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Bruce Davison (born June 28, 1946) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and filmmaker.Davison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Marian E. (née Holmes), a secretary, and Clair W. Davison, a musician, architect, and draftsman for the Army Engineers. His parents divorced when he was three years old. He was raised by his mother, and also spent weekends with his father. Davison entered Penn State as an art major but stumbled into acting when he accompanied a friend to an audition.Davison made his Broadway debut in Tiger at the Gates in 1968. He also appeared as John Merrick in The Elephant Man and in The Glass Menagerie opposite Jessica Tandy. Davison was one of a quartet of newcomers including Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, and Catherine Burns when he made his film debut in Last Summer in 1969. Two years later he portrayed the title role in Willard. He also appeared in Mame, Mother, Jugs & Speed, Short Eyes, The Lathe of Heaven, and Six Degrees of Separation.In 1983, Davison was cast by Joseph Papp in the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival production of King Richard III. Additional off-Broadway credits include Love Letters, The Cocktail Hour, and Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive.His breakthrough role was the portrayal of a gay man whose lover is dying of AIDS in Longtime Companion (1990). This film was the first feature film to put a human face on AIDS and people affected by it, which at that time were mostly gay men. The role earned Davison a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Davison went on to appear in other movies addressing AIDS: in 1995's The Cure, he portrayed a physician sought by a young boy with AIDS in search of medical help. In 1996, Davison appeared in the film It's My Party, which chronicled the true events of a man dying with AIDS who decides to hold a farewell party for family and friends before taking his own life. Davison's website states he is a spokesperson for many AIDS-related groups and is a board member of the industry AIDS organization Hollywood Supports.In Los Angeles, Davison has appeared on stage in Streamers and The Normal Heart, winning the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and Drama-Logue Award for his performances. Other LA theatre credits include The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (directed by Henry Fonda) and a stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird.He is familiar to movie audiences for Runaway Jury, Apt Pupil, and his role as Senator Robert Kelly in the X-Men movie franchise. Though his character died in the first film, Davison appeared in X2 as a shapeshifting impostor of Kelly. Davison's many television credits include Marcus Welby, M.D., Love, American Style, The Waltons, Lou Grant, Murder, She Wrote, Designing Women, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, V: The Series, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, CSI: Miami, the Stephen King mini-series Kingdom Hospital, and a recurring role on The Practice. Davison also had the recurring role of defense attorney Doug Hellman in the CBS drama Close to Home.In 2001, Davison directed the TV film Off Season, which starred his Lovelife co-star Sherilyn Fenn, Rory Culkin, Hume Cronyn, and Adam Arkin. In 2007, Davidson returned to the big screen, playing Eric O'Neill's father in Breach. Also in that year, Davison was cast in the role of Charles Graiman; an eccentric physicist who creates the Knight Industries Three Thousand, the second generation KITT in NBC's revival of the television series Knight Rider.Davison also played the role of Dr. Silberman, the psychiatrist who once tormented Sarah Connor, in the seventh episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.