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The Nominees: David Strathairn
Lead Actor Nominees
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Play CBS Video Video Staithairn As Murrow In a scene from "Good Night, And Good Luck," David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow goes on the air with a report about a U.S. military man whose career may have been ruined by anti-communist hysteria.
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Video 'Good Night, And Good Luck' Trailer for Academy Award nominated movie "Good Night, And Good Luck."
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This publicity photo released by Warner Bros. shows actor David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow in a scene from "Good Night, and Good Luck." (AP)
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Actors George Clooney, left, and David Strathairn participate in a Q&A at the Variety Screening Series of "Good Night And Good Luck" on Dec. 12, 2005, in Hollywood (GETTY IMAGES/Amanda Edwards)
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Actor David Strathairn attends the fifth season premiere of "The Sopranos" at Radio City Music Hall on March 2, 2004, in New York City. (GETTY IMAGES/Peter Kramer)
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Photo Essay The Character Actor At last, fame and Oscar catch up with David Strathairn
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Interactive Real To Reel Seen the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck"? Now see the real deal. Here's history and Hollywood side by side.
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Interactive 'Good Night, And Good Luck' History and Hollywood make fireworks in a movie with many echoes of 21st century issues.
You might have seen David Strathairn as many as 25 years ago when he was in "Return of the Secaucus Seven." That marked the beginning of his movie career and also the beginning of his professional association with director John Sayles. (They went to Williams College together.)
In all, he has been in eight of Sayles' movies, including 1988's "Eight Men Out," in which he played pitcher Eddie Cicotte, and 1992's "Passion Fish," in which he played the romantic lead.
His other movie credits include Patchett the pimp in "L.A. Confidential" (1997), Tom Cruise's brother in "The Firm" (1993), and Meryl Streep's husband in "The River Wild" (1994). Under the direction of the late Christopher Reeve, he played the father of an AIDS-stricken son in the HBO movie "In the Gloaming" (1997).
If you were a fan of the old TV series "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd," you saw him in a recurring role as Moss Goodman, the guy who sold books.
More from CBSNews.com on David Strathairn and on the Oscars ...
Strathairn, 57, also appeared on Broadway in "Dance of Death" with Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren (2001-2002) and in "Salome" with Al Pacino and Marisa Tomei (2003). Earlier, in 1997, he shared a stage with Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Calista Flockhart and Lili Taylor in a revival of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters."
And a bit of trivia: He studied at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and followed it up by working as a circus clown for six months.
Strathairn lives in upstate New York with his wife, Logan. They have two sons.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
