William H. Macy

William Hall Macy, Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor, screenwriter, teacher and theater director. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though he also appeared in summer action films. Macy has described himself as "sort of a Middle American, WASPy, Lutheran kind of guy... Everyman".

Macy has won two Emmy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Award throughout his career, as well as being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since 2011, he has played the main character in the Showtime television series Shameless. Macy and actress Felicity Huffman have been married since 1997.

Early life

Macy was born in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Georgia and Maryland. His father, William Hall Macy, Sr., was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal for flying a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in World War II; he later ran a construction company in Atlanta, Georgia, and worked for Dun & Bradstreet before taking over a Cumberland, Maryland-based insurance agency when Macy was nine years old. His mother, Lois (née Overstreet), was a war widow who met Macy's father after her first husband died in 1943; Macy has described her as a "Southern belle".