Stephen McKinley Henderson

Stephen McKinley Henderson
Henderson presenting at Amherst Central High School on March 29, 2018
Born (1949-08-31) August 31, 1949 (age 75)
EducationLincoln University, Missouri
Juilliard School
North Carolina School of the Arts (BFA)
Purdue University, West Lafayette (MA)
OccupationActor
Years active1979–present
Spouse
Pamela Reed
(m. 1978)
Children1[1]

Stephen McKinley Henderson (born August 31, 1949) is an American actor.[2] Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominence as a character actor often performing the plays of August Wilson. He has received nominations for two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Vulture named Henderson as one of "The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working Today".[3]

Henderson made his Broadway debut in Wilson's King Hedley II in 2001. He later earned Tony Award nominations for his performances in Wilson's Fences in 2010 and Stephen Adly Guirgis's Between Riverside and Crazy in 2023. He also acted in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun in 2014. He made his film debut in A Pleasure Doing Business (1979) and has since appeared in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Lincoln (2012), Fences (2016), Manchester by the Sea (2016), Lady Bird (2017), Dune (2021), Causeway (2022), Beau Is Afraid (2023), and Civil War (2024).

His television debut came in 1984 in PBS's The Killing Floor. He has since appeared in Law & Order (1995–2010), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2005–2006), The Newsroom (2013), The Blacklist (2018), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019–2020), and Devs (2020).

  1. ^ Teeman, Tim (May 29, 2023). "Stephen McKinley Henderson, Retire? Just Show Him the Script". The Daily Beast.
  2. ^ Stephen McKinley Henderson. americantheatrewing.org
  3. ^ "Best Character Actors Working Today". Vulture. March 22, 2021. Retrieved December 24, 2022.