Richard Jenkins was born on May 4, 1947 in DeKalb, Illinois, USA. He is an actor, known for Jack Reacher (2012), La cabaña en el bosque (2012) and The Visitor (2007). He has been married to Sharon R. Friedrick since August 23, 1969. They have two children...
Spouse
| Sharon R. Friedrick | (23 August 1969 - present) (2 children) |
Trivia
Frequently works with the Farrelly Brothers and the Coen Brothers.
Served as an artistic director of Rhode Island's Trinity Repertory Theater.
Studied theater at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Has a son and daughter with wife, Sharon.
A member of the Trinity Repertory Company in Rhode Island for
fifteen years, he appeared in such 1970s and 1980s Trinity Repertory
productions as "Brother to Dragons," "Of Mice and Men," "True West,"
"American Buffalo" and "Waiting for Godot"; directed such later
productions as "Tartuffe," "The Glass Menagerie", "The Miser" and
Shekspeare's "Macbeth" and "Twelfth Night"; and was the company's
artistic director for four years.
Parents: Dale Stevens and M. Elizabeth Wheeler Jenkins.
One of several Rhode Island residents who have made films for the
Farrelly Brothers. In four of their pictures, Richard even bought a
house down the street from the brothers' childhood home in Cumberland,
Rhode Island.
He has two grown-up children, Sarah Pamela and Andrew Dale, from his long-time marriage to wife Sharon.
He attended school with Larry Shue and worked with James Pickering,
according to an interview of February 20, 2009. Pickering acted as the
Nerd in Shue's famous play, "The Nerd," adapted as "Laus im Pelz
(1987)".
Was considered for the role of Dr.David Morgenstern on Urgencias (1994).
He worked as a summer truck driver for the father of actor John C. Reilly in Illinois. Jenkins coincidentally met Reilly when the latter was four years old. The two later worked together in Hermanos por pelotas (2008).
He has Welsh, English, and German ancestry.
Personal Quotes
(In response to his first starring film role in The Visitor
(2007)) I would say 'I'll go back to my trailer now', and they'd say,
'No, no, you're in the next scene. It's one of those things that I
didn't know if I would ever get an opportunity to try. I've been waiting
my entire professional life for this experience.
(On filming Witches of Eastwick) My first really nice part after
Silverado. And my first day of shooting, they wouldn't let me on the
set, cause they didn't believe I was in it. We were shooting in
Massachusetts, and I drove up from my house, and I didn't have any ID on
me or anything. I just drove up to the gate, and said "I'm here to
shoot the movie." The guy said "Who are you?" I said "I'm an actor," and
he said "Yeah, you and everyone else in town." I said "No, no, I'm an
actor." And one of the grips or crew guys was walking by, and the guard
asked "Hey, do you know who this guy is?" And the guy looked at me and
said "Never seen 'em before." Finally I got an assistant to say "Yeah,
yeah, he's in the movie." You think it's hard getting into movie sets?
It is.
(On working with the Coens brothers) Well, I audition for them,
for every movie. Raising Arizona was the first one. I auditioned for
Miller's Crossing, and my agent called me up and said "I've got great
news, it's between you and Albert Finney." I said "Oh really, that's
great. Who would you choose?" And of course, Albert Finney was
wonderful. I wanted Fargo, that's the one I wanted so badly. And when I
saw it, and I saw William Macy in the part, I said "Oh, no wonder. He's
incredible." But I stopped going in to audition. I'd say "No, they're
not going to cast me anyway." And then they called me up and asked me to
do The Man Who Wasn't There. And I said "So the only way to get a part
in your movie is not to come in and audition?"
I was at a real funeral once, around the time I was doing Six Feet
Under, when a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked "Are they
filming this?" It was one of those things where you're thinking "Is she
kidding, is she not kidding?" She wasn't. That was jaw-dropping.
(On his role in the 1985 film Silverado) I auditioned for this
really great part, and I remember my manager called me up and said "You
got it! You're Kelly." And I said "Who?" "Kelly." I searched through the
script, and I was in two scenes. I said "Howdy" in the first scene, and
in the second scene, I said "You can't do that," and they shot me. And I
was on the set for seven weeks. It was a cover set, which means if they
couldn't work outside with it snowing or bad weather, they would move
inside and do that scene they were saving for bad weather, so I couldn't
go anywhere. I was hanging out in the Hilton Hotel in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and everybody else was working on the movie.
