A New York Heartbeat

A highly acclaimed film and television actor, Eric Roberts has racked up an impressive list of professional accolades over decades in the business. In 1986 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the film Runaway Train, for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination. He received Golden Globe nominations for his performances in Star 80 (1983) and King of the Gypsies (1978).

Roberts received critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival for his roles in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and It’s My Party. In 1998, he starred in La Cucaracha, for which he won Best Actor at the New York Independent Film Festival. Other notable performances include his roles in Final Analysis, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Raggedy Man, The Specialist, The Dark Knight and The Expendables. In 2013, he will be seen in Lovelace opposite Amanda Seyfried, Wes Bentley, Peter Sarsgaard and James Franco.

As a television actor, Roberts received international attention for recent roles in NBC’s Heroes, HBO’s Entourage and Showtime’s The L Word. He also made a profound impact in the Emmy-nominated adaptation of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood directed by Jonathan Kaplan and co-starring Anthony Edwards.

Director Tjardus Greidanus cast Roberts as Casket Mike for his ability to infuse humanity into his roles. Greidanus says: “It was essential to have someone whose menacing threat can be felt even when he's not present in the scene.”