Leslie Richard "Arliss" Howard (born October 18, 1954) is an American actor, screenwriter, and film director. He is known for his roles in the films ''
Full Metal Jacket
''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay he co-wrote with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 autobiographical novel '' The Short-Timers''. It stars ...
'' (1987), ''
Tequila Sunrise'' (1988), ''
The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' (1997), ''
The Time Traveler's Wife
''The Time Traveler's Wife'' is the debut novel by American author Audrey Niffenegger, published in 2003. It is a love story about Henry, a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about Clare, his wife, an a ...
'' (2009), ''
Moneyball Moneyball or money ball may refer to:
* '' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'', 2003 book by Michael Lewis
** ''Moneyball'' (film), 2011 film adaptation of the book
* ''Moneyball'' (album), 2025 album by Dutch Interior
* Sabermetrics
...
'' (2011), and ''
Mank
''Mank'' is a 2020 American biographical drama film about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his development of the screenplay for the 1941 film ''Citizen Kane''. It was directed by David Fincher based on a screenplay written by his lat ...
'' (2020).
Early life and education
Howard is a native of
Independence, Missouri
Independence is a city in and one of two county seats of Jackson County, Missouri, United States. It is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020 Unite ...
. He received an English literature degree from
Columbia College. Before committing to acting, Howard worked in the Wyoming oil industry, on a New Mexico ranch, and lived in Hawaii.
Career
Howard established his career with roles in the films ''
Full Metal Jacket
''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay he co-wrote with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 autobiographical novel '' The Short-Timers''. It stars ...
'', ''
Men Don't Leave
''Men Don't Leave'' is a 1990 American comedy-drama film starring Jessica Lange as a housewife who, after the death of her husband, moves with her two sons to Baltimore. Chris O'Donnell, Arliss Howard, Joan Cusack, Charlie Korsmo and Kathy ...
'', ''
Ruby
Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...
'', and ''
Natural Born Killers
''Natural Born Killers'' is a 1994 American romantic crime action film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims ...
''. He was nominated for two
CableACE Awards for his roles in the television films ''
Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture'' and ''
The Man Who Captured Eichmann'', winning for the former.
In 1997, Howard portrayed billionaire John Hammond's evil nephew
Peter Ludlow in the film ''
The Lost World: Jurassic Park'', and U.S. Vice President
John C. Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Born in South Carolina, he adamantly defended American s ...
in the film ''
Amistad''; both films were directed by
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
.
Howard has had a recurring role in the
CBS weekly drama series ''
Medium
Medium may refer to:
Aircraft
*Medium bomber, a class of warplane
* Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film
* ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...
'' and has directed several episodes. He also starred in and directed the films ''
Big Bad Love'' and ''
Dawn Anna'', both co-written with
James Howard, his brother. Howard's wife,
Debra Winger, starred in both films. In 2010, he played Kale Ingram, a benignly duplicitous supervisor at an American intelligence agency, in the TV series ''
Rubicon
The Rubicon (; ; ) is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, just south of Cesena and north of Rimini. It was known as ''Fiumicino'' until 1933, when it was identified with the ancient river Rubicon, crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 BC.
The ri ...
'', which was canceled by
AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** ...
after 13 episodes. The following year, Howard appeared in the feature ''
Moneyball Moneyball or money ball may refer to:
* '' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'', 2003 book by Michael Lewis
** ''Moneyball'' (film), 2011 film adaptation of the book
* ''Moneyball'' (album), 2025 album by Dutch Interior
* Sabermetrics
...
''.
Howard has extensive stage credits, including a role in the 2009 revival of
August Wilson
August Wilson (né Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively called '' ...
's ''
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Joe or JOE may refer to:
Arts
Film and television
* ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle
* ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage, based on the novel ''Joe'' (1991) by Larry Brown
* Joe (2023 film), an Indian film
* ''Joe'' (TV se ...
'' on Broadway. He has appeared in several productions at the
American Repertory Theatre
The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is a professional not-for-profit theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to ne ...
(ART) in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
, including
Paula Vogel's ''
How I Learned to Drive'', with Winger, and
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
's ''
In the Jungle of the Cities'', directed by
Robert Woodruff. Howard was also seen as Mikhail Lvovich Astrov in
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...
's ''
Uncle Vanya
''Uncle Vanya'' ( rus, Дя́дя Ва́ня, r=Dyádya Ványa, p=ˈdʲædʲə ˈvanʲə) is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897, and first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Konstan ...
'', and Nikolai Ivanov in Chekhov's ''
Ivanov'', with Winger playing the role of Anna.
Howard joined the cast of a CBS political drama pilot titled ''Ways & Means'' with
Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and racing driver best known for playing neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005–15; 2020–21). He is also known for his leading man romantic film roles, such ...
in June 2020.
Personal life
Howard is married to actress
Debra Winger. He has two sons, Sam (born 1987) from his previous marriage to talent agent Karen Sellars, and Gideon "Babe" (born 1997) with Winger.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Arliss
1954 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male television actors
Columbia College (Missouri) alumni
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Writers from Independence, Missouri