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Tom McGowan
McGowan in Bean (1997)
Born	Thomas McGowan (1959-07-26) July 26, 1959 (age 65) Belmar, New Jersey, U.S.
Education	Hofstra University (BFA) Yale University (MFA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1991–present
Children	2

Thomas McGowan (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. He first became known for his stage career both on and off Broadway. In 1991, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut performance in La Bête. In 2011, McGowan was chosen to step into the role of the Wizard in Wicked on Broadway. In 2014, McGowan starred in Harvey Fierstein's original Broadway play Casa Valentina which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Since then he has appeared in the Broadway revivals of She Loves Me (2016) and Kiss Me, Kate (2019).

He is also known for his recurring role on the Emmy Award winning NBC show Frasier, as KACL station manager Kenny Daly. He has also appeared on a variety of shows including Everybody Loves Raymond, The Practice, ER, Desperate Housewives, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Modern Family, Veep and The Good Fight.

He has appeared in films such as Heavyweights, Sleepless in Seattle, The Birdcage, As Good as It Gets, True Crime, Ghost World, and Bad Santa.

Career

On Broadway he appeared in La Bête (1991), for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. Off Broadway, he won an Obie Award for his performance in Nicky Silver's play The Food Chain. He played the role of Pat Finley in the 1995 movie Heavyweights and the role of Patrick Fisher in the 2006 movie Twelve and Holding.

McGowan has been performing the role of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in various companies of Wicked since 2009. He first played the Wizard in the original Second National Tour production, beginning March 7, 2009. He finished with the touring company on December 6, 2009, transferring to the San Francisco production, playing the Wizard from December 22, 2009, through September 5, 2010, when the production closed. He then returned to the Second National Tour, resuming performances on January 11, 2011, and concluding his performances on the tour on April 17, 2011. McGowan joined the Broadway company of the show from May 3, 2011, through February 5, 2012. Thereafter, he moved to the show's First National Tour, playing the role from August 2012 through April 2013. He has since performed the role on Broadway intermittently, including from August 13, 2013, through February 22, 2014, and onward from July 15, 2014. McGowan played the role in the West End production of the show from September 21, 2015, through March 12, 2016.

McGowan was in the 2016 Broadway revival of She Loves Me as Ladislav Sipos. McGowan played the character Falstaff in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor at San Diego's The Old Globe Theatre in August 2023.

Personal life

McGowan grew up in Belmar, New Jersey. He graduated from Belmar's St. Rose High School in 1977. Upon graduation from high school, he attended Hofstra University and the Yale School of Drama, from which he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1988. He and his wife, Cathy, have a son, Mark (born May 5, 1992) and a daughter, Mary (born February 10, 1995).

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations

References

1. "Dodd, Yorke, Caskey and McGowan to Star in Wicked's Second North American Tour" Archived 2009-02-12 at the Wayback Machine, playbill.com, February 9, 2009
2. "Broadway's Wicked Will Welcome Tom McGowan Beginning May 3". Archived from the original on May 4, 2011.
3. "Tom McGowan joins the cast of Wicked from 21 Sep". Londontheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
4. "Review: Old Globe's 'Merry Wives' is clever and eye-popping, but needs focus on Falstaff". 8 August 2023.
5. Marks, Peter. "On Stage, and Off", The New York Times, September 8, 1995. Accessed August 9, 2008. "Fortunately, the 36-year-old actor, a native of Belmar, N.J., needs a lot of padding on his 200-plus-pound frame to play Otto, whose eating compulsion feeds into one of the central themes of Nicky Silver's new comedy, which opened last month to largely enthusiastic reviews."
6. Mann, Virginia. "PRESERVING A DISTINCTIVE NEW JERSEY FLAVOR", The Record (Bergen County), June 19, 1992. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
7. ^ "Tom McGowan". Playbill.

External links

• Tom McGowan at IMDb
• Tom McGowan at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tom McGowan at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

• 1959 births
• Male actors from New Jersey
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• Hofstra University alumni
• Living people
• People from Belmar, New Jersey
• St. Rose High School alumni
• David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• Actors from Monmouth County, New Jersey