Joseph Bottoms (born April 22, 1954) is an American actor who won the 1975 Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor for his role in The Dove. He is also perhaps best known for his roles in the television mini-series Holocaust and Disney's The Black Hole.

Career

Bottoms made his screen debut in the ABC television movie Trouble Comes to Town. A year later he played the role of Robin Lee Graham, in The Dove, a real-life story about a teenager sailor's voyage around the world. Bottoms won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor, joining a host of other actors that have won the award such as Richard Burton, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight and later Ben Kingsley.

In the 1978 mini-series Holocaust, he starred as Rudi Weiss, a German Jew who joins the Jewish partisans.^[3] The series was well-received, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries. A year later he starred in The Black Hole, a science fiction film that grossed over $35 million at the US box office.^[4] In 1981, he made his Broadway debut in Fifth of July.

In 1984 he starred alongside Kirstie Alley in Blind Date. Between 1985-1986, he was a series regular on the soap opera, Santa Barbara. In 1990 he began a guest arc on the Canadian television series, Street Legal. In 1991 he played the second Cal Winters in the soap opera, Days of Our Lives.^[5] In 1998 he was cast as a series regular in The Net.

His latest screen appearance was in 1999 in the TV series, V.I.P.. Since then he has been running the Bottoms Art Galleries in Santa Barbara that also includes his father's sculptures.^[6][7]

Personal life

Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, and is the second son of sculptor James " Bud" Bottoms and Betty (née Chapman).^[2] He is the brother of actors Timothy Bottoms, Sam Bottoms, and Ben Bottoms.^[8] Bottoms has been married twice and twice divorced.^[1]

Filmography