David Conrad

American actor David Conrad represents a rarity in contemporary Hollywood: a classically trained thespian who continues to stride theater and popular filmed entertainment with great aplomb -- and considerable success in each arena. Trained dramatically at the Ivy League Brown University and at Juilliard -- the mecca of American actors -- Conrad delivered a series of Broadway and off-Broadway performances, in such productions as Richard II, Indian Ink, Troilus and Cressida and The Deep Blue Sea. Though Conrad's film roles stretch back to his college years -- with a turn in Mike Jittlov's little-seen sci-fi comedy The Wizard of Speed and Time (1988) -- he generally remained off-camera until his early thirties. Small roles in the 2000 military drama Men of Honor (starring Cuba Gooding Jr. as the first black diver in the U.S.N.) and Woody Allen's 2003 romantic comedy Anything Else (starring Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci as romantic partners) represented Conrad's first major big-screen turns. Conrad also landed a couple of key recurring roles on series in the early 2000s. In the short-lived comedy drama Miss Match, he played Michael Mendelsohn, a handsome but as yet unrealized suitor to attorney Kate Fox (Alicia Silverstone). Conrad fared much better -- and received higher billing -- as Jim Clancy, the husband of medium Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) in the series The Ghost Whisperer, a supernatural drama that quickly became a blockbuster. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide