Eric Roberts

Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor and the older brother of actress Julia Roberts. His career began with a leading role in King of the Gypsies (1978) for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He was nominated again at the Golden Globes for his acclaimed role as Paul Snider in Bob Fosse's Star 80 (1983). Roberts' performance in Runaway Train (1985), as prison escapee Buck McGeehy, earned him a third Golden Globe nod and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In a career spanning over 40 years Roberts has amassed more than 700 credits, Roberts has appeared in blockbusters, independent films, television series, animation, short films and student films. Notable films he has appeared in include Raggedy Man (1981), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Final Analysis (1992), The Specialist (1994), The Cable Guy (1995), Cecil B. Demented (2000), National Security (2003), A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), The Expendables (2010), Lovelace (2013), Inherent Vice (2014), The Human Centipede 3 (2015), and Babylon (2022). His varied television work includes being the only non-UK actor to play the Master in the 1996 Doctor Who television film, a main role on the sitcom Less than Perfect (2002–2005), as well as recurring roles on the NBC drama Heroes (2007–2010), the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless (2010–2011), the legal drama Suits (2014–2019), and the HBO series The Righteous Gemstones (2022). Early life Eric Anthony Roberts was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on April 18, 1956, to Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights, who met while touring with a production of George Washington Slept Here for the armed forces. In 1963, they co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta off Juniper Street in Midtown. They ran a children's acting school in Decatur, Georgia. Roberts' mother became a church secretary and real estate agent, and his father was a vacuum cleaner salesman. Roberts' younger siblings, Julia Roberts (from whom he was estranged until 2004) and Lisa Roberts Gillan, are also actors. In 1971, Roberts' parents filed for divorce, which was finalized in early 1972. He stayed with his father, who died of cancer in March 1977, in Atlanta. After the divorce, his sisters moved with their mother to Smyrna, a suburb of Atlanta. In 1972, their mother married Michael Motes.