Eric Roberts

Eric Roberts is an Academy Award nominee and three-time Golden Globe nominee, celebrated for his powerful performances in “Runaway Train”, “Star 80”, and “King of the Gypsies”.

He earned critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival for “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” and “It’s My Party”, and won Best Actor at the New York Independent Film Festival for “La Cucaracha”, which also received the Best Film award at the Austin Film Festival. Roberts’ remarkably diverse filmography includes standout roles in “The Dark Knight”, “Final Analysis”, “The Specialist”, “Lovelace”, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice”, and “The Expendables”.

Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, Roberts is the son of Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, who co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop and later ran a children’s acting school in Decatur, Georgia. His sisters, Julia Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan, are also actors.
At 17, Roberts moved to New York City to pursue his passion for theater. He made his on-screen debut in 1974 on the daytime soap “How to Survive a Marriage,” followed by “Another World,” before landing his breakthrough film role in “King of the Gypsies”, earning his first Golden Globe nomination. He went on to receive another nomination for his chilling portrayal of Paul Snider in Bob Fosse’s “Star 80”, and both an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for his role as Buck McGeehy in “Runaway Train”.

Roberts’ extensive list of over 700 screen credits spans more than four decades, featuring performances in “Raggedy Man”, “The Pope of Greenwich Village”, “The Coca-Cola Kid”, “Best of the Best”, “The Ambulance”, “Cecil B. Demented”, “The Informers”, “Inside the Rain”, Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon”, and the indie hit “Murder at Hollow Creek”.

On television, Roberts has delivered memorable performances across an impressive range of genres — from the 1997 acclaimed miniseries “In Cold Blood” and his award-winning turn in the sitcom “Less Than Perfect”, to fan-favorite appearances on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “CSI: Miami,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Finder,” and “Entourage.” He made franchise history as the only non-UK actor to portray the Master in the 1996 “Doctor Who” television film, and has held recurring roles in “Heroes”, “The Young and the Restless”, “Suits”, “Empire”, and “The Righteous Gemstones”.

Widely regarded as one of the most prolific screen actors in the English-speaking world, Roberts appeared in an astonishing 74 films in 2017 alone — a testament to his unparalleled work ethic and versatility.

In 2024, Roberts joined Season 33 of “Dancing with the Stars,” partnered with Britt Stewart. That same year, he released his memoir, Runaway Train: Or, The Story of My Life So Far, published by St. Martin’s Press and co-written with Vanity Fair contributor Sam Kashner.