Josef Sommer is a classically trained stage actor who has also been a prolific performer in films. He made his debut at the age of nine in a production of "Watch on the Rhine" with the Carolina Playmakers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He trained as an actor at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. He performed with the ...
There are two things that go on in a professional actor's life. The first is finding work, making a living, pursuing a career. The other thing is the art of acting. It's so easy to lose that in the urgency of a career. Sometimes the struggle is just staying active, when you wish the struggle would be over great roles and great plays. I'm not sure you ever reconcile the two things. I guess you just remind yourself that acting is worthwhile because there is always potentially great work to be done.
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Fact
1
He was awarded the 1980 Outstanding Performance for "The Lady and the Clarinet" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
2
The hugely popular NHL team, Anaheim Ducks, got their name from his character, Mr. Gerald Ducksworth, in the movie the Mighty Ducks.
Starred in two unrelated TV movies dealing with the Kennedys: "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" in which he played Franklin Roosevelt, and "A Woman Named Jackie" in which he played Joseph Kennedy Sr.
6
He has played 3 different historical American presidents; Gerald Ford in The Betty Ford Story (1987), Franklin D. Roosevelt in The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990), Woodrow Wilson in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - Paris, May 1919 (1993) as well as 1 fictional president in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
7
Father Clemons Sommer was a professor of history at the University of North Carolina.
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Other Guys
2010
D.A. Radford (uncredited)
Stop-Loss
2008
Senator Orton Worrell
The Invasion
2007/I
Dr. Henryk Belicec
X-Men: The Last Stand
2006
The President
The Elephant King
2006
Bill Hunt
Without a Trace
2004
TV Series
Peter Ducek
The West Wing
2004
TV Series
Steve Gaines
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2003
TV Series
Spencer Durning
Searching for Paradise
2002
Carl Greenslate
The Sum of All Fears
2002
Senator Jessup
Benjamin Franklin
2002
TV Mini-Series documentary
Cotton Mather
Providence
2001
TV Series
Thomas Wheelock
Ally McBeal
2001
TV Series
Henry Thompson
The Family Man
2000
Peter Lassiter
Shaft
2000
Curt Fleming
The Next Best Thing
2000
Richard Whittaker
Law & Order
1996-2000
TV Series
Patrick Rumsey / Judge Lawrence Hellman
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
2000
TV Series
Patrick Rumsey
The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer
1999
TV Movie
Corporate Man
Patch Adams
1998
Dr. Eaton
Lulu on the Bridge
1998
Peter Shine (DVD deleted scene) (uncredited)
Bulworth
1998
Doctor (uncredited)
The Proposition
1998
Father Dryer
Early Edition
1997
TV Series
John Dobbs
Hidden in America
1996
TV Movie
Edward Millerton
Mistrial
1996
TV Movie
Nick Mirsky
The Chamber
1996
Phelps Bowen
Moonlight and Valentino
1995
Thomas Trager
Strange Days
1995
Palmer Strickland
Letter to My Killer
1995
TV Movie
Martin Prescott
Kansas
1995
TV Movie
Joseph 'Joe' Farley
Cultivating Charlie
1994
Prescott Putney
Nobody's Fool
1994
Clive Peoples, Jr.
Don't Drink the Water
1994
TV Movie
Ambassador Magee
The Enemy Within
1994
TV Movie
Defence Secretary Charles Potter
Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker
1994
TV Movie
Col. Morrow
Malice
1993
Lester Adams
Young Indiana Jones
1993
TV Series
Woodrow Wilson
An American Story
1992
TV Movie
Henry Meade
Hostages
1992
TV Movie
Tom Sutherland
The Mighty Ducks
1992
Gerald Ducksworth
Citizen Cohn
1992
TV Movie
Albert Cohn
Before the Storm
1991
TV Movie
Under Cover
1991
TV Movie
Stewart Merriman
Shadows and Fog
1991
Priest
Under Cover
1991
TV Series
Stewart Merriman
A Woman Named Jackie
1991
TV Mini-Series
Joseph Kennedy Sr.
When Will I Be Loved?
1990
TV Movie
Martin Ransil
The Kennedys of Massachusetts
1990
TV Mini-Series
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Great Performances
1974-1990
TV Series
Polonius
Nikolai
Money, Power, Murder.
1989
TV Movie
Jack Finley
The Equalizer
1989
TV Series
Ernest Rasher
Bloodhounds of Broadway
1989
Waldo Winchester
Forced March
1989
Father
Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman
1989
TV Movie
Charles Estiman
Bridge to Silence
1989
TV Movie
Al Duffield
Chances Are
1989
Judge Fenwick
Hothouse
1988
TV Series
Dr. Sam Garrison
Dracula's Widow
1988
Lannon
The Rosary Murders
1987
Lieutenant Koznicki
A Special Friendship
1987
TV Movie
General Winder
The Betty Ford Story
1987
TV Movie
President Gerald Ford
American Playhouse
1987
TV Series
Doc
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
1986
TV Series
Raoul Nesbitt
Screen Two
1986
TV Series
James Angleton
The Execution of Raymond Graham
1985
TV Movie
Jim Neal
Target
1985
Taber
I Had Three Wives
1985
TV Series
McWilliams
D.A.R.Y.L.
1985
Dr. Jeffrey Stewart
Brotherly Love
1985
TV Movie
Mr. Rafferty
Witness
1985
Schaeffer
Iceman
1984
Whitman
Silkwood
1983
Max Richter
Saigon -Year of the Cat-
1983
TV Movie
Jack Ockham
Sparkling Cyanide
1983
TV Movie
George Barton
Independence Day
1983
Sam Taylor
Sophie's Choice
1982
Narrator (voice)
Still of the Night
1982
George Bynum
Hanky Panky
1982
Adrian Pruitt
Rollover
1981
Roy Lefcourt
Reds
1981
State Department Official
Absence of Malice
1981
McAdam
The Henderson Monster
1980
TV Movie
Dr. Martin Grossman
Hide in Plain Sight
1980
Jason R. Reid
Doctor Franken
1980
TV Movie
Mr. Parker
The Scarlet Letter
1979
TV Mini-Series
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Too Far to Go
1979
TV Movie
Henry
Oliver's Story
1978
Dr. Dienhart
Mourning Becomes Electra
1978
TV Mini-Series
Ezra Mannon
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977
Larry Butler
The Best of Families
1977
TV Mini-Series
Jacob Riis
The Andros Targets
1977
TV Series
Benson Fisher
The Front
1976
Committee Chairman (as M. Josef Sommer)
The Adams Chronicles
1976
TV Mini-Series
Charles Lee
Valley Forge
1975
TV Movie
Brig. Gen. 'Dusty' Varnum
The Stepford Wives
1975
Ted Van Sant (as Josef Somer)
Man on a Swing
1974
Pete Russell
The Doctors
1973
TV Series
Dave Davis
The Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope
1972
Short
Proctor
Dirty Harry
1971
Rothko
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Impressionists
2001
TV Movie documentary voice
The Infinite Voyage
1987
TV Series documentary
Narrator ('Fires of the Mind') (1989)
The Making of 'Absence of Malice'
1982
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Winds of Change