly Hunter.
His other film credits include Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee; John Flynn's Scam with Christopher Walken; and Michael Almereyda's droll vampire saga Nadja.
Donovan has enjoyed a long association with celebrated director Hal Hartley. Most recently the two teamed up on Amateur, for which he received the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival's Best Actor Award. He also co-starred with Adrienne Shell, in the award-winning Trust; played the lead in the short Surviving Desire; appeared in a supporting role in Simple Men and appeared in the first segment of Flirt.
Originally from Reseda, California, Donovan studied acting at the American Theater of Arts in Los Angeles where he appeared in such plays as Richard Cork's Leg by Brendan Behan and Brecht's Private Life of the Master Race. He moved to New York in 1983, and appeared in the mini-series At Mother's Request, Legwork and At King's Crossing.
Until 1994, he was a member of the Cucaracha Theater in New York, where he has appeared in over half a dozen new works, most notably Richard Caliban's Famine Plays and Homo Sapien Shuffle.
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