James Todd Spader ( ; born February 7, 1960) is an American actor. He is known for often portraying morally ambiguous and eccentric characters. His accolades include three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and ten Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Spader began acting in youth-oriented films such as Tuff Turf, The New Kids (both 1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), and Mannequin (1987). His breakthrough role came in Steven Soderbergh's drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), for which he received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. He then starred in films such as White Palace (1990), True Colors (1991), Stargate (1994), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), and Secretary (2002). Spader took supporting roles in Bob Roberts (1992), Wolf (1994), Lincoln (2012), and The Homesman (2014). He also played the role of Ultron in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
His television roles include the attorney Alan Shore in the last season of The Practice (2003–2004) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004–2008), which earned him three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He portrayed Robert California in the sitcom The Office (2011–2012). He then starred as Raymond Reddington in the NBC crime thriller television series The Blacklist (2013–2023), for which he received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor – Television Series Drama.
Early life and education
James Todd Spader was born on February 7, 1960, in Boston, Massachusetts, and is the youngest of three children. His parents, Jean (née Fraser) and Stoddard ("Todd") Greenwood Spader, were both teachers. He grew up on the North Shore near Andover, Massachusetts, and in Marion, Massachusetts, near Cape Cod. He worked at the General Grocery Store where he was simply known as "Jimmy". Spader is a sixth-generation descendant of Connecticut politician Seth P. Beers. Laurent Clerc, co-founder of the American School for the Deaf, is his 3rd great-grandfather.
During his early education, he attended many private schools, including The Pike School in Andover where his mother taught art, and the Brooks School in North Andover where his father was a teacher.
He won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2004 for his portrayal on The Practice and won it again in 2005 and 2007 for Boston Legal. With the 2005 win, he became one of only a few actors to win an Emmy Award while playing the same character in two series. Even rarer, he won a second consecutive Emmy while playing the same character in two series. He also won the Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical for Boston Legal in 2006. He starred in Race, a play written and directed by David Mamet, which opened on December 6, 2009, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway. The show closed on August 21, 2010, after 297 performances. In March 2011, he was named to star in the film By Virtue Fall, written and to be directed by Sheldon Turner. , the movie was in pre-production.
Spader guest-starred as Robert California in "Search Committee", the season 7 finale of The Office. He then joined the cast as a regular member for the eighth season. While the original plan was just to do a guest appearance, executive producer Paul Lieberstein later said, "Those two scenes became a season".
Spader starred in the television series The Blacklist, which premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013, and had its series finale on July 13, 2023, for a total of 10 seasons. He portrayed Raymond "Red" Reddington, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives.
He also played the villainous robot Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and will reprise the role in the upcoming Disney+ series VisionQuest (2026).
Personal life
Spader met his wife, decorator Victoria Kheel, while she was working in a yoga studio after he moved to New York City in the 1980s. They married in 1987 and had two sons. Spader filed for divorce from Kheel in 2004. He began dating his former Alien Hunter (2003) co-star, Leslie Stefanson, in 2002. They have one son together.
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2014, Spader revealed he has obsessive–compulsive disorder.