Cole Hauser

Cole Hauser
Hauser at the TCA 2010, July 30, 2010
Born	Cole Kenneth Hauser (1975-03-22) March 22, 1975 (age 41) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present
Spouse(s)	Cynthia Daniel (2006-present; 3 children)

Cole Kenneth Hauser (born March 22, 1975) is an American film and television actor.

Hauser was born in Santa Barbara, California, son of Cass Warner, who founded the film production company Warner Sisters, and actor Wings Hauser. His paternal grandfather was Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dwight Hauser. Cole Hauser's maternal great-grandfather was famous film mogul Harry Warner, a founding partner of Warner Bros., and his maternal grandfather was Milton Sperling, a Hollywood screenwriter and independent film producer. Hauser's maternal grandmother, Betty Mae Warner, a painter, sculptor, political activist and gallery owner, is now married to Stanley Sheinbaum, a noted political activist, economist, philanthropist, and a former Los Angeles Police Department commissioner. Hauser is of Irish and German descent on his father's side and Jewish on his mother's.

Hauser's parents divorced in 1977, when he was two years old. According to him, at roughly fifteen, he first met his father after the relocation-induced years of separation. His father took him in for a year and taught him about auditioning. Prior to that, his mother had moved Hauser and his half brother and sisters from Santa Barbara to Oregon to Florida and then back to Santa Barbara within a 12-year-span. At the time, he participated heavily in sports, but half-heartedly pursued school. He was admitted to the short-listed circle of talent at a talent summer camp in New England, then won the leading role of the stage play named Dark of the Moon, which earned him standing ovations for his performance. At 16 years old he decided to leave high school to try to break into acting.

Hauser made his film debut, School Ties (1992) which starred many young and up-and-coming actors such as Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell and Ben Affleck. A role in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused also starring Affleck came along subsequently. In 1995, Hauser played the role of the leader of the campus neo-Nazi skinheads in the John Singleton film Higher Learning. Hauser would later re-team with Affleck and Damon when they appeared together in Good Will Hunting (1997). In 2000 he played William J. Johns in Pitch Black and voiced the character in the prequel video game.