Believable as a hero or a cad, this handsome actor should have gotten his big break as one of the buddies in the testosterone-driven indie
Swingers, but he was upstaged by his costars, including a young Vince Vaughn. Ultimately his career took off when he embodied an unmotivated employee in the 1999 anticorporate comedy
Office Space. Although the film wasn't initially a hit, it became a cult favorite around the time Livingston began popping up on the small screen, including recurring parts as a zealous prosecutor on
The Practice and a commitment-phobic novelist on
Sex and the City, and his Golden Globe-nominated turn as a real-life paratrooper in the lauded WWII miniseries
Band of Brothers. Livingston continues to expand his repertoire, from supporting parts in impressive indie features (
Adaptation,
The Cooler) and feature films (
The Time Travelers Wife) to starring roles on the small screen, including a plum assignment as an FBI hostage negotiator in 2006's
Standoff and as chief engineer in the 2009 space thriller
Defying Gravity.
Ron Livingston Fast Facts:
- During his senior year at Yale, directed fellow student and future Oscar nominee Edward Norton in a play.
- While in college, performed at the Williamstown (MA) Theatre Festival, where he met actor George Wendt; after moving to L.A., became Wendt's personal assistant.
- Appeared as Molly Ringwald's beau in the short-lived 1996 ABC series Townies and as Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest who dumped her via Post-it note in Sex and the City.
- Ron Livingston Relationships:
- Jennifer Livingston - Sister
- John Livingston - Brother
- Kurt Livingston - Father
- Linda Livingston - Mother
- Lisa Sheridan - Ex-fiancée
- Nick Livingston - Brother
- Rosemarie DeWitt - Wife
- Ron Livingston Awards:
- 2002 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television - Nominee
- College:
- Yale University, New Haven, CT (BA in Theater Studies and English Literature, 1989)