Powers Boothe (born June 1, 1949 in Snyder, Texas) is an American television and movie actor. One of the last actors to appear with Brandon Lee.

A native of Texas with extensive stage experience, Boothe first came to prominence in 1980 playing the title role in the CBS-TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story Of Jim Jones. Boothe's portrayal of the crazed cult leader received critical acclaim. In Time Magazine's story on the production, Boothe was praised: "There is one extraordinary performance. A young actor named Powers Boothe captures all the charisma and evil of 'Dad', Jim Jones." Boothe won an Emmy Award for his role, beating out veterans Henry Fonda and Jason Robards.

During the actors' strike in the fall of 1980, he was one of the few who showed up at the ceremonies to claim his prize. He said at the time, "this may be either the bravest moment of my career or the dumbest." He joined the ranks of Humphrey Bogart and other actors when he portrayed Philip Marlowe in a series of short films for HBO in 1983-1986. He also gave several fine performances in other films like Southern Comfort, A Breed Apart , Red Dawn, The Emerald Forest , Nixon, and Extreme Prejudice , as well as HBO films like Into The Homeland and By Dawn's Early Light. However, his most lauded subsequent performance was in the 1990 CBS-TV film Family Of Spies where he played traitor Navy Officer John Walker.

Most recently, Boothe has played a featured role as brothel-owner Cy Tolliver on the HBO series Deadwood, and the seedy Senator in the motion picture Sin City. Boothe has a daughter who is also an acclaimed actress.

External links

• Powers Boothe profile, NNDB.