Daniels, Jeff 1955–

PERSONAL: Born February 19, 1955, in Athens, GA; married Kathleen Treado, July 13, 1979; children: Ben, Luke, one other child. Education: Attended Central Michigan University.

ADDRESSES: Office—The Purple Rose Theater, 137 Park St., Chelsea, MI 48118. Agent—ICM, Inc., 8942 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211.

CAREER: Actor, director, producer, and writer for stage and screen; founder of Purple Rose Theater Company, Chelsea, MI, 1990. Actor in films, including (as Sergeant Frankie O'Donnell) Ragtime, Paramount, 1981; (as Flap Horton) Terms of Endear-ment, Paramount, 1983; (as Eddie Sisk) Marie: A True Story, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)/United Artists, 1985; (as Tom Baxter/Gil Shepherd) The Purple Rose of Cairo, Orion, 1985; (as Charles S. Driggs) Something Wild, Orion, 1986; (as Richard, Rachel's editor) Heartburn, Paramount, 1986; (as Biff Baxter) Radio Days, Orion, 1987; (as Sam Manners) Sweet Hearts Dance, TriStar, 1988; (as Cochran) The House on Carroll Street, Orion, 1988; (as Ray Macklin) Checking Out, Warner Bros., 1989; (as Dr. Ross Jennings) Arachnophobia, Buena Vista, 1990; (as Denton Webb) Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael, Paramount, 1990; (as Alex) The Butcher's Wife, Paramount, 1991; (as Paul Weaver) Love Hurts, Vestron Video, 1992; (as Jonathan Garson) Rain without Thunder, Orion Classics, 1993; (as Willis Embry) There Goes the Neighborhood (also known as Paydirt), Paramount, 1993; (as Detective Officer Harry Temple) Speed, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1994; (as Harry Dunne; also song performer) Dumb and Dumber, New Line Cinema, 1994; (as Thomas Alden) Fly Away Home, Columbia, 1996; (as Alvin Strayer) Two Days in the Valley, MGM, 1996; (as Roger) 101 Dalmatians, Buena Vista, 1996; (as Charles "Charlie" Tuttle) Trial and Error, New Line Cinema, 1997; (as Mr. Bill Johnson) Pleasantville, New Line Cinema, 1998; (as Tim O'Hara) My Favorite Martian, Buena Vista, 1999; (as Ed Saxon) Chasing Sleep (also known as Insomnies), Trimark Video, 2000; (as Reuben Soady) Escanaba in da Moonlight, Purple Rose Films, 2000; (as Fred Barlow) Super Sucker, Purple Rose Films, 2002; (as Buddy Noone) Blood Work, Warner Bros., 2002; (as Louis Waters) The Hours, Paramount, 2002; (as Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain) Gods and Generals, Warner Bros., 2003; (as James Rhodes) I Witness, 2003; (as Mr. Travis) Imaginary Heroes, 2004; and Because of Winn-Dixie, 2004. Played Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in Gettysburg (television miniseries), Turner Network Television (TNT), 1993. Actor in television movies, including (as chaplain) A Rumor of War, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), 1980; (as Francis Ryan) An Invasion of Privacy, American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), 1983; (as Lieutenant Stephen Maryk) The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, CBS, 1988; (as Mike Cooper) No Place like Home (also known as Homeless), CBS, 1989; (as Tom Noonan) Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (also known as Life on the High Wire), Home Box Office (HBO), 1992; (as Ben Wilson) Disaster in Time (also known as Grand Tour: Disaster in Time and Timescape), Showtime, 1992; (as Warren Harding) All the Rage (also known as It's the Rage), Cinemax, 1999; (as General George Washington) The Crossing, Arts and Entertainment, 2000; (as Dr. Gerald Plecki) Cheaters, HBO, 2000; and (as Elliot Garfield) The Goodbye Girl, 2004. Appeared in television specials, including (as Jed Jenkins) "The Fifth of July," American Playhouse, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 1982; (as himself) Thrills, Chills, and Spiders: The Making of Arachnophobia, 1990; (as host) Baseball's Heirlooms: The Classic Ball Parks (documentary), PBS, 1991; Gettysburg Journal, Turner Network Television (TNT), 1994; (as Lyman Fellers) "Redwood Curtain," Hallmark Hall of Fame, ABC, 1995; 101 Dalmatians, a Canine's Tale, 1996; Canned Ham: Trial and Error, Comedy Central, 1997; Walt Disney World's 25th Anniversary Party, ABC, 1997; and (as himself) Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Farley, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1998. Actor in television pilots, including Breaking Away, ABC, 1980; and (as Rick Guthrie) Catalina C-Lab, 1982. Guest star on television series, including (as Neal) "The Flight of the Jewels," Hawaii Five-O, 1980; (as Jim) "The Visit," Trying Times, PBS, 1987; (as host) Saturday Night Live, NBC, 1991, 1995; (as voice of guest caller Doug) "Here's Looking at You," Frasier, NBC, 1993; and (as himself) "Wild Bill Lishman," Life and Times, 1999. Actor in stage productions, including (as Arthur) The Farm, Circle Repertory Company, New York, NY, 1976; (as Wesley) Feedlot, Circle Repertory Company, 1977; (as young Eddie) My Life, Circle Repertory Company, 1977; (as the nephew) Brontosaurus, Circle Repertory Company, 1977–78; (as Schwarz/Hunidei) Lulu, Circle Repertory Company, 1978; (as Jed Jenkins) The Fifth of July, Circle Repertory Company, 1978; Minnesota Moon, Circle Repertory Company, 1979; Slugger, PAF Playhouse, Huntington Station, NY, 1979; (as Jed Jenkins) Talley's Folly, Center Theatre Group, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, CA, 1979–80, then New Apollo Theatre, New York, 1980–81; (as John Bonham) Johnny Got His Gun (solo show), Circle Repertory Company, 1982; (as Andrei) Three Sisters, Manhattan Theatre Club/Downstage, New York, 1982–1983; (as Tom) The Golden Age, Jack Lawrence Theatre, New York, 1984; (as Alan) Lemon Sky, Second Stage Theatre, New York, 1985–86; Redwood Curtain, 1993; also appeared off-Broadway in Short-changed Review. Appeared in XTC music video "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," 1994; played guitar on Don Johnson's album Let It Roll.

AWARDS, HONORS: Off-Broadway ("Obie") Award, Village Voice, 1982, for Johnny Got His Gun; Independent Career Achievement Award, Video Software Dealers Association, 2002.

WRITINGS:

STAGE PLAYS

Shoeman, produced in Chelsea, MI, 1991.

The Tropical Pickle, produced at Purple Rose Theatre, Chelsea, MI, 1992.

The Vast Difference, produced at Purple Rose Theatre, Chelsea, MI, 1993.

The Kingdom's Coming, produced in Chelsea, MI, 1994.

Escanaba in da Moonlight, produced in Chelsea, MI, 1995.

(And director) Boomtown, produced in Chelsea, MI, 1998.

Across the Way, produced in Chelsea, MI, 2002.

Also author of the one-man show Jeff Daniels: Onstage and Unplugged.

SCREENPLAYS

(And director and producer) Escanaba in da Moonlight (based on Daniels' play), Purple Rose Films, 1999.

(And director and producer) Super Sucker, Purple Rose Films, 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Jeff Daniels is best known as an accomplished character actor, with roles in such films as Arachnophobia, Dumb and Dumber, Fly Away Home, and the acclaimed television miniseries Gettysburg to his credit. But in his native Michigan, he is also famous as the owner of the Purple Rose Theater, in his long-time hometown of Chelsea, and has also built a reputation as a playwright and screenwriter. In addition to numerous plays for the Purple Rose Theater (which, like Daniels's film production company, takes its name from the title of Daniels's early film, the Woody Allen-directed The Purple Rose of Cairo), Daniels is also the writer, director, and producer of two films, Escanaba in da Moonlight and Super Sucker. Both films, which were shot in Michigan with almost entirely local crews, were little seen outside of the Midwest, but were major hits there.

Escanaba in da Moonlight, a film adaptation of one of Daniels's plays, is a comedy about a cursed deer hunter named Reuben Soady (played by Daniels). In Escanaba, a city in Michigan's upper peninsula, the fact that Reuben has reached the age of forty-three without ever bagging a buck makes children jeer him and other superstitious hunters avert their eyes when he walks by. Still, during the winter in which the film is set, Reuben, his brother, his father, and a friend set off for their hunting camp to try one more time. In the play, all of the action took place in the hunting lodge; for the film, Daniels "has done his best to get the boys out, in the woods … but these guys still spend one heck of a lot of time in a cabin," Tom Lang commented in the Detroit News. Midwestern residents for whom the annual trip to deer camp is a sacred ritual may get more of the inside jokes than viewers from outside the area, but still "there's a broad range to the comedy that outsiders can appreciate," Jeff Strickler explained in the Star Tribune.

Super Sucker is another Michigan-based comedy, this time about two rival door-to-door vacuum-cleaner salesman. Daniels's character, Fred Barlow, is the hapless head of a vacuum cleaner dealership that faces annihilation at the hands of a rival distributor, Winslow Schnaebelt (played by Harve Presnell, who also played Reuben's father in Escanaba in da Moonlight). Then Barlow discovers that one vacuum attachment, the circular nap nipper, has a naughty application that frustrated housewives love and that the attachment's inventors probably never anticipated. "A pretentious filmmaker might have turned this into some examination of the intimate modern connection between man and machine," Lang wrote, but "Daniels doesn't, going instead for big, tawdry, gloriously cheap yuks. Bless him for it," Lang concluded. That doesn't mean that Super Sucker has no deeper meaning, however: "Daniels has a jolly time contrasting the wholesome Midwestern appearance of Johnson City with what's really going on behind closed doors," wrote Rob Thomas in the Wisconsin State Journal.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Newsmakers 1989, Issue 4, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1989.

PERIODICALS

American Theatre, March, 1994, Davi Napoleon, "Jeff Daniels: The Purple Rose of Chelsea Is His Baby," pp. 40-41.

America's Intelligence Wire, January 28, 2002, Todd LaPlace, interview with Daniels; November 6, 2002, John Laughlin, interview with Daniels.

Austin American-Statesman, July 25, 2002, Michael Barnes, review of Boomtown, p. E3.

Back Stage, June 18, 1999, Karl Levett, review of Thy Kingdom's Coming, p. 56; October 8, 1999, Martin F. Kohn, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. 19; October 13, 2000, Martin F. Kohn, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. 29; November 8, 2002, Martin F. Kohn, review of Across the Way, p. 15.

Buffalo News, February 14, 1999, "Jeff Daniels, Happy Outsider," p. F3.

Cincinnati Post, November 28, 1996, Craig Kopp, "Jeff Daniels Remains Go-To Guy in Animal Movies," p. 8.

Daily News (Los Angeles, CA), September 16, 1996, Janet Weeks, interview with Daniels, p. L12.

Detroit News, January 19, 2001, Michael H. Margolin, "Curtain Rises on World Premiere and Renovations at Purple Rose," p. 12; January 26, 2001, Tom Long, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. 2; January 24, 2003, Tom Long, review of Super Sucker, p. 5.

Fresno Bee, January 6, 2000, Rick Bentley, "A Quick Study: Jeff Daniels Gets Smarter for His George Washington Role," p. E3.

Grand Rapids Press, October 22, 2000, interview with Daniels, p. E1; January 21, 2001, John Douglas, interview with Daniels, p. B1; January 26, 2001, Sue Merrell, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. 4; April 9, 2001, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. B1; June 9, 2002, Sue Merrell, review of The Tropical Pickle, p. B2; June 13, 2002, Sue Merrell, review of The Tropical Pickle, p. 23; October 18, 2002, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. C3; December 30, 2002, review of Jeff Daniels: Onstage and Unplugged, p. B1; January 24, 2003, interview with Daniels, p. C3.

Green Bay Press-Gazette, Kendra Meinert, March 19, 2000, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. D1.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, October 23, 2000, Terry Lawson, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. K6427; January 30, 2003, Calvin Wilson, "Jeff Daniels Adds Director, Writer, Theater Proprietor to His Playbill," p. K3418.

Lansing State Journal, July 22, 1999, Mike Hughes, "Jeff Daniels' Double Life Benefits Theater," p. D1; January 25, 2000, Mike Hughes, interview with Daniels, p. D1; January 30, 2001, "Escanaba Rakes in Michigan Moolah," p. E1; March 20, 2002, Mike Hughes, review of Super Sucker, p. D1.

Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2002, Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug, interview with Daniels, p. E2.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 4, 2001, Robin Rauzi, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, p. 2.

People, April 8, 1985, Scot Haller, interview with Daniels, pp. 49-50.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 24, 2003, Calvin Wilson, review of Super Sucker, p. E3.

Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), November 29, 1996, Bob Campbell, "Underrated Daniels Changing His Spots," p. 6; February 20, 2003, Mike Householder, "Purple Rose of Michigan: Family Man Daniels Juggles Roles While Sticking to Midwest Roots," p. 35.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), October 26, 2001, Jeff Strickler, interview with Daniels, and review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, pp. 36-37; January 24, 2003, Colin Covert, review of Super Sucker, p. 14E.

Variety, November 30, 1998, Chris Jones, review of Boomtown, p. 74; February 5, 2001, Chris Jones, "Purple Rose Dawns as Daniels' Pleasantville," p. 80.

Video Business, September 9, 2002, Ed Hulse, review of Escanaba in da Moonlight, pp. 17-18.

Wisconsin State Journal, January 23, 2003, Rob Thomas, review of Super Sucker, p. 4.

ONLINE

Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (May 27, 2004), "Jeff Daniels."

Super Sucker Web Site, http://www.supersuckerthemovie.com/ (September 2, 2003).