Early life and education

He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Ida and James Gaines. His early theatre training began at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California, where his talent and rich baritone voice was showcased in leading roles in plays, musicals and even opera. He attended the Juilliard School as a member of the Drama Division's Group 8 (1975-1979).

Career

Gaines has appeared in a number of films and television shows, including Fame, L.A. Law and Law & Order, Piece of Cake (1990), but perhaps he is best known for playing a dental student and dentist Mark Royer, who married Valerie Bertinelli's Barbara Cooper on TV's One Day at a Time and as Coach Brackett from the 1981 movie Porky's. He also played Lt Ring in the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge and Jason in The Sure Thing (1985).

Gaines is a voice-actor, and is credited with recording several audiobooks.

He has appeared on the Broadway stage, in both musicals and plays. His first Broadway play was The Heidi Chronicles in 1989. He recently appeared in the Broadway revival of An Enemy of the People in 2012. Some of the musicals have been Company (1995), She Loves Me (1993) and Contact in 2000. Other plays have been The Columnist (2012) and the 2010 revival of Driving Miss Daisy. He appeared in the 2008 revival of Gypsy as Herbie, and won the Tony Award.

He has appeared Off-Broadway, starting in 1978 with Spring Awakening and recently The Grand Manner by A. R. Gurney at Lincoln Center in 2010.

In regional theatre, Gaines appeared in Our Town at the George Street Playhouse, New Jersey, in April 2014.

Awards and nominations

Gaines was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play in 2007, for Journey's End, making him the first actor to be nominated in each of the four Tony categories for which an actor is eligible.

Only two male and three female performers have been nominated for all four Tony performance awards, the others being Raúl Esparza, Angela Lansbury, Jan Maxwell, and Audra McDonald. Gaines was the first performer to be nominated for each of Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1989 for The Heidi Chronicles, Best Actor in a Musical in 1994 for She Loves Me, Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2000 for Contact, and again in 2008 for Gypsy and Best Actor in a Play in 2007 for Journey's End. Gaines won in three of the categories (and four of the five nominations), missing only for the performance in Journey's End.

Personal

He is married to Kathleen McNenny. They have one child.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Fame	Michael
1981	Porky's	Coach Brackett
1985	The Sure Thing	Jason
1986	Heartbreak Ridge	Lt. M.R. Ring
1987	Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall	Sam Logan	Short film
1988	Call Me	Bill
1990	A Son's Promise	Dan Weston	TV film
1995	The Grass Harp	Narrator
1996	I'm Not Rappaport	Peter Danforth
1999	The Confession	Liam Clarke
1999	Earthly Possessions	Announcer	TV film
2004	Second Best	Richard
2007	Lovely by Surprise	Customer #1
2007	Funny Games	Fred
2008	The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer	The Voice of Chairman Gray	Documentary film
2010	The Robber Barons of Wall Street	Rupert Baron	Short film
2014	Driving Miss Daisy	Boolie Werthan
2015	No Pay, Nudity	Stephan
2016	The Independents	Professor Green	Currently filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981-84	One Day at a Time	Mark Royer	52 episodes
1984	Hotel	Jeff Strider	Episode: "Wedding"
1985	Evergreen	Chris Bradford	TV miniseries
1985	MacGruder and Loud	Ellis	Episode: "Tarnished Blues"
1985	Remington Steele	Todd Myerson	Episode: "Grappling Steele"
1985	Hotel	Steven Parker	Episode: "Hearts and Minds"
1986	L.A. Law	Jim Perkins	4 episodes
1986	Hotel	Rodger Gage	Episode: "Undercurrents"
1988	Spenser: For Hire	Alfie Gainer	Episode: "Skeletons in the Closet"
1988	American Playhouse	Reverend Dobson	Episode: "Pigeon Feathers"
1988	Piece of Cake	Chris Hart	TV miniseries
1989	The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd	Imposter	Episode: "Here's a Rough Way to Learn a Foreign Language"
1991	A Woman Named Jackie	Yusha Auchincloss	TV miniseries
1992	Anything but Love		Episode: "Catherine Honey, I'm Home"
1992	Murder, She Wrote	John Halsey	Episode: "Programmed for Murder"
1993	Law & Order	Lt. St. Claire	Episode: "Conduct Unbecoming"
1994	Frasier	Phil Patterson	Episode: "The Candidate"
1995	Law & Order	Nathan Barclay	Episode: "Wannabe"
1997	Law & Order	Oliver Shain	Episode: "Matrimony"
1997	Caroline in the City	Jerry	Episode: "Caroline and the Wayward Husband"
1997	Remember WENN	Congressman Bob Farraday	Episode: "A Girl Like Maple"
2001-02	The Education of Max Bickford	Paul Finazzio	2 episodes
2001-02	100 Centre Street	Casper Quince	2 episodes
2003	Queens Supreme	Steve Simon / Stan Standowski	Episode: "Flawed Heroes"
2004	Law & Order	James Rillard	Episode: "Coming Down Hard"
2006	Angela's Eyes	Colin Anderson	6 episodes
2009	American Experience	The Voice of Chairman Gray	Episode: "The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer"
2009	The Good Wife	Richard Chatham	Episode: "Home"
2015	Great Performances	Boolie Werthan	Episode: "Driving Miss Daisy"

Stage productions

Broadway

Year	Title	Role	Theatre
1989-1990	The Heidi Chronicles	Peter Patrone	Plymouth Theatre
1992	The Show Off	Aubrey Piper	Criterion Center Stage Right
1993-1994	She Loves Me	Georg Nowack	Brooks Atkinson Theatre
1995	Company	Robert	Criterion Center Stage Right
1999	Cabaret	Clifford Bradshaw	Studio 54
2000-2001	Contact	Michael Wiley	Vivian Beaumont Theater
2004-2005	Twelve Angry Men	Juror #8	American Airlines Theatre
2007	Journey's End	Lt. Osborne	Belasco Theatre
2007	Pygmalion	Colonel Pickering	American Airlines Theatre
2008-2009	Gypsy	Herbie	St. James Theatre
2010-2011	Driving Miss Daisy	Boolie Werthan	John Golden Theatre
2012	The Columnist	Stewart Alsop	Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
2012	An Enemy of the People	Dr. Thomas Stockmann	Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Off-Broadway

Year	Title	Role	Theatre
1978	Spring Awakening	Melchoir Gabor	Joseph Papp Public Theater
1979	A Month in the Country	Aleksei Belyayev	Roundabout Stage 1
1980	Vikings	Gunnar Larsen	Stage 73
1987	The Maderati	Chuck deButts	Playwrights Horizons
1988	The Heidi Chronicles	Peter Patrone	Playwrights Horizons
1992	The Extra Man	Keith	New York City Center-Stage 1
1992	The Comedy of Errors	Antipholus of Ephesus	Delacorte Theater
1996	The Shawl	Garner Globalis	Playhouse 91 Theater
1997	Major Barbara	N/A	Irish Repertory Theatre
1999	Contact	Michael Wiley	Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
2005	Bach at Leipzig	Johann Friedrich Fasch	New York Theatre Workshop
2010	The Grand Manner	Guthrie McClintic	Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

[ Source: Wikipedia ]