Bio
William Devane is an American film, theatre and television actor best known for his ten years as the villainous Greg Sumner on the drama series Knots Landing.
He also recently starred opposite Kiefer Sutherland on 24, as Secretary of Defense James Heller.
Born in Albany, New York, Devane started acting in neighbourhood theatres while in high school. He went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, and made his professional debut with the New York Shakespeare Festival in The Merchant of Venice.
By 1971 he was giving New York audiences a critically acclaimed performance in the Broadway revival production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Clive Barnes of the New York Times praised his portrayal, saying: "He dominates the stage like a bank robber with a gun".
Making television history in 1974 when he starred as John F. Kennedy in the highly acclaimed The Missiles of October, about the Cuban missile crisis, Devane followed up with almost a decade of great television roles.
In l983 he landed the role of the enigmatic and unpredictable business tycoon, Gregory Sumner, on the hugely successful Knots Landing - a performance that US Weekly called cohesive and compelling, year after year.
During the show's nine-year run, Devane garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series, Drama, and two Soap Opera Digest Awards for Outstanding Leading Actor, Primetime.
Devane has worked with an illustrious group of actors in feature films, including Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland in Space Cowboys.
He also worked with Dustin Hoffman and Sir Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man, with Vanessa Redgrave in Yanks, and with the legendary Alfred Hitchcock in the director's final film, Family Plot.
As successful in business as he is in acting, Devane owns and manages a 140-acre working horse farm, as well as Devane's, a casual Italian restaurant in Indio, California.
An avid golfer, he has appeared in several celebrity golf television specials and celebrity golf books, and plays in tournaments across the country.