James Spader (born February 7, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an actor best known for his eccentric roles in movies such as sex, lies, and videotape (for which he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival), Stargate, and Secretary.
Spader attended Brooks School in Andover, Massachusetts where his father, David Spader, taught. The family lived on campus, and Spader is one of the school's most famous alumni. Afterwards he attended Phillips Academy, but he dropped out in the eleventh grade to pursue acting in New York City.
He met his wife, Victoria, while working in a yoga studio soon after he moved to New York in the early 80's. She often traveled with him, either on location or just on the road. They were married in 1987 and had two sons. They were divorced in 2004.
Known for his mastery of the smarmy, sexually deviant yuppie, Spader got his start in Pretty in Pink. He was also the lead of the mostly-new cast which creator David E. Kelley put in place in 2003 for ABC's The Practice (for which he won an Emmy Award) and was given the lead in that show's spin-off, Boston Legal for which he won an Emmy in 2005 and thus became one of the few actors to win consecutive Emmys for playing the same character in two different series, (another being co-star William Shatner).
Offbeat and private, Spader has always narrowly avoided mainstream success, but he is widely acclaimed as one of the most talented, albeit unwilling, actors of his generation.
Stargate (1994)
