Michael McCleery

Michael McCleery is an American actor who became interested in acting as a teenager in Princeton, New Jersey, after seeing Shakespeare at the McCarter Theatre. A family friend introduced him to casting director Marian Dougherty, leading to roles as a juvenile car thief in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) and a mugger in Harry and Tonto (1974). He studied at Colorado College and with Stella Adler, and played the psychotic killer Addley in Mother's Day (1980). In New York he appeared in off-off Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including Prairie Ave. and The Hospital Play at Joe Papp's Public Theatre. After moving to Los Angeles, he had supporting parts in Impulse and The Fires Within and starred in the Met Theatre's production of The Fool. He was cast as Detective Carlisle in L.A. Confidential, then appeared in Best Laid Plans (1999) and as Sheriff Akins in Joy Ride (2001). In 2012 he joined the HBO series Luck.