Eric Anthony Roberts Bio
Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor widely recognized as one of the most prolific English-speaking screen actors in film history. Over the course of his career, he has amassed more than 700 acting credits across film and television, including a remarkable 74 films in the year 2017 alone. Roberts first gained major industry attention with a leading role in King of the Gypsies (1978), a performance that earned him his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He went on to receive further acclaim for his work in Star 80 (1983) and Runaway Train (1985), the latter of which brought him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Early Life and Background
Eric Anthony Roberts was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on April 18, 1956. His parents were Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, both one-time actors and playwrights who met while touring with a production of George Washington Slept Here for the armed forces. In 1963, the couple co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta off Juniper Street in Midtown, where they also ran a children’s acting school in Decatur, Georgia. As Roberts grew older, his mother became a church secretary and real estate agent, while his father worked as a vacuum cleaner salesman.
Roberts has two younger sisters who also became actors: Julia Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan. In 1971, his parents filed for divorce, which was finalized in early 1972. He stayed with his father in Atlanta, while his sisters moved with their mother to Smyrna, a suburb of Atlanta. His father died of cancer in March 1977. In 1972, his mother married Michael Motes, with whom she had a daughter, Nancy Motes, in 1976. Roberts later became estranged from Julia Roberts for several years, a separation linked to his past drug abuse and disputes over custody, until they reconciled in 2004 when he visited her in the hospital after she gave birth to twins.
Path to Acting
Raised in a household deeply connected to the performing arts, Roberts absorbed the craft from an early age through his parents’ workshop and children’s acting school in Georgia. He made his professional acting debut in 1974, appearing on the soap opera How to Survive a Marriage. In 1977, he appeared on the NBC daytime soap opera Another World, originating the role of Ted Bancroft from February 14 to June 17 of that year. These early television appearances gave him steady on-camera training and helped him transition toward feature films by the end of the decade.
Eric Anthony Roberts Career
Early Career (1974–1983)
Roberts built his early reputation with a string of serious dramatic roles that attracted the attention of major filmmakers. His leading turn in King of the Gypsies (1978) earned him his first Golden Globe Award nomination and signaled his arrival as a serious screen actor. He followed this with starring roles in Paul’s Case (1980) and Raggedy Man (1981), the latter co-starring Sissy Spacek. In 1983, he portrayed Paul Snider in Bob Fosse’s Star 80, a performance that brought him a second Golden Globe nomination and further critical attention.
Breakthrough (1984–1987)
Roberts achieved his widest recognition with his portrayal of prison escapee Buck McGeehy in the action drama Runaway Train (1985), a performance that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as well as a third Golden Globe Award nomination. The film remains widely regarded as the high-water mark of his mainstream film career. During this period he also starred in The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), The Coca-Cola Kid (1985), and Nobody’s Fool (1986). In 1987, he won the Theatre World Award for his Broadway debut in Burn This, demonstrating his range on the New York stage. In 1981, he had survived a debilitating car accident near the Westport home he shared with actress Sandy Dennis, spending roughly a month in the hospital and three days in a coma.
Notable Works and Milestones
Beyond Runaway Train, Roberts accumulated a remarkable body of work that includes Best of the Best (1989), The Specialist (1994), It’s My Party (1996), Cecil B. Demented (2000), A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), The Expendables (2010), Lovelace (2013), Inherent Vice (2014), and Babylon (2022). He is also the only non-British actor to have played the Master in the 1996 Doctor Who television film, a role he later reprised for Big Finish audio productions.
Eric Anthony Roberts Award Nominations
Throughout his career, Eric Anthony Roberts has earned recognition from several major awards bodies, including three Golden Globe Award nominations for his roles in King of the Gypsies (1978), Star 80 (1983), and Runaway Train (1985). He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Runaway Train (1985), with the award that year going to Don Ameche for Cocoon. Roberts also earned a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for the 1996 miniseries In Cold Blood, in which he portrayed Perry Smith.
Eric Anthony Roberts Awards Won
Roberts has been honored with several verified wins during his career, most notably the Theatre World Award in 1987 for his Broadway debut in Burn This. He also won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work on the ABC sitcom Less than Perfect (2002–2005). In 2016, he starred in the Nigerian comedy A Trip to Jamaica, which won the Africa Entertainment Legends Award for Best Cinema Film of 2016 and received four nominations at the 2017 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards.
Eric Anthony Roberts Family
Roberts is the brother of Academy Award-winning actress Julia Roberts and actress Lisa Roberts Gillan. His parents were Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, both former actors and playwrights. His half-sister, Nancy Motes, was born in 1976 and died on February 9, 2014, at the age of 37, of an apparent drug overdose. Roberts is also a distant cousin of fellow actor Edward Norton.
Personal Life
Roberts was in a relationship with actress Sandy Dennis from 1980 to 1985, and he later lived with Kelly Cunningham from 1988 to 1991, with whom he has a daughter, actress Emma Roberts, born on February 10, 1991. He married actress Eliza Garrett in 1992, the daughter of screenwriters David Rayfiel and Lila Garrett, and the couple share a blended family that includes Roberts’s stepson, singer-songwriter Keaton Simons, and stepdaughter, chef Morgan Simons. In December 2020, Roberts became a grandfather when Emma Roberts and actor Garrett Hedlund welcomed a son named Rhodes. In September 2024, Roberts published his memoir, Runaway Train: or, The Story of My Life So Far, co-written with Vanity Fair contributor Sam Kashner and released through St. Martin’s Press on September 17, 2024.
