An actor of laid-back charm, gravelly voice and rugged looks, Dermot Mulroney embodied the toughness and vulnerability of onscreen male maturation. After spending the 1990s crafting intimate roles in well-regarded indie films, Mulroney was thrust into the mainstream spotlight – first, as Holly Hunter’s doomed police partner in the serial killer flick “Copycat” (1995), and more importantly, as romantic leading man to Julia Roberts in the star-making blockbuster, “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997). His role in the latter romantic comedy was so highly identifiable with Mulroney, that he spent the next decade diversifying his resume with various character parts, only to return to the rom-com fold with a series of highly enjoyable portrayals in such “chick-flick” comedies as “The Wedding Date” (2005), “Must Love Dogs” (2005) and “The Family Stone” (2005).
Born on Oct. 31, 1963 in his parents’ native Iowa and raised in the Rosemont section of Alexandria, VA, Mulroney was the middle child of five. Mulroney’s mother, Ellen, was an actress-turned-homemaker while his father, Michael, was a tax lawyer who went on to teach at Villanova University. His dual creative life took shape in the summer of 1971, when at age seven, he took up the cello and acted in his first play – one of several in which he would perform locally as a child. The family was very musical, with all siblings eventually taking up a wide array of instruments, but for Mulroney, both acting and music became intertwined passions.
Spending his early educational years at Maury Elementary and George Washington Junior High, Mulroney moved on to T.C. Williams High School, playing the part of both athlete and artist; simultaneously juggling his time on the school’s crew team, along with performing in stage productions and in half a dozen youth concerts as its cellist. Mulroney was so multifaceted, that after attending the famous Interlochen Summer Arts Camp in Michigan during the summer of 1979, he came to realize that he preferred music as a personal interest and not a career choice; focusing instead on improving his dramatic chops.
Graduating high school in 1981, Mulroney headed to Chicago to study under the TV, Radio and Film department at Northwestern University, where he immersed himself in all elements of production. Charming his way into some acting classes with his continued love of the stage, Mulroney appeared in the school’s improv shows, “The Mee-Ow Show,” and Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado.” Just before he graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor’s degree in Music and Film, a senior agent from Hollywood’s elite William Morris Agency was in town to recruit local talent. Mulroney prepped a monologue from Sam Shepard’s “Fool for Love” and auditioned. Impressing the agent, he was signed to the agency, and that summer moved out to Los Angeles.
Mulroney quickly began appearing in television roles that utilized his youthful looks, nabbing the role of Bill Bixby’s son, who falls for his new step-sister in CBS’ “Sin of Innocence” (1986). 1986 quickly turned into a busy year, as Mulroney found himself cast in teen-in-peril roles, such as the drug-addicted teen in CBS’ Afterschool Special, “The Drug Knot” (1986). He had a national spotlight cast upon him the following year when teen pregnancy became the pressing order of ABC’s “Daddy” (1987), in which Mulroney played a teen musician that unexpectedly becomes a father.
Beginning with HBO’s telefilm “Long Gone” (1987), Mulroney started to break out of the troubled youth mode, with the actor playing an Alabama-born baseball player recruited to a struggling minor league team, even recruiting his own mother to portray his fictional one. Eager to prove his ability on the big screen, he had his first stint in a feature film – Blake Edwards’ Beverly Hills whodunit, “Sunset” (1987) – but made his first real splash as the hunky, but nasty gunslinger “Dirty Steve” of the hit western, “Young Guns” (1988). In his personal life, he had also taken on the role of boyfriend, after he befriended his “Survival Quest” (1989) co-star Catherine Keener during its 1987 production. The couple lived together for close to three years, before tying the knot in 1990.
Proving adept at projects of varying sizes, Mulroney was also willing to push himself to the depths of challenging, smaller material. He had a notable role as a dying AIDS patient in the independent drama, “Longtime Companion” (1990), a seminal early film dealing with the media’s treatment of homosexuality and the AIDS crisis. In 1991, he appeared in the western-flavored coming of age drama “Bright Angel,” forging a strong working relationship with a personal hero, his co-star Sam Shepard, who would later hand-pick the actor to play his son in his own western, “Silent Tongue” (1994). His recent projects had steered him more towards characters on the cusp of manhood, most reflected in a big screen drama about maturing runaways in L.A., “Where the Day Takes You” (1992), a who’s-who of rising Hollywood talent. Off screen, he continued his musical ventures, playing cello and mandolin on then newcomer Melissa Etheridge’s Never Enough album.
Returning to the world of studio filmmaking in 1993, Mulroney was less-than-fulfilled as assassin Bridget Fonda’s clueless boyfriend in the slick action vehicle, “Point of No Return” (1993), but put his talents to better use, co-starring in Peter Bogdanovich’s country music tale, “The Thing Called Love” (1993). The film re-teamed Mulroney with his “Where the Day Takes You” co-star, River Phoenix, putting his musicianship on display by writing and performing the song “Someone Else’s Used Guitar.” Mulroney quickly became one of several semi-regular actors of indie filmmaker Tom DiCillo – a group which included Keener and their friend, actor Steve Buscemi. All three appeared in the cult favorite “Living in Oblivion” (1995), expanded from DiCillo’s 1994 short, “Scene Six, Take One,” with Mulroney associate producing and reprising the beloved role of masculine, eye-patch wearing cinematographer Wolf.
In 1996, Mulroney’s music got some public visibility with the release of an album, Goodbye to All That, with his band, The Low & Sweet Orchestra – a mash of rock, punk and folk styles. At the MTV Movie Awards, the actor shared a “Best Kiss” accolade with Winona Ryder for the adaptation of “How to Make an American Quilt” (1996), which all but ensured a one-way ticket to romantic lead status. Mulroney looked to shift that status into edgy territory, first doing time as a small-time lowlife in Robert Altman’s ode to 1930s “Kansas City” (1996) before causing tension as the unpredictable bachelor fumbling through the blackouts of “The Trigger Effect” (1996). Heartthrob status was unavoidable, however, when Mulroney won the part of Michael, a groom-to-be with a smitten best friend, played by Hollywood sweetheart Julia Roberts in “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” Filming on location in Chicago gave the actor a first taste of the press’ obsession with tracking stars like Roberts, so despite huge box office returns and an expected return to hunky form for his next project, Mulroney was reluctant to become just another generic romantic foil.
Mulroney turned once more to a string of independent films, culminating with a celebrated pair of completely different parts – a comatose man in “The Safety of Objects” (2001) and a caddish TV actor in Nicole Holofcener’s “Lovely &Amazing” (2001). Eschewing his usual sex appeal, he soon won raves as Jack Nicholson’s dim-witted mullet-sporting son-in-law-to-be in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-nominated “About Schmidt” (2002). He still had to audition for the coveted role of Randall, but later showed his commitment to playing against his looks by donning a hairpiece and shaving off most of his real hair. After almost a decade off the small screen and as a favor to real-life friend Jennifer Aniston, Mulroney took immediately to his first ever sitcom, temporarily getting some laughs in a three-episode arc as Rachel’s (Aniston) smarmy co-worker on “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004).
Perhaps finally comfortable with the attention heaped upon his handsome features, Mulroney was in a position to choose his roles and willing to balance the lighter Hollywood fare with the more intense dramas. The unassuming, Southern father in David Gordon Green’s “Undertow” (2004) was a far cry from the titular swoon-inducing escort- for-hire of “The Wedding Date” (2005). What was intended as a Debra Messing comedy vehicle turned out to be a scene stealer for Mulroney. Though he and Keener split after 15 years of marriage that Christmas, Mulroney had a new fiancé – at least onscreen – as the eldest sibling of a dysfunctional family in the breezy hit, “The Family Stone” (2005), co-starring yet another top notch comedienne, Sarah Jessica Parker.
In 2007, his career fully reflected his career balancing act. With his sobering portrait of a police captain caught up in the murder spree of the real-life serial killer of “Zodiac” (2007) fully behind him, he sashayed into Garry Marshall’s family comedy “Georgia Rule” (2007). Playing the handsome veterinarian fending off controversial star Lindsay Lohan’s crush, it was just routine, and unavoidable territory for a man, now perfectly comfortable onscreen as the hunky object of lust.