Denis O'Hare
Denis O'Hare is an acclaimed American actor celebrated for his work in theater, film, and television. Born on January 1, 1962, in Kansas City, Missouri, he grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, where he discovered his passion for acting at a young age. O'Hare is particularly known for his performances in Broadway productions such as "Cabaret," where he played Ernst Ludwig, and "Take Me Out," for which he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. His television credits include notable roles in popular series like "True Blood," where he portrayed the powerful vampire Russell Edgington, and "American Horror Story," earning an Emmy nomination for his performances.
Beyond his professional achievements, O'Hare has openly discussed his journey as a gay man, having come out to his family at the age of nineteen. He has navigated personal challenges, including struggles with alcoholism, which he overcame in 1989. O'Hare's personal life includes his marriage to interior designer Hugo Redwood in 2011 and their son, Declan. His career continues to flourish, with recent roles in series such as "The Nevers" and films like "A Quiet Place: Day One," reflecting his versatility and commitment to his craft.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Denis O'Hare
Actor
- Born: January 17, 1962
- Place of Birth: Kansas City, Missouri
Contribution: Denis O’Hare is a Tony Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated American actor best known for his roles in the Broadway plays Cabaret and Take Me Out, as well as for his parts in the television shows True Blood and American Horror Story.
Background
Denis Patrick Seamus O’Hare was born on January 1, 1962, in Kansas City, Missouri, the fourth of five children born to John M. O’Hare, a labor negotiator, and Margaret Karene (née Kennedy), a nurse and musician. Soon after he was born, the family moved to the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, where the children were raised.
O’Hare knew that he was gay when he was still a child. He began dating men at twelve years old, but while he was at Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, he attempted to date girls. O’Hare discovered his love of acting at age thirteen when he joined the chorus of a Southfield Civic Center production of Showboat. The next year, he landed a role in Carousel. This set him on a path of theater performances that would last throughout his high school years.
When he turned eighteen, O’Hare enrolled at Northwestern University in Illinois, returning home every summer to work various odd jobs. At nineteen, he revealed to his parents that he was gay; he has stated in interviews that his parents found this disclosure difficult to accept but that they eventually supported him.
O’Hare stayed in Chicago after graduating from Northwestern in 1984. In between working odd jobs such as bartending and waiting tables, he continually performed in plays at the Stormfield Theatre Company. During this time, O’Hare struggled with alcoholism, but with the help of his partner at the time, he entered rehab and became sober by 1989.
Career
By the early 1990s, O’Hare had been acting in the title role of John Logan’s play Hauptmann for some time, as it had debuted in Chicago—with O’Hare playing the lead—in 1986. When the production moved to Off-Broadway theater in New York in 1992, O’Hare relocated with it. After the play completed its New York run in the spring of 1992, he remained in the city to continue his career.
O’Hare made his Broadway debut in 1995 when he landed a role in Racing Demon, a 1990 play by David Hare. As his theatrical presence around New York began to increase through several more off-Broadway productions, O’Hare broke into screen acting with roles in episodes of Law & Order (1993, 1996–97, 2003) and New York Undercover (1994). He debuted on the big screen in the 1997 feature St. Patrick’s Day.
In 1998, O’Hare was cast in the main role of Ernst Ludwig in a Broadway revival of Cabaret, for which he also played the clarinet in the show’s Kit Kat Band. He stayed with the show from February 1998 to May 1999; Cabaret would continue to run until January 2004. O’Hare also played a supporting role for the Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown (1999) between performances of Cabaret.
In addition to episodic television roles, O’Hare’s film career picked up in the early 2000s with parts in The Anniversary Party (2001), 21 Grams (2003), and Garden State (2004). He continued to perform in off-Broadway plays as well as on Broadway, starring as Adolphus Cusins in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara in 2001 and Mason Marzac in Richard Greenberg’s play Take Me Out, which previewed in February 2003 and ran until January 2004. An all-male sports drama set mostly in a men’s locker room, Take Me Out revolves around themes of racism and homophobia. The play premiered to wide critical acclaim, and O’Hare later won a Tony Award for best featured actor in a play for his performance.
The fame and success that O’Hare received from his theatrical performances helped further his film career. In addition to starring in prominent Broadway stage roles in Assassins (2004) and Sweet Charity (2005), he also appeared in supporting roles in the films Derailed (2005), A Mighty Heart (2007), and Michael Clayton (2007).
O’Hare kept up a steady stream of film appearances into the late 2000s in such features as Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), Baby Mama (2008), Changeling (2008), and the historical drama Milk (2008), in which he plays an anti-gay California state senator.
In 2009, O’Hare landed the recurring character of Judge Charles Abernathy on the legal drama The Good Wife. The following year he was cast as a recurring character in the third season of the HBO vampire series True Blood, portraying Russell Edgington, a powerful vampire from Mississippi, over the next two years. In 2011, O’Hare was cast as Larry Harvey in FX’s anthology horror series American Horror Story. The actor appears in most of the show’s first season, entitled Murder House, and in 2012 he was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor in a miniseries.
O’Hare continued to work in theater into the early 2010s, including his portrayal of the title character of the Broadway comedy Elling in 2010. He also cowrote and starred in the award-winning Off-Broadway production An Iliad in 2012. O’Hare’s film work during this time included supporting roles in the Mel Gibson thriller Edge of Darkness (2010) and Clint Eastwood's historical biopic J. Edgar (2011). In addition to further roles in films such as Dallas Buyers Club (2013), The Judge (2014), From Nowhere (2016), Novitiate (2017), Lizzie (2018), and The Goldfinch (2019), he would remain heavily involved with American Horror Story, appearing in every season between 2011 and 2016 except for the series' second. In that show alone, he displayed his versatility in the wide range of characters he portrayed, from a con artist to a transgender bartender; for his turn as the former, he earned another Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie. Additionally, between 2016 and 2018 he appeared as the recurring character Jessie in the hit NBC series This Is Us, putting forth such a memorable performance that he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
O’Hare continued pursuing an active film and television career in the 2020s. Most notably, he played the recurring role of Dr. Edmund Hague on The Nevers (2021-2023). He also appeared on television shows like American Gods (2021), American Horror Story (2022), and Evil (2024). On the silver screen, he played parts in such films as The Postcard Killings (2020), Infinite Storm (2022), and The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure (2024). O'Hare also starred in the blockbuster 2024 hit A Quiet Place: Day One. In 2023-2024, the actor portrayed Man in composer Stephen Sondheim's final musical, Here We Are, after Sondheim's death in 2021.
Impact
O’Hare made a successful career first in local theater and then in larger Broadway and off-Broadway productions. As he has spent the majority of his acting career on stage, his talents lie mostly in his skilled dramatic performances of lifelike characters. He has transferred his excellence in drama to great success in both film and television, proving himself to be a multitalented actor deserving of respect and attention.
Personal Life
O’Hare was previously in a relationship with Derek Anson Jones. In July 2011 O’Hare married interior designer Hugo Redwood in New York City, several days after the state of New York legalized same-sex marriage. They have one son, Declan.
Bibliography
Brantley, Ben. “Love Affair with Baseball and a Lot of Big Ideas.” Rev. of Take Me Out, dir. Joe Mantello. New York Times 28 Feb. 2003: E3. Print.
"Denis O'Hare." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0641354. Accessed 17 Sept. 2024.
“Denis O’Hare on American Horror Story: Actor Joins Coven.” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 July 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.
O’Hare, Denis. “A Character He Can Sink His Phobias Into.” Interview by Joyce Wadler. New York Times 10 Nov. 2010: 6. Print.
O’Hare, Denis. “Staging a Coup.” Interview by Julie Yolles. Hour Detroit. Hour Media, Jan. 2008. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.
Redwood, Hugo, and Denis O’Hare. “Thicker than Blood.” Interview by Jerry Portwood. Out Feb. 2012: 67. Print.
Stanhope, Kate. “True Blood’s Dennis O’Hare Marries.” TV Guide. CBS Interactive, 28 July 2011. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.