Michael J. Shannon

Michael J. Shannon (born January 24, 1943), also billed as Michael Shannon, is an American actor and playwright. Career Shannon has a cult following due to his appearances in cult classics such as Little Shop of Horrors, Red Dwarf, Future Cop and We'll Meet Again, the last two being his most substantial television roles, as Officer John Haven and Major James Kiley respectively. Shannon was born in Chicago. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Theatre Arts from Northwestern University (whose School of Communication grants Bachelor of Science degrees in all of its programs of study, including theater). He subsequently received a Master of Arts in Oral Interpretation from Northwestern. In addition to his filmography, he has maintained substantial theatrical acting credits throughout his career, including the British premiere of Arthur Kopit’s The End of the World with Symposium to Follow in Southampton (Nuffield Theatre) and the London premiere of A. R. Gurney’s The Dining Room (Greenwich Theatre, 1983, directed by Alan Strachan). In 2013 he gave 4 benefit performances in aid of Amnesty international of the monumental one-man play Clarence Darrow by David V. Rintels, based on the life of the lawyer and founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, at the Teahouse Theatre in Vauxhall, London.