Short Biography

Kenneth Joseph "Ken" Howard, Jr. (born March 28, 1944) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in 1776 and the television show The White Shadow as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves. He was elected to be the president of the Screen Actor`s Guild in September 2009. Howard was born in El Centro, California, the son of Martha Carey (née McDonald) and Kenneth Joseph Howard, Sr. His younger brother, the late Don Howard, was also an actor. He stands approximately 6`6" (1.98 m) which in high school earned him the nickname "Stork." He grew up in the Long Island community of Manhasset, New York, He attended Manhasset High School, where he started on the basketball team. He turned down several offers of basketball scholarships after high school in favor of a more focused academic education. He is a graduate of Amherst College where he played varsity basketball and was a member of the a capella singing group, "The Zumbyes". He attended Yale School of Drama but left to make his Broadway debut before completing his master`s degree.

Howard began his career on Broadway in Promises, Promises with Jerry Orbach. In 1970, he won a Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for Child`s Play. Howard later starred on Broadway as Thomas Jefferson in 1776 (a role he reprised in the 1972 film) and in Seesaw in 1973 andThe Norman Conquests in 1974 he starred in The Manhunter, an American crime drama that was part of CBS` lineup for the 1974 - 1975 television season. The series was produced by Quinn Martin and starred Howard as Dave Barret, a 1930s-era private investigator from Idaho. In 1975 He is known for his portrayal of US Presidents, including the Broadway musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1976, and as Warren G. Harding in Camping with Harry and Tom in 1995. He has appeared in legitimate theater all over the country, most recently as Tip O`Neill in a one-man show in Boston, According to Tip, at the New Repertory Theater in Watertown. On television, he appeared as Ken Reeves, a Los Angeles high school basketball coach, in The White Shadow produced by Bruce Paltrow in 1978. (The nickname was given to him in 1961 by the Long Island press when he was the only Caucasian starter on the Manhasset High School varsity basketball team.) In 1981 he won a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance as the ideal father in the CBS afternoon special The Body Human: Facts for Boys. Additional credits include "Sidney Sheldon`s Rage of Angels, 1983" and the 2000 miniseries Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and the feature film Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, both co-starring Kris Kristofferson. Howard has had starring roles in the 1973 TV series Adam`s Rib with his good friend, Blythe Danner and The Manhunter in 1974. He played the title character in the 1984 American Playhouse production of Mark Twain`s Pudd`nhead Wilson. He was a regular on the television series Murder, She Wrote as guest sleuth with Angela Lansbury and later in Crossing Jordan as Jill Hennessey`s father in 2001. Later, he starred as Garrett Boydston in Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys. He was guest villain in Hart to Hart Returns with Stephanie Powers and Robert Wagner a 1993 made for TV movie. Howard appeared in season one of The West Wing as President Bartlett`s first choice for U.S. Supreme Court Justice in the episode "The Short List". He has guest starred in The Practice, Boston Legal and in an episode of The Golden Girls as

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