Ron Livingston
- In full:
- Ronald Joseph Livingston
- Born:
- June 5, 1967, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S. (age 57)
What are some of Ron Livingston’s notable films and TV projects?
Where did Ron Livingston attend college?
What was Ron Livingston’s first movie role?
Ron Livingston (born June 5, 1967, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.) is an American actor whose lengthy résumé includes the workplace satire Office Space (1999), the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), and the TV show Loudermilk (2017–20), about a substance-use counselor. Livingston also had a memorable role on the hit HBO show Sex and the City.
Early life
Livingston is one of four children born to Linda (née Rinas) Livingston, a Lutheran pastor, and Kurt Livingston, an aerospace engineer. His brother John Livingston would also go on to become an actor, and his sister, Jennifer Livingston, became a TV newscaster in Wisconsin. In high school, Ron Livingston competed on the wrestling team and participated in theater. He later attended Yale University, where he majored in theater studies and literature. His classmates included Paul Giamatti and Edward Norton, both of whom became major stars. In addition, future TV journalist Anderson Cooper lived in Livingston’s dorm.
Acting career
Swingers and Office Space
Livingston’s first audition in Los Angeles was for the first season (1992) of MTV’s The Real World. However, he was not cast in the reality show.
After graduating from college in 1989, Livingston acted in some theater productions in Chicago. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he worked for Universal, first in the mail room and then as an art department assistant in the theme park division. His movie debut came in 1992, when he had a small role in Straight Talk, starring Dolly Parton. Parts remained elusive, though he was cast in The Low Life (1995), a drama about a struggling actor.
In 1996 Livingston appeared in Swingers, about single men living in Los Angeles, written by and starring his friend Jon Favreau. The film, which also featured Vince Vaughn, received critical praise. Several TV and film roles followed, but Livingston failed to gain much notice. Then in 1999 he appeared in the lead role in Office Space, which was written and directed by Mike Judge. Livingston’s character, Peter Gibbons, is stuck working for a soulless company. After being hypnotized, he stops caring about work and eventually hatches a plan to defraud the company. He also begins a romantic relationship with a waitress (Jennifer Aniston). Livingston’s deadpan manner worked brilliantly in the film. As Gibbons, he delivered one of the movie’s memorable lines, “It’s not just about me and my dream of doing nothing. It’s about all of us together.” Although Office Space did not perform well at the box office, it later became a cult classic.
Band of Brothers, Sex and the City, and The Conjuring
Livingston subsequently appeared in numerous high-profile film and TV projects. In 2001 he starred with Damian Lewis in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, the account of a U.S. Army company during World War II; Livingston played Lewis Nixon. He was also cast as a district attorney in the sixth season (2001–02) of The Practice, a popular legal drama created by David E. Kelley. In 2002 he had a supporting role in Spike Jonze’s Academy Award-winning dark comedy Adaptation.
In 2002–03 Livingston appeared in one of his best-known roles, as Jack Berger in HBO’s popular series Sex and the City. He played the boyfriend of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), and, in one episode, Berger infamously breaks up with Bradshaw via a sticky note. The role brought new recognition to Livingston. During a 2018 appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, he noted an incident involving Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. While Livingston was sitting courtside at a game, Bryant, preparing to inbound the ball, looked over at Livingston, did a double take, and said, “Berger?”
Livingston continued to work regularly, and his later notable credits include Dinner for Schmucks (2010), a comedy starring Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd, and The Conjuring (2013), a popular horror film about a family who moves into a haunted house. Also in 2013 Livingston had a recurring role as a businessman in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which centers on real-life gangsters in Atlantic City during Prohibition. Two years later he appeared in the well-received The End of the Tour, about the novelist David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) and his five-day interview with Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) in 1996.
Loudermilk and later credits
In 2017 Livingston began portraying Sam Loudermilk in the TV series Loudermilk. The character is a former music critic recovering from alcoholism who is contemptuous of other people, especially when it comes to their musical taste. Kathryn Shattuck observed in a 2017 The New York Times profile on the actor that, “As Sam Loudermilk…Mr. Livingston wanders through Seattle with his face locked in a sneer and his snark on automatic pilot.” Loudermilk ran for three seasons before ending in 2020.
During this time Livingston also portrayed (2016–21) a private investigator in Search Party, in which four friends search for a former college classmate who has gone missing. He also starred with Charlize Theron in Tully (2018), and in A Million Little Things (2018–23) he played a businessman whose suicide has a profound effect on his friends. In 2023 Livingston appeared as the father of the title character in the superhero movie The Flash. He also lent his voice to the adult animated series Pantheon (2022–23), about a bullied teenager who communicates with her deceased father’s consciousness, which had been uploaded on the Cloud.
Personal life
Livingston met actress Rosemarie DeWitt while filming the TV show Standoff (2006–07). The couple married in 2009. They have two children.