Biography
A native of rural Humboldt, Iowa, character actor Christian Clemenson left his home state when a scholarship that he netted as part of his paperboy route afforded him the opportunity to attend the prestigious Phillips Academy preparatory school in Andover, Massachusetts. That experience imparted Clemenson with a deep-seated love of theatrics, and he spent his Iowan summers during college acting in local stage productions. The upstart subsequently attended Harvard as an undergraduate and Yale Drama School as a grad student, then moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, where he accepted a long series of bit parts and supporting roles in A-list features, typically cast as nebbishy professional types. Early films in which Clemenson appeared included
Heartburn (1986),
Legal Eagles (1986),
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and
Broadcast News (1987). Beginning in the late 1990s, Clemenson began placing a stronger emphasis on television work, with guest roles in series including
Ally McBeal, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer,
The West Wing and NYPD: Blue. He received critical kudos for his portrayal of ill-fated executive Thomas E. Burnett, Jr., a victim of the September 11th terrorist attacks, in
Paul Greengrass's feature
United 93 (2006), then joined
William Shatner,
Candice Bergen and
James Spader as one of the principals in season four of David E. Kelley's offbeat seriocomedy
Boston Legal; on the program, Clemenson played Jerry "Hands" Espenson, a troubled lawyer plagued by Asperger's Syndrome and Tourette's. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide