Michael Shannon

Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor.

Shannon was born on August 7, 1974, in Lexington, Kentucky to Donald Sutherlin Shannon, an accounting professor at DePaul University, and Geraldine Hine, a lawyer.

His paternal grandfather was entomologist Raymond Corbett Shannon.

After Shannon's parents divorced, he alternated time with them, living with his mother in Lexington and in Chicago, Illinois, with his father.

He attended New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Illinois for two years before moving to Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky for his junior year.

While in Lexington, he participated in the Lexington Children's Theatre summer camp and played bass in his first band, The Jehovah Suspects.

He returned to Chicago for his senior year at Evanston Township High School, where he dropped out after a semester.

Shannon's first film role was the main character in the music video for the Every Mother's Nightmare song "House of Pain", where he played a troubled teenager who had run away from his abusive home.

Shannon performed on stage in Chicago, where he helped found A Red Orchid Theatre.

He worked with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Northlight Theatre.

Shannon's film debut was in Groundhog Day (1993).

In 1993, Shannon made his film debut in Groundhog Day as a wedding groom.

He had roles in Jesus' Son, Pearl Harbor, 8 Mile, Vanilla Sky, Kangaroo Jack, Bad Boys II, and a role in Grand Theft Parsons as hippie Larry Oster-Berg.

Shannon originated the role of Peter Evans in Bug in 1996 and starred in the 2006 film adaptation.

His roles in Bug and Killer Joe were written by Steppenwolf ensemble member Tracy Letts.

He has also appeared in 8 Mile (2002), Bad Boys II (2003), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Iceman (2012), Premium Rush (2012), The Night Before (2015), Elvis & Nixon (2016), The Shape of Water (2017), Knives Out (2019), Bullet Train (2022), and Amsterdam (2022).

Shannon appeared in Let's Go to Prison in 2006, where he portrayed Lynard, the leader of a prison white supremacist group.

He appeared in a production of Woyzeck in the West End in London, under the direction of Sarah Kane.

He is a frequent collaborator with director Jeff Nichols, having appeared in Nichols' films Shotgun Stories (2007), Take Shelter (2011), Mud (2012), Midnight Special and Loving (both 2016), and The Bikeriders (2023).

Shannon received two Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations, for Revolutionary Road (2008), and Nocturnal Animals (2016).

In 2008, Shannon was featured in the off-Broadway production of Stephen Adly Guirgis's The Little Flower of East Orange, presented by LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

In 2008, he starred in the romantic drama film Revolutionary Road, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

His performance as the clinically insane son earned him universal acclaim, and won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Shannon had performed the show in 2009 at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago.

His television roles include a role as Nelson Van Alden in the HBO period drama series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014) for which he was nominated for three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

He starred in Hulu's Nine Perfect Strangers (2021), and Showtime's George & Tammy (2022), for which he received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.

In 2010, he portrayed Doc Cross Williams in the film adaptation of Jonah Hex.

Shannon played Federal Prohibition agent Nelson Van Alden in the HBO television show Boardwalk Empire, which began in 2010.

In 2011, Shannon starred in the drama film Take Shelter.

He received rave reviews for his performance, and a Saturn Award for Best Actor.

Shannon made his Broadway debut in the 2012 play Grace.

In November of that year, he began starring in the one man play Mistakes Were Made at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York City, with performances having run through February 27, 2012.

In 2012, he played a corrupt cop in the film Premium Rush, written and directed by David Koepp, and appeared on Broadway along with Paul Rudd and Ed Asner in Grace written by Craig Wright.

He played General Zod in the DC Extended Universe films Man of Steel (2013) and The Flash (2023).

In 2013, he starred as legendary mob hitman Richard Kuklinski in The Iceman, which was distributed in May 2013.

Also in 2013, Shannon portrayed General Zod, the main antagonist in Zack Snyder's film Man of Steel.

Shannon portrayed music icon Elvis Presley alongside Kevin Spacey as President Richard Nixon in Elvis & Nixon.

He received Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for his role in 99 Homes (2014).

In 2015, he performed in the biographical drama Freeheld, and the independent drama 99 Homes, as housing agent Rick Carver, a role that earned him nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

He returned to Broadway playing James Tyrone Jr. in the revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (2016), earning a Tony Award nomination.