Keith Gordon

For the baseball player, see Keith Gordon (baseball). For the rugby player, see Keith Gordon (rugby union).

Keith Gordon
Born	(1961-02-03) February 3, 1961 New York City, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, film director
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	Rachel Griffin ​ (m. 1998)​
Father	Mark Gordon

Keith Gordon (born February 3, 1961) is an American actor and film director.

Early life

Gordon was born in New York City, the son of Mark, an actor and stage director, and Barbara Gordon. He grew up in an atheist Jewish family. Gordon was inspired to become an actor at the age of twelve, after seeing James Earl Jones in a Broadway production of Of Mice and Men.

Career

As an actor, Gordon's first feature film role was that of class clown Doug in Jaws 2 (the 1978 sequel to the blockbuster hit Jaws). In 1979 Gordon appeared in Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical All That Jazz as the teenage version of the film's protagonist Joe Gideon (played by Gordon's Jaws 2 co-star Roy Scheider). Gordon then appeared in two films by Brian De Palma: as a film student in Home Movies (1979) and in the 1980 erotic thriller Dressed to Kill as the son of Angie Dickinson's character. Gordon played Arnie Cunningham, the main character (who buys the titular car Christine), in the 1983 horror film Christine, directed by John Carpenter from the novel by Stephen King. In the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean Gordon played Lloyd Muldaur, the son of a District Attorney who aspires to be Attorney General. He was in the 1986 Mark Romanek film Static, and he wrote the screenplay. In the 1986 comedy movie Back to School, Gordon played Jason Melon, the son of Rodney Dangerfield's character. In most of these films, he played a nerd. He was named number 1 in Cinematicals' Top 7 Most Convincing Nerds. His most recent onscreen film appearance was in 2001, in the movie Delivering Milo.

Gordon left acting for directing, making his debut in 1988 with the movie The Chocolate War, about a student who rebels against the rigid hierarchies in his Catholic school. His other films include the 1992 anti-war film A Midnight Clear, about a group of American soldiers in the Ardennes just before and during the Battle of the Bulge, as well as Mother Night (adapted from the novel by Kurt Vonnegut), Waking the Dead, and the film The Singing Detective. He also directed some of the mini-series Wild Palms and appeared in the 2006 Iraq War documentary Whose War?. His directing credits for television include Homicide: Life on the Street, Gideon's Crossing, Dexter, The Bridge, House and the second and third seasons of Fargo.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer
1985	Static	No	Yes	Yes
1988	The Chocolate War	Yes	No	Yes
1992	A Midnight Clear	Yes	No	Yes
1996	Mother Night	Yes	Yes	No
2000	Waking the Dead	Yes	Yes	No
2003	The Singing Detective	Yes	No	No

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role
1978	Jaws 2	Doug Fetterman
1979	Meeting Halfway	Unknown role
	Studs Lonigan	Young Paulie Haggerty
	All That Jazz	Young Joe Gideon
1980	Home Movies	Dennis Byrd
	Dressed to Kill	Peter Miller
1981	Kent State	Jeffrey Miller
1982	Silent Rebellion	Chris
1983	Christine	Arnie Cunningham
1984	Single Bars, Single Women	Lionel
1985	The Legend of Billie Jean	Lloyd Muldaur
	Static	Ernie Blick
1986	Back to School	Jason Melon
	Combat Academy	Maxwell 'Max' Mendelsson
1994	I Love Trouble	Andy
1997	The Player	Unknown role
2001	Delivering Milo	Mr. Baumgartner

Television

Director

Year	Title	Episode(s)
1993	Wild Palms	"Hungry Ghosts"
		"The Floating World"
1994	Homicide: Life on the Street	"Extreme Unction"
1995	Fallen Angels	"The Black Bargain"
2002	Shadow Realm/Night Visions	"Patterns"
2005	House M.D.	"Sports Medicine"
2010	Rubicon	"In Whom We Trust"
2013	Rectify	"Always Be There" (Also executive producer)
2011–2013	The Killing	"Beau Soleil"
		"Donnie or Marie"
		"Eminent Domain"
2006–2013	Dexter	"Truth Be Told"
		"The Dark Defender"
		"Morning Comes"
		"Our Father"
		"All in the Family"
		"Do You Take Dexter Morgan"
		"Dirty Harry"
		"Lost Boys"
		"In the Beginning"
		"Beautiful Day"
2013–2014	The Bridge	"The Beetle"
		"Yankee"
2014	The Strain	"It's Not for Everyone"
	Masters of Sex	"Blackbird"
2015	The Returned	"Camille" (Also executive producer)
2014–2015	Nurse Jackie	"Nancy Wood"
		"Nice Ladies"
2014–2017	The Leftovers	"Two Boats and a Helicopter"
		"Ten Thirteen"
		"Don't Be Ridiculous"
2017	Better Call Saul	"Off Brand"
2015–2017	Fargo	"Did You Do This? No, You Did It!"
		"Loplop"
		"Aporia"
		"Somebody to Love"
2018	Legion	"Chapter 19"
2013–2020	Homeland	"Good Night"
		"Trylon and Perisphere"
		"Super Powers"
		"Fair Game"
		"The Man in the Basement"
		"False Friends"
2020	Dispatches from Elsewhere	"The Creator"

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Episode(s)
1975	Medical Center	Herbie	"The Price of a Child"
1982	American Playhouse	Chris Panakos	"My Palikari"
1989	Miami Vice	Prof. Terrence Baines	"Leap of Faith"
1990	WIOU	George Lewis	"Do the Wrong Thing"
			"Mother Nature's Son"
1993	Brooklyn Bridge	Cousin Herbie	"The Wild Pitch"
2009	Dexter	Kyle Butler #2	"Hello, Dexter Morgan"
2018	On Cinema	Himself	"The 5th Annual Live On Cinema Oscar Special"

Award nominations

Independent Spirit Awards

Best Screenplay – A Midnight Clear (1992)

Best First Feature – The Chocolate War (1988)

Sitges – Catalan International Film Festival

Best Film – The Singing Detective (2003)

External links

• Keith Gordon at IMDb
• MovieMaker magazine interview
• Senses of Cinema two-part interview
• interview on Kittenpants.org