Cast of HBO Series 'The Gilded Age'

Michael Cerveris | Biography

Won the 'Tony Award' for 'Best Featured Actor in a Musical' for 'Assassins'

• By Yunil Tamrakar
• Update : March 08, 2022

---

Michael Cerveris is an American actor well known for his television role as the Observer in the Fox sci-fi series Fringe.

Who is Michael Cerveris?

Michael Cerveris is an American actor, guitarist, and singer born on 6 November 1960 in Bethesda, Maryland, US. He grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, with his brother Todd. 

Cerveris graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1979 and Yale University in 1983, majoring in theatre studies.

Cerveris debuted his television career in 1963 after appearing in General Hospital as Ian McLaren. After that, he took two-decades-long hiatus and began his Off-Broadway career in 1983. 

He made a comeback in television during the late 1980s and appeared on several shows, including The Tracey Ullman Show (1987), Quantum Leap (1991), and Dream On (1993), before again taking a break to focus on his Broadway career.

Cerveris continued his Broadway career and moved to the West End, where he made his West End debut in 2000 in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. In 2004, he won his first 'Tony Award' for his performance as John Wilkes Booth in Assassins. 

Cerveris has also been featured in TV series such as The Good Wife (2014-2015), Madam Secretary (2016-2019), Evil (2020-2021), The Gilded Age (2022), and many more.

Besides, he is also a singer and released his first solo album, Dog Eared, in 2004.

Also Read: Zach Grenier - Age, Net Worth, The Good Wife & Wife

Broadway and Off-Broadway 

Cerveris first began his Off-Broadway career in 1983 after appearing in Macbeth as Malcolm. In the following years, he was featured as Rimbaud in Total Eclipse (1985), Frank in Abingdon Square (1987), Nick in Blood Sports (1987), and more.

During Cerveris's Off-Broadway career, he traveled the country, playing lead roles in repertory theater productions of classics such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet and contemporary plays such as Sam Shepard's The Tooth of Crime.

Cerveris debuted on Broadway in 1993 as an 18-20-year-old Tommy/Narrator in The Who's Tommy. After that, he took the role of Thomas Andrews in the Broadway musical Titanic in 1997. Moreover, he also portrayed John Wilkes Booth in Assassins in 2004.

In 2015, Cerveris portrayed the gay role Bruce Bechdel in the Broadway Fun Home, for which he received his second 'Tony Award.' In an interview with Out in 2015, he talked about his character and said that being a dad on stage has been profound.

Cerveris explained, "So when I am being dad Bruce, I feel like I am hearing my dad's voice come out of my throat. And when I scoop up little sleeping Zell and hold him with one arm while I clumsily lay out his sleeping bag with the other, I'm my dad at the end of countless nights taking his three children to see theatre or symphony or ballet that will stay with them their whole lives and shape who they will be."

Besides, Cerveris has also appeared on other Broadway credits like Children And Art (2005), Sweeney Todd (2005), LoveMusik (2007), and Evita (2012), among others.

'The Gilded Age'

The Gilded Age is an American HBO television series created by Julian Fellowes, which debuted on 24 January 2022. The show was originally announced for NBC in 2018 but was later brought to HBO in May 2019.

The Gilded Age currently has one season. However, HBO extended it for a second season in February 2022.

The American Gilded Age was a time of enormous economic upheaval, significant struggle between old and new ways of doing things, and vast fortunes earned and lost. 

The show revolves around a conservative family who sets out on a mission to invade the rich neighboring clan, led by George Russell, played by Morgan Spector, his son Larry, played by Harry Richardson, and his wife, Bertha, played by Carrie Coon.

Cerveris played the role of Watson, George Russell's valet, appearing in seven episodes.