Jeffrey Donovan
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey Donovan is an American television, film and stage actor. He plays the lead Michael Westen
Michael Westen
Michael Westen is a fictional character played by Jeffrey Donovan in the television series Burn Notice. Michael, a spy, was abruptly blacklisted while on an assignment. Forced to go back to his hometown of Miami, Florida, he finds himself cut off from the United States Intelligence Community...

 on the American cable television series, Burn Notice
Burn notice
A burn notice is an official statement issued by one intelligence agency to other agencies. It states that an individual or a group is unreliable for one or more reasons...

. Notable starring roles in film include: Hitch
Hitch (film)
Hitch is a 2005 romantic comedy film directed by Andy Tennant and starring Will Smith. The film, which was written by Kevin Bisch, co-stars Eva Mendes, Kevin James, and Amber Valletta. Smith plays a professional matchmaker who makes a living teaching men how to woo women...

, Believe in Me, Changeling
Changeling (film)
Changeling is a 2008 American drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski. Based on real-life events in 1928 Los Angeles, the film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman who is reunited with her missing son—only to realize he is an impostor. She confronts the city...

, and Come Early Morning
Come Early Morning
Come Early Morning is a 2006 film, the feature film directorial debut by Joey Lauren Adams, starring Ashley Judd and Jeffrey Donovan. The movie was shot throughout the metropolitan Little Rock, Arkansas area including Pulaski Heights, and Adams' hometown of North Little Rock...

. He portrayed Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

 in Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...

's J. Edgar
J. Edgar
J. Edgar is a 2011 biographical drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, from a script by Dustin Lance Black. The film focuses on the career of FBI director J...

(2011).

Early life

Donovan was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts
Amesbury, Massachusetts
Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Though it officially became a city in 1996, its formal name remains "The Town of Amesbury." In 1890, 9798 people lived in Amesbury; in 1900, 9473; in 1910, 9894; in 1920, 10,036; and in 1940, 10,862. The population was 16,283 at...

 and raised, along with two brothers, by their mother. Of his childhood, Donovan recalled:
At Amesbury High School
Amesbury High School
Amesbury High School is a coeducational preparatory school in the city of Amesbury, Massachusetts, drawing students from Amesbury, South Hampton, New Hampshire, and other parts of the Merrimack River Valley region....

, he was mentored by teacher Patty Hoyt. She aided him in starting a drama club and then found him a private scholarship, enabling him "to participate in a summer program that helped pave the way for his acting career." He attended Bridgewater State University before transferring to the UM, Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...

, where he graduated with a BA in theatre. He went on to earn his MFA from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....

.

Television

Donovan has appeared in CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....

, Spin City
Spin City
Spin City is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 until April 30, 2002 on the ABC network. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike...

, Monk
Monk (TV series)
Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...

, Witchblade
Witchblade (TV series)
Following a pilot film in August 2000, the cable network TNT premiered a Witchblade television series based on the Witchblade Top Cow Productions comic book series in 2001. Some of the episodes were written by Ralph Hemecker, Marc Silvestri and J.D...

, The Pretender
The Pretender (TV series)
The Pretender is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series starred Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, a genius and former child prodigy with "the ability to become anyone he wants to be," i.e., to flawlessly impersonate anyone in virtually any line of work...

, Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

, and Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

. In the short-lived TV series Threshold
Threshold (TV series)
Threshold was a science fiction drama television series that first aired on CBS in September 2005. Produced by Brannon Braga, David S. Goyer and David Heyman, the series focuses on a secret government project investigating the first contact with an extraterrestrial species.The series was first...

, Donovan portrayed the antihero Dr. Sloan. In Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan is an American television crime/drama series that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Medical Examiner's Office...

he was cast in the recurring role of William Ivers.

In 2004, he received his first leading role in the American remake of the British television series Touching Evil
Touching Evil
Touching Evil is a British television drama serial, which began airing in 1997. It was produced by United Productions for Anglia Television, and screened on the ITV network. The first series consisted of six fifty-minute episodes. It was created by Paul Abbott, and written by Abbott with Russell T...

opposite Vera Farmiga
Vera Farmiga
Vera Ann Farmiga is an American actress and director. Farmiga made her film debut in the 1998 drama thriller Return to Paradise. This was followed by supporting roles in the 2000 romantic film Autumn in New York and the 2001 television series UC: Undercover...

 on the USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...

. Since 2007, he has starred as the lead in Burn Notice
Burn notice
A burn notice is an official statement issued by one intelligence agency to other agencies. It states that an individual or a group is unreliable for one or more reasons...

, Michael Westen
Michael Westen
Michael Westen is a fictional character played by Jeffrey Donovan in the television series Burn Notice. Michael, a spy, was abruptly blacklisted while on an assignment. Forced to go back to his hometown of Miami, Florida, he finds himself cut off from the United States Intelligence Community...

, a spy who was cast off and now is trying to return to his prior spy career. Donovan made his directorial debut directing the Burn Notice
Burn notice
A burn notice is an official statement issued by one intelligence agency to other agencies. It states that an individual or a group is unreliable for one or more reasons...

episode, "Made Man", which first aired on June 17, 2010. He also directed a prequel film starring co-star Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...

, titled Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe
Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe
Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe is a 2011 American television special based on the USA Network television series Burn Notice. It was the first official Burn Notice spin-off, and was directed by Jeffrey Donovan. The show was broadcast in the United States on April 17, 2011, on the U.S. television...

, which first aired on USA Network on April 17, 2011.

Theatre

Donovan has also performed on the stage including the eponymous role Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller that was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play was unsuccessful and Miller subsequently revised the play to contain two acts; this...

as Marco, An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, first performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union and 1946 in the UK. It is considered to be one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre...

and Off-Broadway in Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight as Gene, The Glory of Living
The Glory of Living
The Glory of Living is a 1998 play by Rebecca Gilman. The play received its first production at the Circle Theater in Forest Park, Illinois. The play has won many awards and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Plot:...

as Clint, regionally in Toys in the Attic
Toys in the Attic (play)
-Plot:Set in New Orleans following the Great Depression, it focuses on the Berniers sisters, two middle-aged spinsters who have sacrificed their own ambitions to look after their ne'er-do-well younger brother Julian, whose grandiose dreams repeatedly lead to financial disasters...

as Julian Berniers, On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...

as Terry, Oedipus as Teiresias and Freedomland as Seth. From October 2008 until spring 2009, Jeffrey starred in the comedy farce Don't Dress for Dinner
Don't Dress for Dinner
Don't Dress for Dinner is a two-act play by French playwright Marc Camoletti. It's a sequel to Camoletti's other play Boeing Boeing. The play ran in Paris for a little more than two years under the name Pyjamas Pour Six, and also ran in London starring Simon Cadell and Su Pollard.- Characters...

in Chicago. Also performances on the radio: On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...

as Terry, Frozen and Grapes of Wrath.

Personal life

Donovan has over twenty years of martial arts experience. In college the actor competed and earned his black belt in karate. Since then he has also studied aikido
Aikido
is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to...

 for over six years and Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art, combat sport, and a self defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting...

.

On July 3, 2009, Donovan, a Red Sox fan who first visited Fenway as a child, threw the ceremonial first pitch at the baseball game between the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

 and Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park. On July 3, 2010, Donovan once again threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...

, this time between the Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...

.

On July 12, 2009 Donovan was arrested in Miami for allegedly driving under the influence; two years later Donovan and Miami prosecutors reached a plea deal for reckless driving.

Philanthropy

Donovan has been involved in various types of community outreach. In 2009 he returned to Amesbury High School where he took part in a career day mentorship program with other successful professionals and then presented the school with a $100,000arts scholarship program. The first $10,000 award was given out to a senior in June. Donovan has also been active in supporting Life Rolls On (LRO), a foundation empowering people with spinal cord injuries. On October 4, 2009 he served as one of the chairmen for the 6th Annual LRO annual fundraiser called Night by the Ocean at the Kodak Theater. Donovan was named Grand Marshal of the 22nd annual AIDS Walk Miami held on April 17, 2010.

Donovan also supports his friends' charity events. In September 2009, while helping Michael Bolton at the 17th Annual Benefit Concert for Women and Children at Risk in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...

, Donovan auctioned off a kiss and a Burn Notice walk on part for $36,000.

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1995 Throwing Down Pete Gulley
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

Miles Dell & Newton Dell TV Series.
Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

Edward Nicodos TV Series. Also appears in 2nd episode in 2007 (see below).
1996 Sleepers
Sleepers (film)
Sleepers is a 1996 legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name.-Plot:...

Henry Addison
Critical Choices Randy TV Series.
1997 Millennium
Millennium (TV series)
Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. Millennium aired on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington...

Bobby Webber TV Series.
Vegas Vacation
Vegas Vacation
Vegas Vacation is a 1997 comedy film. It is the fourth film in the original Vacation film series centering around the fictitious Griswold family, following Vacation, European Vacation, and Christmas Vacation. Chevy Chase reprises his starring role as Clark W. Griswold, the patriarch of the family...

Hotel employee
Catherine's Grove Thomas Mason
Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...

Dwayne 'Popper' Collins TV Series.
The Pretender
The Pretender (TV series)
The Pretender is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The series starred Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, a genius and former child prodigy with "the ability to become anyone he wants to be," i.e., to flawlessly impersonate anyone in virtually any line of work...

Kyle TV Series.
1998 Witness to the Mob
Witness to the Mob
Witness to the Mob is a made for TV film which premiered on May 10, 1998.-Plot:Film follows the rise of Sammy Gravano in ranks of NY Cosa Nostra, his turning to government witness in legal trials of John Gotti and his life in Witness protection program....

Agent No. 1 TV Movie.
When Trumpets Fade
When Trumpets Fade
When Trumpets Fade is a 1998 war film directed by John Irvin, produced by John Kemeny and written by W.W. Vought. It is based on a true story of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in Autumn of 1944 during World War II...

Bobby TV Movie.
1999 Spin City
Spin City
Spin City is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 until April 30, 2002 on the ABC network. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike...

Tom Played in 2 episodes. "The Mayor May Not" and "These Shoes Were Made for Cheatin'"
2000 The Beat Brad Ulrich TV Series
Bait Julio aka Piégé (Canada: French title)
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is the 2000 American horror film and the sequel to the film The Blair Witch Project, directed by Joe Berlinger...

Jeffrey Patterson
2002 Purpose Robert Jennings
Witchblade
Witchblade
Witchblade is an American comic book series published by Top Cow Productions, an imprint of Image Comics, from 1995 until present. The series was created by Top Cow editors Marc Silvestri and David Wohl, writers Brian Haberlin and Christina Z, and artist Michael Turner.The series follows Sara...

Daniel Germaine TV Series
2003 Final Draft
Final Draft
Final Draft is screenwriting software for writing and formatting a screenplay to meet the screenplay submission standards set by theater, television and film industries. The program is developed and owned by Final Draft, Inc., headquartered in Calabasas, CA; the company also owns Script magazine...

Pascal
Sam & Joe Eric
2004 Touching Evil
Touching Evil
Touching Evil is a British television drama serial, which began airing in 1997. It was produced by United Productions for Anglia Television, and screened on the ITV network. The first series consisted of six fifty-minute episodes. It was created by Paul Abbott, and written by Abbott with Russell T...

Detective Inspector Dave Creegan TV Series. Appeared in 12 episodes.
2005 Hitch
Hitch (film)
Hitch is a 2005 romantic comedy film directed by Andy Tennant and starring Will Smith. The film, which was written by Kevin Bisch, co-stars Eva Mendes, Kevin James, and Amber Valletta. Smith plays a professional matchmaker who makes a living teaching men how to woo women...

Vance Munson
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....

Todd Kendrick TV Series. Appeared in 2 episodes.
2006 Enemies TV Series.
Come Early Morning
Come Early Morning
Come Early Morning is a 2006 film, the feature film directorial debut by Joey Lauren Adams, starring Ashley Judd and Jeffrey Donovan. The movie was shot throughout the metropolitan Little Rock, Arkansas area including Pulaski Heights, and Adams' hometown of North Little Rock...

Cal Percell
Threshold
Threshold (TV series)
Threshold was a science fiction drama television series that first aired on CBS in September 2005. Produced by Brannon Braga, David S. Goyer and David Heyman, the series focuses on a secret government project investigating the first contact with an extraterrestrial species.The series was first...

Dr. Julian Sloan TV Series. Appeared in 2 episodes.
Yes, Dear
Yes, Dear
Yes, Dear is a television sitcom that aired from October 2, 2000, to February 15, 2006, on CBS. It starred Anthony Clark, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mike O'Malley and Liza Snyder....

Fan No. 2 TV Series
Believe in Me Clay Driscoll
Monk
Monk (TV series)
Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...

Steve Wagner TV Series. Appeared in 1 episode.
2007 Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan
Crossing Jordan is an American television crime/drama series that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001 to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Medical Examiner's Office...

William Ivers TV Series. Appeared in 5 episodes.
Burn Notice
Burn notice
A burn notice is an official statement issued by one intelligence agency to other agencies. It states that an individual or a group is unreliable for one or more reasons...

Michael Westen
Michael Westen
Michael Westen is a fictional character played by Jeffrey Donovan in the television series Burn Notice. Michael, a spy, was abruptly blacklisted while on an assignment. Forced to go back to his hometown of Miami, Florida, he finds himself cut off from the United States Intelligence Community...

TV Series, Main Character, directed season four episode "Made Man"
Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

Jacob Reese TV Series. Also appeared in another episode in 1995 (see above).
2008 Hindsight
Hindsight (film)
Hindsight is a 2007 American film thriller produced by Ambush Entertainment. It stars Leonor Varela, Jeffrey Donovan, Waylon Payne, Miranda Bailey, Richard Riehle, Deborah Offner and Arnell Powell and is directed by Paul Holahan.-Synopsis:...

Paul
Changeling
Changeling (film)
Changeling is a 2008 American drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski. Based on real-life events in 1928 Los Angeles, the film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman who is reunited with her missing son—only to realize he is an impostor. She confronts the city...

Captain J.J. Jones
2011 J. Edgar
J. Edgar
J. Edgar is a 2011 biographical drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, from a script by Dustin Lance Black. The film focuses on the career of FBI director J...

Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe
Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe
Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe is a 2011 American television special based on the USA Network television series Burn Notice. It was the first official Burn Notice spin-off, and was directed by Jeffrey Donovan. The show was broadcast in the United States on April 17, 2011, on the U.S. television...

Michael Westen Cameo, Feature-length directorial debut, and Executive Producer
2012 The Vow Enzo

External links

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