John Victor Shea III was born April 14, 1949 in North Conway, New Hampshire. He is a 1970 graduate of Bates College in Maine, where he was introduced to theater by a friend on the football team his freshman year. At Bates, which he attended on a debating and football scholarship, Shea also gained national recognition on the debate team, including a victory over Harvard in 1970. He then attended the repudible Yale School of Drama at Yale University where he earned his MFA in directing and was a special student at the Yale Film School. John has been married twice. He and his first wife, Laura Pettibone, have one child together named Jake (b. 1986) who is a student at the University of Miami studying business. They were divorced in 2000. He and his current wife, Melissa MacCleod, were married in August 2001, and have two children, a daughter Miranda (b. 2000) and a son Caiden (b. 2004). He also has an abyssinian cat named Pharaoh. Shea lives in New York City. When he’s not working, he spends time with his family at his home on Nantucket, where he is a founding member of the Nantucket Film Festival. He won the John F. Kennedy Award for outstanding cultural contribution by a person of Irish-American descent. Shea is an Emmy award winning American actor who has starred on television and in film. Actor John Shea launched his career on-stage in 1975 and made his feature-film debut in Hussy (1980). He began his long involvement with television in The Nativity (1978). Since then, John has garnered a wealth of acting and directing experience. He earned an Emmy Award for his work in the television movie "Baby M," he won also the Best Actor citation at the Montreal Film Festival for his role in "Windy City" (1984), and is well known for his role as the evil Lex Luthor in the international hit series, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1990s). He also starred in the short lived 1990s TV series WIOU as Hank Zaret, and later on in the 2000s he starred on the syndicated TV series Mutant X as Adam Kane. Other film credits include The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Catalina Trust, Missing, Nowhere To Go, Light Years (1988) as the voice of Sylvain, Freejack (1992), and Godless (2005). Other film credits include John has also appeared in the television movies A Will Of Their Own, HBO's The Impossible Sky, and the mini-series "Kennedy," starring Martin Sheen. Shea is not only one of his generation’s most versatile actors, but also a talented filmmaker. John co-wrote and directed the independent film Southie (1998), starring Donnie Wahlberg, Rose McGowan, Anne Meara, Lawrence Tierney, and Amanda Peet. A drama set in Irish-American South Boston, Southie won the Jury Award for Best Independent film at the 1998 Seattle International Film Festival and is distributed by Lion’s Gate Films. Shea has considerable stage experience on and off Broadway, starring in productions such as "Yentil", the Pulitzer Prize winning "How I Learned to Drive" with Molly Ringwald, "Down the Garden Paths", and the hit off-broadway play "The Director". He has made guest appearances on TV shows, including "Eight Is Enough," "Barnaby Jones," "Sex and the City," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and "Medium."
Filmography
Low Grounds: The Portal (2010) The Italian Key (2010) .... Alexander An Invisible Sign of My Own (2009) .... Dad Eleventh Hour TV Episode "Olfactus" (2009).... Kristopher Merced (1 episode, 2009) The Gossip Girl 5 TV Episodes (2007-09) - Carnal Knowledge (2009) .... Harold Waldorf - You've Got Yale (2009) .... Harold Waldorf - The Magnificent Archibalds (2008) .... Harold Waldorf - Roman Holiday (2007) TV episode .... Harold Waldorf - Blair Waldorf Must Pie! (2007) TV episode .... Harold Waldorf Achamundu Achamundu (2008).... Theodore Robertson Framed (2008) .... David Murray Law & Order TV Episode - "Betrayal" (2008) .... Dr. Isaac Waxman A Broken Sole (2007) .... Bob Framed (2007) .... David Murray The Insurgents (2006) .... Robert Pitch (2006) .... White Man My First Time TV Episode - "Action Heroes" (2006) .... Himself Medium TV Episode - "Still Life" (2005) .... David Morrow Godless (2005) .... Sam Law & Order: Criminal Intent TV Episode - "The Good Child" (2005) .... Trevor Lipton Dorian Blues (2004) .... Mr. Trolley Law & Order TV Episode - Shrunk (2003) .... John David Myers Mutant X .... Adam Kane (2001-2002, 2004) Heartbreak Hospital (2002) .... Milo Derringer/Dr. Jonathan 17th Annual Gemini Awards (2002) .... Himself The Empath (2002) That's Life TV Episode - "Miracle at the Cucina" (2001) .... Ashley Wilkinson Sex and the City TV Episode - "Evolution" (1999) .... Dominic Lost & Found (1999/I) .... (Uncredited) Catalina Trust (1999) .... Offerman A Will of Their Own TV Miniseries (1998) .... Jonathan Abbott The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998) .... Hartley Getting Personal (1998) .... Mr. DeMarco Southie (1998) .... Peter Bardini (Director) Nowhere to Go (1998) .... George Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman TV Series (1993-1997) .... Lex Luthor Robert Ludlum's The Apocalypse Watch TV Movie (1997) .... Harry Latham/Lassiter A Weekend in the Country TV Movie (1996) .... Michael Kaye Forgotten Sins TV Movie (1996) .... Sheriff Matthew Bradshaw Almost Perfect TV Episode - "The Ex-Files" (1995) .... Paul Sterling See Jane Run TV Movie (1995) .... Dr. Michael Ravenson Leslie's Folly TV Movie (1994) .... Daniel Justice in a Small Town TV Movie (1994) .... Tommy Marchant Backstreet Justice (1994) .... Nick Donovan Tales from the Crypt TV Episode - "As Ye Sow" (1993) .... Father John Sejac Ladykiller TV Movie (1992) .... Jack Packard Lincoln TV Movie (1992) .... John Barnes (voice) Honey I Blew Up the Kid (1992) .... Dr. Charles Hendrickson Notorious TV Movie (1992) .... Devlin Freejack (1992) .... Morgan WIOU TV Series (1990) .... Hank Zaret Small Sacrifices TV Movie (1989) .... Frank Joziak Do You Know the Muffin Man? TV Movie (1989) .... Roger Dollison Magic Moments TV Movie (1989) .... Troy Gardner Stealing Home (1988) .... Sam Wyatt Baby M TV Movie (1988) .... Bill Stern A New Life (1988) .... Doc Gandahar (1988) .... Sylvain (voice) The Impossible Spy TV Movie (1987) .... Eli Cohen The Hitchhiker TV Movie (1987) - "Minuteman" Coast to Coast TV Movie (1987) .... John Carloff Holmim, Ha- (1987) .... Marcus A Case of Deadly Force TV Movie (1986) .... Michael O'Donnell Angel River (1986) .... Dee Honeymoon (a.k.a. Lune de Miel) (1985) .... Zachary 'Zack' Freestamp Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV Episode - "The Human Interest Story" (1985) .... Brian Whitman Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil TV Movie (1985) .... Karl Hoffmann In Our Hands (1984) .... Himself Windy City (1984) .... Danny The Dining Room TV Movie (1984) .... Client/Howard/Psychiatrist/Ted/Paul/Ben/Chris/Jim/Dick Kennedy TV Miniseries (1983) .... Robert F. Kennedy Missing (1982) .... Charles 'Charlie' Horman Family Reunion TV Movie (1981) .... James Cookman Hussy (1980) .... Emory The Last Convertible TV Miniseries (1979) .... Terry Garrigan The Nativity TV Movie (1978) .... Joseph The Man from Atlantis TV Episode - "The Naked Montague" (1977) .... Romeo Barnaby Jones TV Episode - "Gang War" (1977) .... Max Tate (as John B. Shea) Eight Is Enough TV Episode - "Triangles" (1977) .... Jonathan Moraacco