Biography
A veteran of Chicago's free-form Organic Theatre, the boyish, personable John Heard won the Theatre World Award for his performance in the 1976 play
Streamers, and two years later was the recipient of the Obie Award for two separate off-Broadway productions. He made his film bow as the harried correspondent for an underground newspaper in
Joan Micklin Silver's
Between the Lines. In Silver's 1979
Head Over Heels, Heard again received top billing, this time as the obsessive ex-lover of
Mary Beth Hurt. One of his first "mainstream" leading roles was in
Paul Schrader's erotic thriller
Cat People (1981). Heard was agreeable, if a little bullheaded, as
Macaulay Culkin's dad in the two
Home Alone films; less agreeable was his portrayal of
Tom Hanks' abrasive business rival in
Big (1988) On television, Heard was seen as the tormented Reverend Dimmesdale opposite
Meg Foster's Hester Prynne in the PBS production of
The Scarlet Letter, and was heard as one of the celebrity voices on the made-for-cable Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam (1987). John Heard was at one time married to actress
Margot Kidder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide