Star of stage and screen William Atherton has not one but two immortal Eighties movies on his resume: Die Hard and Ghostbusters. He played Richard Thornburg in the former (and its even more successful 1990 sequel) and Walter Peck in the latter. His other major credits include influential films such as Day of the Locust and major TV series such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, Stargate SG-1, and many more. After a break of several years, he recently returned to the screen, starring in the drama, Where Did the Adults Go?
Atherton was born in Connecticut in July 1947 and began his acting career at the close of the 1960s. One of his early roles was on Broadway in 1972, playing in a revival of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. He would return to the Great White Way twice over the next 11 years — most notably in a six-month stint as John Challee in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. During the 1970s, he also built his reputation as a television and movie actor with roles including one of the starring roles in Centennial, a 1978 NBC series that was one of the most ambitious and expensive ever attempted.
However, Atherton’s biggest acting breaks wouldn’t come until the 1980s. In 1984, he played EPA inspector Walter Peck in Ghostbusters, one of the definitive films of the decade. Four years later, he was cast as Thornburg in Die Hard, which is now regarded as one of the all-time great action movies. He reprised his role in Die Hard 2, which fared even better at the box office.
