Bradley Whitford (born October 10, 1959) is an American actor and political activist. He portrayed White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman in the NBC television drama The West Wing, for which he was nominated for three consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards from 2001 to 2003, winning in 2001. This role also earned him three consecutive Golden Globe Award nominations.
Whitford also played Danny Tripp in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Dan Stark in the Fox police buddy-comedy The Good Guys, Timothy Carter, a character who was believed to be Red John, in the CBS series The Mentalist, antagonist Eric Gordon in the film Billy Madison, Arthur Parsons in The Post, Dean Armitage in the horror film Get Out and Roger Peralta in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
In 2015, he won a second Primetime Emmy Award for his role as Marcy in Transparent and later garnered a fifth Primetime Emmy Award nomination for portraying Magnus Hirschfeld in the same series. He was an occasional columnist for The Huffington Post until November 2009.
Whitford first appeared on television in 1985 in an episode of The Equalizer. His film debut was in the 1986 film Dead as a Doorman. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1990 playing Lt. Jack Ross (followed a few months later in the lead role of Lt. Daniel Kaffee), in the Aaron Sorkin written play A Few Good Men. This was the beginning of a recurring working relationship between Whitford and Sorkin. Whitford also made a guest appearance on ER in the Emmy award-winning March 1995 episode "Love's Labor Lost".
Whitford joined the cast of Sorkin's The West Wing as Josh Lyman with the show's premiere in 1999. For his role, he won an Emmy Award in 2001 for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Whitford also wrote two episodes of the series ("Faith Based Initiative" in the sixth season and "Internal Displacement" in the seventh). After The West Wing ended in May 2006, Whitford appeared in Sorkin's later series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip playing the role of Danny Tripp. He appeared in the British drama Burn Up on the BBC in July 2008.
He starred on Broadway in Boeing-Boeing which began in previews on April 19, 2008 and opened on May 4, 2008. He left the show in September 2008, and was succeeded in the role by Greg Germann. He co-starred in the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard horror film The Cabin in the Woods, filmed in 2009 but not released until April 2012. In 2010, Whitford starred as Dan Stark in the Fox TV comedy The Good Guys opposite Colin Hanks.
In 2011, Whitford guest starred in In Plain Sight on USA Network as a man combatting paranoia. He appeared in the season three finale of The Mentalist as a minion of and decoy for "Red John", the long-sought nemesis of the show's protagonist Patrick Jane. Whitford also appeared on Law & Order: Los Angeles as a lawyer. On September 15, 2011, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, in partnership with Broadway Impact, announced the complete cast—including Whitford—and roles for the one-night only staged reading of 8, a new play chronicling the historic trial in the federal legal challenge to California's Proposition 8.
In 2013, Whitford played Pete Harrison in the ABC comedy Trophy Wife, which was canceled after one season. Most recently, Whitford appeared in the Amazon series Transparent in the first season in a recurring role as a cross-dressing businessman and in the second season in a recurring role as Magnus Hirschfeld.
Since 2015 Whitford has had a recurring role on Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Roger Peralta, father of lead character Det. Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg).
In 2017, Whitford played Dean Armitage, a father and neurosurgeon, in the racially themed horror film Get Out.
In 2018, he joined the cast of The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu as Commander Joseph Lawrence. Whitford guest starred in the final two episodes of the second season and is set to reprise his role in the third season.
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