John Pankow

{{Infobox person

| name = John Pankow

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birthname =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|4|28|mf=y}}

| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, United States

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Actor

| spouse = {{marriage|Kristine Sutherland|1986}}

| children = 1

| relatives = James Pankow (brother)

| years_active = 1980–present

}}

John Pankow (born April 28, 1954) is an American actor. He began his career on-stage in New York, in numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway plays including Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, John Patrick Shanley's Italian American Reconciliation, and Brian Friel's Aristocrats. After a starring role in William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A., he began appearing regularly in film and on television, playing Ira Buchman for all eight seasons of Mad About You and later Merc Lapidus on Episodes.

Early life and education

Pankow was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Catholic family of German and Irish descent,{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-brothers-jim-and-john-pa/169980190/| title=Brother Act| first=Jim| last=Mueller| newspaper=Chicago Tribune| date=February 3, 1998| pages=1, 5 Sec. 5| access-date=April 10, 2025}} the sixth of nine siblings. His elder brother is trombonist/composer James Pankow, a founding member of the rock group Chicago. Pankow grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, and attended Maine South High School and Northeastern Illinois University.

He left the university in his junior year after he attended a performance of David Mamet's The American Buffalo at the St. Nicholas Theater. Inspired by the play, he enrolled in the theater's two-year theatrical training program in order to concentrate solely on acting.

Career

While visiting a friend in New York City, Pankow auditioned for, and won, a role in an episode of PBS' Great Performances entitled "Life on the Mississippi". He went on to perform in several Off-Broadway productions including Aristocrats, Italian American Reconciliation, and the New York Shakespeare Festival's The Tempest, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Henry VIII. He subsequently made it to Broadway with Serious Money, The Iceman Cometh, and as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus, replacing Tim Curry in the role and subsequently replacing him for a touring production.

After minor roles in The Hunger and Rambo: First Blood Part II, he had his first large role on-screen in To Live and Die in L.A. as rookie Secret Service agent John Vukovich, starring opposite William Petersen and Willem Dafoe. Pankow was cast after director William Friedkin deliberately sought out young, relatively-unknown stage actors for the project. After casting fellow Chicagoan Petersen, the old friend reached out to Pankow, who brought him to Friedkin who cast him on the spot.{{cite book| title=Hurricane Billy: The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02RZAAAAMAAJ&q=pankow| last=Segaloff| first=Nat| publisher=William Morrow| year=1990| isbn=978-0-6880-7852-2| location=New York| page=226}} He landed another major supporting role in The Secret of My Success opposite Michael J. Fox, and played Demi Moore's husband in Mortal Thoughts.

He subsequently appeared for eight seasons as Ira Buchman on the NBC sitcom Mad About You, where he was nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. He was a series regular on the Showtime/BBC series Episodes, playing American television executive Merc Lapidus. He has since appeared in numerous films and television series.

Personal life

Pankow has been married to actress Kristine Sutherland since 1986 and they have one daughter together.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} He resides in New York City.

Stage credits

class="wikitable sortable"

!Year

!Title

!Role

!Theatre

!Notes

1980

|Merton of the Movies

1982-83

|Amadeus

|Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

|Broadhurst Theatre

|Replaced Tim Curry

rowspan="3" |1981

|The Slab Boys

|Hector

|Hudson Guild Theatre

Forty-Deuce

|Perry Street Theatre

Hunting Scenes From Lower Bavaria

|Abram

|Stage 73

rowspan="2" |1982

|Cloud Nine

Jazz Poets at the Grotto

1983

|Thornhill

1984

|Henry V

1985

|The Iceman Cometh

|Rocky Pioggi

|Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

|Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Performance

rowspan="2" |1987

|Two Gentlemen of Verona

|Speed

|Delacorte Theater

North Shore Fish

rowspan="2" |1988

|Serious Money

|Zac Zackerman

|Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre

Italian American Reconciliation

|Hugh Maximillian Bonfigliano

|Manhattan Theatre Club

1989

|Aristocrats

|Eamon

|Theater Four

|Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer

1990

|Ice Cream with Hot Fudge

|Colin/Man in Devon/Shrink/Colleague/

Fellow Guest/Hitcher/Professor

1992

|Scheherazade

1995

|The Tempest

|Stephano

|Delacorte Theater

1997

|Baby Anger

|Larry Paterson

|Playwrights Horizons Wilder Theater

2001-02

|Barbra's Wedding

|Jerry Schiff

|Plays and Players Theatre

2001

|Measure for Measure

|Lucio

|Delacorte Theater

2003

|Barbra's Wedding

|Jerry Schiff

|Westside Theatre

2004

|Good Canary

|Susan Stein Shiva Theater

|Workshop

2004-05

|Twelve Angry Men

|Juror No. 7

|American Airlines Theatre

2006

|The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

|Gordon Lowther

|Acorn Theatre

2007-08

|Cymbeline

|Pisanio

|Vivian Beaumont Theater

rowspan="2" |2009

|Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them

|Reverend Mike

|The Public Theater

Keep Your Pantheon

|Pelargon

|Linda Gross Theater

2010

|Equivocation

|William Shagspeare

|New York City Center

rowspan="2" |2012

|The Taming of the Shrew

|Grumio

|New 42nd Street

Medieval Play

|Pershing Square Signature Center

2013

|Natural Affection

|Vince Brinkman

|Samuel Beckett Theatre

2014

|Much Ado About Nothing

|Dogberry

|Delacorte Theater

2015-16

|Dada Woof Papa Hot

|Michael

|Vivian Beaumont Theater

2017

|Assisted Living

|Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

|Staged reading

rowspan="2" |2018

|Turning Off The Morning News

|Jimmy

|McCarter Theatre

The True

|Charlie Ryan

|Pershing Square Signature Center

2019

|Kiss Me, Kate

|Gangster

|Studio 54

Filmography

=Film=

class="wikitable sortable"

!Year

!Title

!Role

!Notes

1981

| The Chosen

| Bully

1983

| The Hunger

| 1st Phone Booth Youth

rowspan="2" | 1985

| Rambo: First Blood Part II

| POW #6

| Uncredited

To Live and Die in L.A.

| Secret Service Agent John Vukovich

rowspan="2" | 1987

| The Secret of My Success

| Fred Melrose

*batteries not included

| Kovacs

rowspan="3" | 1988

| Johnny Be Good

| Lou Landers

| Uncredited

Monkey Shines

| Geoffrey Fisher

Talk Radio

| Deitz

rowspan="2" | 1991

| Mortal Thoughts

| Arthur Kellogg

Year of the Gun

| Italo Bianchi

1992

| A Stranger Among Us

| Levine

1998

| The Object of My Affection

| Vince McBride

2001

| Life as a House

| Bryan Burke

2002

| Advice and Dissent

| Jeffrey Goldman

| Short film

2009

| Bride Wars

| John

rowspan="2" | 2010

| The Extra Man

| George

Morning Glory

| Lenny Bergman

2012

| Putzel

| Sid

TBA

| Married Young

| Dr. Levovitz

| post-production

2020

| Before/During/After

| Jim Lonergan

| Winner: Best Ensemble Cast{{cite web| date=2020-10-21| title=2020 Filmmaker Awards| website=San Diego International Film Festival| url=https://sdfilmfest.com/2020-san-diego-intl-film-festival-filmmaker-awards-go-to/| access-date=2020-10-23| language=en-US| archive-date=2020-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023005735/https://sdfilmfest.com/2020-san-diego-intl-film-festival-filmmaker-awards-go-to/| url-status=dead| df=mdy-all}}

San Diego International Film Festival