Biography
Thanks in large part to the independent film movement of the late '80s, the boyishly handsome James LeGros went from being an underrated bit player in Hollywood schlock to a well-respected character actor. A Minnesota native, LeGros found steady work when he migrated to Los Angeles after college in the early '80s, popping up as a guest star in such TV series as
Knight Rider, and in
Danny DeVito's directorial debut, the made-for-cable satire The Ratings Game (a.k.a.
The Mogul). Sci-fi made up the bulk of LeGros' early feature-film roles, including the dreadful post-apocalyptic teen flop
Solarbabies (1986) and the thriller sequel
Phantasm II (1988).
It was director
Gus Van Sant who afforded LeGros the opportunity to show his skills with a meaty supporting role in 1989's much-acclaimed
Drugstore Cowboy. As part of a quartet of drifters stealing their way across the Pacific Northwest, the actor held his own against the iconic
Matt Dillon as well as newcomer
Heather Graham. More challenging parts followed in the early '90s, including the psychological drama
The Rapture (1991),
Cameron Crowe's ensemble romantic comedy
Singles (1992), and a pair of firearm-obsessed indies,
Guncrazy and
My New Gun (also 1992). Pairing with director
Todd Haynes for his 1995 sophomore feature
Safe, LeGros garnered more acclaim as a confidante/romantic interest for the mysteriously ailing character played by
Julianne Moore. That same year, he hilariously sent up a narcissistic Hollywood actor -- not-so-secretly based on
Brad Pitt -- in director
Tom DiCillo's satire on the perils of indie filmmaking,
Living in Oblivion.
As the millennium drew to a close, LeGros would re-team with Moore in the ensemble dramedy
The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), playing an eccentric New England townie who has a crush on Moore's icy, cosmopolitan yuppie. With the film, LeGros began a long-standing collaboration with the film's writer-director -- and Moore's real-life beau -- Bart Freundlich, who would go on to cast LeGros in his subsequent films, including the road movie
World Traveler (2001), the family film
Catch That Kid (2003), and the screwball relationship comedy
Trust the Man (2006).
In the intervening years, LeGros made a successful return to the medium that gave him his first break: television. He was exposed to perhaps his widest audience to date in 1998 on the venerable medical drama
ER, and then on the popular series
Ally McBeal, in 2000 and 2001. A starring role on Showtime's gritty, controversial terrorist drama
Sleeper Cell followed in 2005. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide