Born in Miami, Florida

March 13, 1950

Macy was born in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Georgia and Maryland. His father, William Hall Macy, Sr., was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal for flying a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber in World War II; he later ran a construction company in Atlanta and worked for Dun & Bradstreet before taking over a Cumberland, Maryland-based insurance agency when Macy was nine years old. His mother, Lois, was a war widow who met Macy's father after her first husband died in 1943; Macy has described her as a "Southern belle". Macy has a half-brother, Fred Merrill, from his mother's first marriage.

The Boy Who Loved Trolls

October 29, 1984

One of Macy's on-screen roles was as a turtle named Socrates in the direct to video film, The Boy Who Loved Trolls (1984), under the name W. H. Macy.

In the film 12-year-old Paul would like nothing more than for the magical trolls and mermaids he reads about in his favorite story to be real. He goes searching for a real troll and finally meets one named Ofoeti, who has friends like Kalotte, a mermaid, and Socrates, a talking turtle. Soon the mermaid's home is threatened by an evil bridge builder. Paul also discovers that Ofoeti is dying and has less than a day to live. Paul must see if he has what it takes to risk everything and save his new friends.

Homicide

October 9, 1991

Bobby Gold (Mantegna) is an inner-city homicide detective on the trail of Robert Randolph (Rhames), a drug-dealer and cop-killer on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. While en route to nab an accomplice of Randolph, Gold and his partner Sullivan (Macy) happen upon a murder scene: the elderly Jewish owner of a candy store in a black ghetto has been gunned down, presumably for a fortune hidden in her basement. The deceased woman's son, a doctor, uses his clout to have Gold assigned to the case in the belief that Gold, himself Jewish, might be empathetic to his plight. Gold, however, seems to disregard his ethnicity, and beyond that, he's nonplussed about being pulled off a much higher-profile case. A nighttime survey of the crime scene uncovers an important piece of the woman's past, and Gold's reluctance turns to curiosity, leading to the discovery of a Zionist organization operating in the city. As the film reaches its climax, Gold is thrust into a series of circumstances that test not only his loyalty to the badge, but also his newfound Jewish consciousness.

Benny & Joon

April 16, 1993

In a small town, an auto mechanic named Benjamin (Benny) devotes his life and his time to taking care of Juniper (Joon), his unbalanced sister. Though a very talented artist and normally sweet natured, Joon is unable to take care of herself and function alone in the world. After the resignation of the last of many "housekeepers" who are there solely to look after Joon (who frequently has "episodes"), Benny decides to take Joon along with him to a poker game he plays with his friend Eric that evening, despite his worries over her penchant for reading, painting, and lighting things on fire.

ER

September 19, 1994 - April 23, 1998

Macy's character in ER, David Morgenstern, is responsible for a sage piece of advice that has been handed down throughout the series. In the pilot episode, when Juliana Margulies' character, nurse Carol Hathaway, is brought to the hospital with a drug overdose, Morgenstern tells Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards) that he needs to "set the tone" to get the unit through the difficulty of treating one of its own. "You set the tone" is repeated several times in the series, once jokingly by Doug Ross (George Clooney) to Greene and at two other key moments. When Greene, dying from a brain tumor, leaves the ER for the last time, he tells Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle), "You set the tone, Carter." It was a moment that represented the passing of the torch. And a few seasons later, in Carter's farewell episode, he passes a drunk and nauseous Dr. Morris (Scott Grimes), a notoriously bumbling character on the show, and tells him, "You set the tone, Morris." to which an ailing Morris replies, "What?" Carter, realizing that Morris is, to say the least, not cut out of the mold of Morgenstern and Greene, smiles and tells him, "Never mind."

Oleanna

November 4, 1994

A two character movie, involving a college professor, John, who is confronted by a female student, Carol, who is failing his course. The two spend a long time talking to each other, during which time John says a few things that can be taken the wrong way. After the night the two spent talking, John is slapped with a sexual harassment accusation by Carol. After more accusations from Carol, John's career as a teacher begins to fall apart. This forces John with a choice on how to handle the situation, and the results make up for a shattering ending to the movie.

Fargo

March 8, 1996

Macy may be best known for his lead role in Fargo, in a role for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and helped boost his career and recognizability.

Set in the Upper Midwest United States (the opening and closing scenes are set in North Dakota and the rest in Minnesota), it is the tale of a car salesman (William H. Macy), who has hired two men (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife for a ransom of $80,000. The crime sets off a chain of murders, which are in turn investigated by pregnant policewoman Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand).

Married to Felicity Huffman

September 6, 1997 - Now

Since 1997, Macy has been married to Academy Award nominated actress Felicity Huffman. The couple have two daughters, Sofia Grace (born August 1, 2000) and Georgia Grace (born March 14, 2002). They live in Los Angeles, California, and have had a cabin in Vermont since the 1980s.

Wag the Dog

December 17, 1997

The film explores serious themes, such as the manipulation of the mass media and public opinion, with a comedic sensibility. The film drew attention at the time for similarities to the Clinton sex scandal, although the movie also makes reference to the Persian Gulf War as an example of war used as an electoral tactic. The idea of war as a creation of the media is not, of course, original to the movie.

Pleasantville

September 17, 1998

Pleasantville is a black-and-white '50s sitcom (a cross between Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best) that centers around the idyllic Parker family -- George (William H. Macy), his wife Betty (Joan Allen), and their two children, Bud and Mary Sue. David is an expert on every episode and wants to watch the marathon so he can win a trivia contest. During the fight between David and Jennifer, the remote control breaks and the TV cannot be turned on manually. A mysterious TV repairman (Don Knotts) shows up uninvited, and quizzes David on Pleasantville before giving him a strange-looking, futuristic remote control. The repairman leaves, and David and Jennifer promptly resume fighting. However, through some mechanism of the remote control, they are transported into the television, ending up in the Parkers' black and white Pleasantville living room. David tries to reason with the repairman (who communicates with him through the Parkers' TV set) but succeeds only in chasing him away. David and Jennifer must now pretend they are, respectively, Bud and Mary Sue Parker.

Sports Night

October 19, 1999 - Feburary 8, 2000

Macy's work on Sports Night has been recognized with Emmy nominations.

Daughter Sofia Grace Born

August 1, 2000

Macy and his wife Felicity Huffman welcomed their first child, Sofia Grace, on August 1, 2000

State and Main

January 12, 2001

State and Main centers on the havoc wrought on the inhabitants of a small town by a troubled film production. After the leading man's penchant for teenage girls gets them banished from their New Hampshire location, a film crew relocates to the small town of Waterford, VT, to finish shooting "The Old Mill." As its title suggests, the film depends on the presence of a genuine mill, something the town is reported to possess. Unfortunately, with only days before principal photography begins, it becomes apparent that the mill in fact burned down decades ago. Unfazed, the film's director, Walt Price (William H. Macy), places his faith in the ability of first-time screenwriter Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to alter the script; what he doesn't count on is White's apparently bottomless reserve of angst-fueled writer's block. The film's leading lady (Sarah Jessica Parker) refuses to do her contracted nude scene unless she's paid an additional $800,000, while a foreign cinematographer offends the locals by messing with a historic firehouse, and the leading man, Bob Barrenger (Alec Baldwin), dallies with Carla (Julia Stiles), a crafty local teen. Everything comes to a head after Barrenger and Carla are injured in a car accident, which leads White (the only witness) to another emotional quandary and into the arms of local bookseller Annie Black (Rebecca Pidgeon). Meanwhile a powerful movie producer (David Paymer) comes to town to help Price with the ensuing mess.

Daughter Georgia Grace Born

March 14, 2002

Daughter Georgia Grace born on March 14, 2002 in Los Angeles.

Door to Door

July 14, 2002

In 2003, Macy won two Emmy Awards, one for starring in the lead role and one as co-writer of the made-for-TNT film Door to Door. Door to Door is a drama based on the true story of Bill Porter, a door-to-door salesman in Portland, Oregon, born with cerebral palsy. The film is composed of several stories, each taking up a whole period between commercials.

Sahara

April 8, 2005

Marine engineer, explorer and former US Navy Seal Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) travels to Mali, to search for what the locals call "The Ship of Death", the lost Civil War ironclad warship CSS Texas that has a mysterious cargo. Pitt and his longtime friend Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) manage to thwart the assassination of Doctor Eva Rojas (Penélope Cruz), a doctor with the United Nations World Health Organization, who is investigating the source of a disease that is wreaking havoc in the area. The cause is a vast amount of industrial waste that is threatening to cause an environmental disaster. It is up to Pitt and his associates at the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) to locate the source of the pollution and shut it down, and explore the connection between the deaths and the missing ironclad.

Wild Hogs

March 3, 2007

In 2007 Macy starred in Wild Hogs, a film about middle-aged men reliving their youthful days by taking to the open road on their Harley-Davidson motorcycles from Cincinnati to the Pacific Coast.