Biography
Cotter Smith, also credited as Joseph Cotter Smith, is an American stage, film and television actor born on 29 May 1949 in Washington, D.C.
He began his career in New York in 1978 after studying with Stella Adler and at the Actors Studio. His stage credits include Broadway productions of Next Fall, Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter and Lanford Wilson's Burn This. He has received multiple nominations from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Drama-Logue Awards.
On screen he is known for roles including President McKenna in X2 (2003), Under Secretary William Macomber in The Post (2017) and Unit Chief Shepard in Mindhunter (2017-2019). He has also appeared in series such as The Americans, Blindspot and Person of Interest, and has taught acting at The New School for Drama.
