Anthony Edwards

 Anthony Charles Edwards (born July 19, 1962) is an American actor and director.  He has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Top Gun, Zodiac, Miracle Mile, Revenge of the Nerds, Northern Exposure, and ER.

 Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Erika Kem (née Weber), an artist/landscape painter, and Peter Edwards, an architect. He has two older sisters, Heidi and Ann-Marie, and two older brothers, Peter and Jeffrey. Edwards was encouraged by his parents to attend college before pursuing his interest in acting. He received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in England and studied theater at University of Southern California but by the age of nineteen was being offered enough acting work to enable him to leave college.

Edwards's early work includes a co-starring role in the TV series It Takes Two with Richard Crenna and Patty Duke Astin as his parents and Helen Hunt as his sister. He made an cameo in the hit 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High as "Stoner Bud." In 1984, He starred in the hit comedy film Revenge of the Nerds playing the main role of Gilbert Lowe, a sensitive and well meaning nerd, Lewis' (played by Robert Carradine) best friend and would later be president of the tri-lambs. He reprises the role of Gilbert again in the sequel Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987), with his character in an broken leg after "Playing a game of chess." In 2000, his character, Gilbert would appear in footage from Revenge of the Nerds in the TV documentary Twentieth Century Fox: The Blockbuster Years.

It was his role as LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw alongside Tom Cruise in the 1986 film Top Gun that brought his first widespread public acknowledgement. His character, who died in an aviation accident, was among the most prominent and popular in the film. He also appeared as a terminally ill patient in Hawks (1988) alongside Timothy Dalton, another role which brought him worldwide fame. He also starred in the 1990 movie Downtown with Penelope Ann Miller and Forest Whitaker. He also played widowed veterinarian Chase Matthews, father of Edward Furlong's character in the horror film, Pet Sematary Two (1992), a sequel to the film Pet Sematary in 1989. In 1992 and 1993 he played Mike Monroe in ten episodes of Northern Exposure.

His best known role to date is as Dr. Mark Greene on the long-running TV series ER, where he resided from its premiere in 1994 to the end of the 8th season in 2002. The series also afforded Edwards his first opportunity to direct. Edwards's desire to pursue directing led to his request to be written out of the series, leading to his character's death from brain cancer. He reportedly earned $35,000,000 for three seasons on ER, which made him one of the highest-paid television actors to date. Anthony Edwards and his former co-star George Clooney were the ones who suggested doing an episode of ER live. The fourth season premiere, "Ambush" was performed live twice with an East Coast and West Coast version.

He never won a Primetime Emmy, though he was nominated four times. He won a Golden Globe Award For Best Performance by an Actor-In a TV Series after being nominated four times, and he has two Screen Actor's Guild Awards.

In 2007, Edwards appeared as SFPD inspector Bill Armstrong in David Fincher's Zodiac, about the Zodiac Killer, the notorious serial killer who terrorized San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2008, Edwards returned to ER to reprise his role as Dr. Greene (in flashback scenes, where he treats the dying son of character Catherine Banfield) for one episode during its 15th and final season.

In 2010, Edwards appeared in the movie Motherhood, which set a record for the biggest bomb in British cinema history garnering just £88 on 11 tickets on opening weekend. In the United States Motherhood did not fare much better earning just $93,388 in three weeks of release.

In 2013, Edwards returned to episodic television with the conspiracy drama, Zero Hour, playing the male lead Hank Galliston. After three episodes Zero Hour has been cancelled due poor ratings. There is a chance it returns to finish off season 1 but for now there are no more new episodes of Zero Hour scheduled to air on ABC or Global.