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Bradley Whitford (born October 10, 1959) is an American actor and television writer. Whitford portrays Josh Lyman on The West Wing.

Early Life[]

Whitford was born in Madison, Wincosin, the youngest of five children to poet Genevieve Louise (nee Smith) and George Van Norman Whitford.

Between the ages of three and fourteen, Whitford lived in Wayne, Pennsylvania with his mother later residing in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.

He grew up in a Quaker household and graduated from Madison East High School in 1977. He then attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. While there, he majored in English and threate, ultimately graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and he was also a roommate of producer Paul Schiff.

Career[]

Whitford began his acting career in 1985, making his debut appearance in the Equalizer Season 1 episode, "The Children's Song". He then had a two-year recurring role in the long-running soap opera, "All My Children".

Whitford won an Emmy in 2001 for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and received nominations again in 2002 and 2003. Whitford also wrote two episodes of the series, Faith Based Initiative and Internal Displacement.

Whitford is also popular for his role as the evil businessman Eric Gordon in the 1995 comedy Billy Madison. He made his Broadway theatre debut playing Lt. Jack Ross and a few months later, Lt. Daniel Kafee in A Few Good Men, which was also written by Aaron Sorkin and made a memorable guest appearance on John Wells' ER in the award-winning episode Love's Labor Lost where he played Sean O'Brien, the husband of a woman who is admitted to the ER, suffering from complications.

Whitford also starred on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip with Matthew Perry and Timothy Busfield. He guest starred on Brooklyn Nine Nine as the hero's deadbeat dad, later working again with Jimmy Smits who played the father of the hero's girlfriend.

Whitford appeared in the films Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, Adventures in Babysitting, Presumed Innocent, Young Guns II, Scent of a Woman , My Life, Philadelphia, RoboCop 3, My Fellow Americans, Kate & Leopold, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’’ , “Little Manhattan, “and Oscar nominated film, Get Out.”

He currently appears in the American dystopian drama web television series, "The Handmaid's Tale", playing Commander Joseph Lawrence, a role that has him working once again with Elisabeth Moss who played Zoey Bartlett on the West Wing.

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