Daniel Stern(I)
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Daniel Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland, to a social worker father
and a day care manager mother. He has been acting professionally since
the age of seventeen. Following his high school graduation, he
auditioned for the Washington Shakespeare Festival seeking a job as a
lighting engineer but ended up as "a strolling player with a lute" in
their production of "As You Like It." Shortly thereafter, he made his
way to New York where he "took a couple of acting lessons" and began to
assemble an impressive portfolio of such off-Broadway credits as
"Split," "Frankie and Annie," "The Mandrake," and "The Old Glory." In
addition, director Peter Yates cast him as one of the four Indiana
teenagers in the highly acclaimed film
Breaking Away (1979). Variety in
acting roles appeals to Stern. Following "Breaking Away," he appeared
in Woody Allen's
Stardust Memories (1980),
Claudia Weill's It's My Turn (1980)
and John Schlesinger's
Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)
before returning to New York to appear off-Broadway in the two
character play "How I Got That Story," which led to critical acclaim
and a starring role in Barry Levinson's
Diner (1982). Other film credits include
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982),
Blue Thunder (1983),
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986),
The Boss' Wife (1986),
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988),
Born in East L.A. (1987) and
D.O.A. (1988) In addition to his
voice-over work on the series, Stern directed several episodes of the
popular and critically acclaimed television comedy,
The Wonder Years (1988).