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Timothy Hutton
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Filming Ordinary People Timothy Hutton and Donald Sutherland stand outdoors facing each other in a tense conversation in a scene from Ordinary People, both dressed in winter coats. Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton sit on a garden bench, engaged in conversation, in a scene from the film Ordinary People (1980).
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USA 2006 - 78th Annual Academy Awards. Closeup of giant Oscar statue at the entrance of the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, film movie hollywood
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Quick Facts
In full:
Timothy Tarquin Hutton
Born:
August 16, 1960, Malibu, California, U.S. (age 66)
Awards And Honors:
Golden Globe Award (1981)
Academy Award (1981)
Academy Award (1981): Actor in a Supporting Role
Golden Globe Award (1981): Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Golden Globe Award (1981): New Star of the Year - Actor
Notable Works:
“Everybody’s All-American”
Married To:
Debra Winger (1986–1990)
Aurore Giscard d'Estaing (2000–2008)
Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In):
"Turk 182" (1985)
"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" (2009)
"Daniel" (1983)
"Leverage" (2008–2012)
"The Dark Half" (1993)
"The Substance of Fire" (1996)
"Taps" (1981)
"The Good Shepherd" (2006)
"The Kovak Box" (2006)
"Stephanie Daley" (2006)
"Just One Night" (2000)
"The Glorias" (2020)
"5ive Days to Midnight" (2004)
"The Haunting of Hill House" (2018)
"Multiple Sarcasms" (2010)
"Last Holiday" (2006)
"Public Morals" (2015)
"The General's Daughter" (1999)
"Turning Green" (2005)
"Broken Hill" (2009)
"The Last Word" (1995)
"City of Industry" (1997)
"Off the Black" (2006)
"A Time of Destiny" (1988)
"When a Man Falls in the Forest" (2007)
"Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" (2018)
"The Last Mimzy" (2007)
"Secret Window" (2004)
"Lymelife" (2008)
"Iceman" (1984)
"The Falcon and the Snowman" (1985)
"Serious Moonlight" (2009)
"American Crime" (2015–2017)
"Playing God" (1997)
"Disneyland" (1972–1980)
"Torrents of Spring" (1989)
"Beautiful Boy" (2018)
"Heavens Fall" (2006)
"Made in Heaven" (1987)
"A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001–2002)
"The Ghost Writer" (2010)
"French Kiss" (1995)
"How to Get Away with Murder" (2018–2019)
"Everybody's All-American" (1988)
"Deterrence" (1999)
"Kinsey" (2004)
"Q & A" (1990)
"Almost Family" (2019–2020)
"The Alphabet Killer" (2008)
"The Temp" (1993)
"#Horror" (2015)
"All the Money in the World" (2017)
"Sunshine State" (2002)
"Teenage Suicide: Don't Try It!" (1981)
"The Killing Room" (2009)
"Reflections" (2008)
"Ordinary People" (1980)
"Louder Than Words" (2013)
"Kidnapped" (2006–2007)
"Beautiful Girls" (1996)
Movies/Tv Shows (Directed):
"Ivanov Red, White, and Blue" (2013)
"Don Henley: Not Enough Love In The World" (1985)
"Digging to China" (1997)
"A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001–2002)
"Amazing Stories" (1986)
Movies/Tv Shows (Writing/Creator):
"Amazing Stories" (1986)
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Filming Ordinary People
Filming Ordinary People Robert Redford directing Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People (1980).

Timothy Hutton

American actor
Also known as: Timothy Tarquin Hutton
Written by
Patricia Bauer
Pat Bauer graduated from Ripon College in 1977 with a double major in Spanish and Theatre. She spent most of the next 42 years working as a copy editor and editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Patricia Bauer
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Timothy Hutton (born August 16, 1960, Malibu, California, U.S.) is an American actor whose subtle portrayal of a young man’s psychological anguish in the film Ordinary People (1980) earned him critical acclaim and an Academy Award for best supporting actor.

scene from Ordinary People
scene from Ordinary PeopleTimothy Hutton (left) and Donald Sutherland in Ordinary People (1980).

Hutton’s parents divorced when he was a small child, and he lived with his mother until his teens, when he reconnected with his father, actor Jim Hutton (whose best-known role was the title character in the 1975–76 television series Ellery Queen). He lived with his father while attending high school in Los Angeles, and acting in a high-school play awakened his desire for a career as an actor.

Hutton’s first credit was in a television movie, Zuma Beach (1978). He won notice for his performance as the younger brother of a man who was killed in the Vietnam War in the TV movie Friendly Fire (1979), and he appeared in several other TV movies before being cast in Ordinary People, his first feature film. His performance as the guilt-ridden son who survived a boating accident in which his elder brother lost his life won him a Golden Globe Award as well as the Oscar. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his lead role in the TV movie A Long Way Home (1981), and he received another Golden Globe nomination for his role as a cadet who leads his classmates in an armed barricade of their military school to prevent its being turned over to developers in the film Taps (1981).

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Hutton starred in Sydney Lumet’s Daniel (1983), based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1971 novel The Book of Daniel; played an anthropologist in the science fiction movie Iceman (1984); and costarred with Sean Penn in John Schlesinger’s The Falcon and the Snowman (1985). His turn as a graffiti artist in Turk 182! (1985) was less successful. Hutton appeared in the melodrama A Time of Destiny (1988); the sports drama Everybody’s All-American (1988); Lumet’s police thriller Q & A (1990); George A. Romero’s The Dark Half (1993), based on a Stephen King novel; the TV movie Zelda (1993), in which he played F. Scott Fitzgerald; Ted Demme’s romantic comedy Beautiful Girls (1996); and the thriller Playing God (1997), in which he took the part of the villain. Hutton also appeared in John Sayles’s Sunshine State (2002). His later films included All the Money in the World (2017), Beautiful Boy (2018), and The Glorias (2020).

Hutton continued to appear on television. He starred with Maury Chaykin in the series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000–02) and was a cast member in the show Kidnapped (2006–07). He starred in Leverage (2008–12), and he received an Emmy Award nomination in 2015 for his work in American Crime (2015–17). Hutton then starred in the sitcom Almost Family (2019), playing a fertility doctor who, as a sperm donor, fathered a number of children. In addition, he had recurring roles in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Haunting of Hill House, and How to Get Away with Murder.

In 2020 a Canadian woman publicly accused Hutton of raping her in 1983, when she was 14 years old; she had filed a criminal complaint in 2019. Hutton strenuously denied the allegation.

Patricia Bauer The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica