William Hall Macy, Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an
Academy Award-nominated, double
Emmy- and
Screen Actors Guild Award-winning American actor. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small,
independent films, though he has appeared in summer action films as well.
[Abele, Robert; Interview with William H. Macy; Maxim magazine; July 2001; Page 84.] Macy has described his screen persona as "sort of a
Middle American,
WASPy,
Lutheran kind of guy... Everyman".
[Reel.com: William H. Macy]
Biography
Early life
Macy was born in
Miami,
Florida, and grew up in
Georgia and
Maryland. His father, William Hall Macy, Sr., was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross and an
Air Medal for flying a
B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in
World War II; he later ran a construction company in
Atlanta and worked for
Dun & Bradstreet before taking over a
Cumberland, Maryland-based insurance agency when Macy was nine years old. His mother, Lois, was a war widow who met Macy's father after her first husband died in 1943; Macy has described her as a "
Southern belle".
[William H. Macy Biography - Yahoo! Movies][William H. Macy Biography (1950-)] Macy has a half-brother, Fred Merrill, from his mother's first marriage.