Michael Cristofer

Michael Cristofer (born January 22, 1945) is an American actor, playwright, and filmmaker. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for The Shadow Box in 1977. From 2015 to 2019, he played the role of Phillip Price in the television series Mr. Robot.

Life and career

Cristofer was born Michael Procaccino in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Mary and Joseph Procaccino. Raised in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, he started acting as a student at Notre Dame High School.

He started his theatrical career as an actor, primarily on stage. He also started writing plays. He has also written numerous screenplays for film.

Cristofer was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for the Broadway production of his play The Shadow Box (1977). Other plays include Breaking Up at Primary Stages; Ice at Manhattan Theatre Club; Black Angel at Circle Repertory Company; The Lady and the Clarinet (starring Stockard Channing), produced by the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf Theater, Off-Broadway and on the London Fringe; and Amazing Grace (1996; starring Marsha Mason), which received the American Theater Critics Award as the best play produced in the United States during the 1996–1997 season.

Cristofer's film work includes the screenplays for The Shadow Box, directed by Paul Newman (Golden Globe Award, Emmy nomination); Falling in Love; The Witches of Eastwick, adapted from the novel by John Updike; The Bonfire of the Vanities, adapted from the novel by Tom Wolfe and directed by Brian De Palma; Breaking Up, and Casanova.

His directing credits include Gia, starring Angelina Jolie, Mercedes Ruehl and Faye Dunaway, which was nominated for five Emmy Awards and for which he won a Directors Guild Award. He next directed Body Shots and Original Sin, released in 2001.

For eight years, he worked as artistic advisor and finally co-artistic director of River Arts Repertory in Woodstock, New York, a company which produced plays by writers such as Richard Nelson, Mac Wellman, and Eric Overmeyer, including the American premiere of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, a production that later moved to Off-Broadway.

Also at River Arts, he wrote stage adaptations of the films Love Me or Leave Me and Casablanca. He directed Joanne Woodward in his adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts. His most recent work for the theater, The Whore and Mr. Moore, premiered at Dorset Theatre Festival's 2012 summer season. He collaborated with trumpeter Terence Blanchard, writing the libretto for Champion, a boxing opera in jazz music based on the life of prize fighter Emile Griffith. It premiered in June 2013 at Opera Theater of St. Louis. His work Execution of the Caregiver is based on the true story of a woman in South Carolina who killed her mother, fiancé and several people for whom she purportedly was caring.

After a 15-year hiatus, Cristofer returned to his acting career, appearing in Romeo and Juliet (New York Shakespeare Festival), Trumpery by Peter Parnell, Three Sisters (Williamstown Theater), Body of Water (with Christine Lahti), and the Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge (starring Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson). He recently appeared in The Other Woman (with Natalie Portman), and created the role of Gus in Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures at the Public Theater.

In 2010, Cristofer was a cast member on Rubicon, in which he played Truxton Spangler. In 2012, he played Jerry Rand on Smash.

In 2013–2014, he played millionaire witch-hunter Harrison Renard in American Horror Story: Coven. In 2015, Cristofer made guest appearances in four episodes of season one of Mr. Robot as Phillip Price, the shadowy CEO of the sinister E Corp, and he became a cast member in season two, three, and four.

Works Plays The Shadow Box (1975) Black Angel (1978) The Lady and the Clarinet (1980) Breaking Up (1990) The Blues Are Running (1996) Man in the Ring (2016)

Films Year Title Director Writer 1984 Falling in Love 1987 The Witches of Eastwick 1990 The Bonfire of the Vanities 1993 Mr. Jones 1997 Breaking Up 1999 Body Shots 2001 Original Sin 2005 Casanova 2016 Chuck 2020 The Night Clerk

Acting roles Year Title Role Notes 1973 The Exorcist Voice Uncredited 1974 The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder Alessini 1978 An Enemy of the People Hovstad 1984 The Little Drummer Girl Tayeh 1995 Die Hard with a Vengeance CIA Agent Bill Jarvis 2009 The Other Woman Sheldon 2014 Emoticon ;) Walter Nevins 2015 The Adderall Diaries Paul Hora Chronic John The Girl in the Book Dad 2016 Year by the Sea Robin

Television Year Title Director Writer Notes 1980 The Shadow Box TV movie 1983 Candida 1998 Gia 2009 Georgia O'Keeffe Eastwick Episode: "Pilot" 2024 The Great Lillian Hall TV movie

Acting roles Year Title Role Notes 1974 The Magician David Webster Episode: "The Illusion of Black Gold" Gunsmoke Ben 2 episodes 1974–1976 Carl Sandburg's Lincoln John Nicolay 5 episodes 1975 The Rookies Charlie Phillips Episode: "Someone Who Cares" Kojak Michael Viggers Jr. Episode: "Over the Water" 1975 Crime Club Frank Swoboda TV movie Knuckle Curly 1976 The Entertainer Frank The Last of Mrs. Lincoln Robert Lincoln 1977 The Andros Targets Ron Comack Episode: "The Surrender" 2010 Rubicon Truxton Spangler 11 episodes 2012 Suits Paul Porter Episode: "The Choice" 2012–2013 Smash Jerry Rand 15 episodes 2013–2014 American Horror Story: Coven Harrison Renard 3 episodes 2013–2016 Ray Donovan Father Daniel O'Connor 5 episodes 2014 Elementary Isaac Pyke Episode: "Bella" 2015–2019 Mr. Robot Phillip Price Main role 2024–present Fallout Elder Cleric Quintus 5 episodes