Oliver Platt (born January 12, 1960) is an American character actor known for his work stage and screen. He has been nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award.
Platt made his acting debut in the 1988 film Married to the Mob. He gained prominence for his roles in The Impostors (1998), Pieces of April (2003), The Ice Harvest (2005), Casanova (2005), Frost/Nixon (2008), and Please Give (2010). His other notable roles include Working Girl (1988), Flatliners (1990), Beethoven (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), A Time to Kill (1996), Bulworth, Dr. Dolittle (both 1998), Ready To Rumble (2000), Kinsey (2004), 2012 (2009), Love & Other Drugs (2010), X-Men: First Class (2011), Ginger and Rosa (2013), and Rules Don't Apply (2016).
Platt is known for his recurring roles in television series such as The Big C, Fargo, and The Good Wife. He received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his roles in The West Wing in 2001, Huff in 2005 and 2006, and Nip/Tuck in 2008. He portrayed George Steinbrenner in the series The Bronx Is Burning (2007). He is also known for his recurring role as Uncle Jimmy in the Hulu series The Bear (2022–present).
Platt made his Broadway debut in the Conor McPherson play Shining City (2006) for which he earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination. He returned to Broadway portraying Nathan Detroit in the 2009 revival of the Frank Loesser musical Guys and Dolls.
Family and early life
Family
Platt was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, to American parents Sheila Maynard, a clinical social worker, and Nicholas Platt, a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Zambia, and the Philippines. His older brother, Adam Platt, is a New York magazine restaurant critic. They returned to the United States when Platt was three months old.
Platt's paternal great-grandfather was artist and architect Charles A. Platt, and his maternal great-grandparents were equestrian Arthur Scott Burden (of the industrialist Burden family) and socialite Cynthia Roche. Platt is also a great-great-grandson of General Robert Shaw Oliver (through his mother).
Platt's paternal great great-grandfather was diplomat and lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate. Choate was the most successful lawyer in New York City during the Gilded Age and was later appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom by President William McKinley. His brother William Gardner Choate, who was also a prominent lawyer and federal judge, created Choate Rosemary Hall.
Early life
Because of his father's career as a foreign service officer, much of Platt's childhood was spent in Asia and Washington, D.C. Platt attended twelve different schools, including the American School in Japan, and has said "Even now I find myself envying people who have neighborhoods and roots." Platt's family made frequent trips back to Washington, where they held Redskins season tickets. Platt is also a fan of the Boston Red Sox.
When he was nine years old, Platt and his family visited the Kennedy Center in Washington, where he watched a performance that helped inspire his acting career. "One of the performances that really made me want to be an actor started out with this probably 20-minute rambling, drunken monologue by this bum. And it was a young Morgan Freeman. I'll never forget it. This guy was just so riveting. He stood there on stage alone before the curtain went up, and he held this audience utterly rapt. Including myself, obviously." According to Platt, drama departments gave his childhood some stability, "It was something of a survival mechanism, in that it gave me a little subculture to plug into wherever I ended up. Kids need that. I certainly did."
Education
Platt attended a progressive boarding school named Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado.