Biography

Eric McCormack

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Eric was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. He attended Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute (the same school Mike Myers attended) and also attended Sir John A. MacDonald Collegiate, named after Canada's first Prime Minister. With the support of his parents (his father was also an aspiring actor), Eric spent three years at the Ryerson Theater School in Toronto and the Banff Center for the Arts, and went on to spend five seasons with Canada's Stratford Festival - he graduated 'lead' status in such stage classics as "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Henry V" and "The Three Sisters". Eric then moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also moved into television and movies and gained a devoted following of fans. Eric makes his home in both Vancouver and Los Angeles.
- IMDb mini biography by: Christina Marie <catherineblack@geocities.com>

The producers of the television series Highlander (1992) liked Eric's performance in Lonesome Dove: The Series (1994) so much that they created a character specially for him. In the series episode, Manhunt (1996), McCormack played Matthew McCormick, an immortal working as a federal who tracks serial killers. The producers were so happy with this episode they considered giving Eric his own spin-off series.
Arranged his own production company called Big Cattle Productions to develop ideas for television. The name of his company came about, as is usually the case for Eric, out of humor. By shortening the word production, you get Big Cattle Prod.
Sang both the American and Canadian national anthems at the 2004 NHL All Stars game in Minnesota.
He became a United States citizen, and now holds dual citizenship with the United States and Canada.
Was inspired to become an actor as a child from watching Don Adams on Get Smart (1965).

That's the hard part of television. When you walk into the network tests, you're signing away seven years of your life. That was the only trepidation I had about Will & Grace (1998). It had nothing to do with the sexuality of the character. It was more: this could be the next 7 to 10 years of my life.
I think most actors go into the business thinking: "I can play everything. Why can't I play a black woman? Just give me a chance." Then you grow up and realize it's probably better that they cast an actual black woman. As I got older, I realized that my life experience, what I really had, was always going to be more valuable than what I pretended to have. Before Will & Grace (1998) started, I had known plenty of gay men, and had been called names since I was in second grade. So I had enough of my own experiences to bring to it. It's harder to play a murderer. I would never kill anyone. ...I wasn't uncomfortable with any of the physicality that came with it: of looking at a guy and coming on to him, or thinking he was attractive.
The show that I do - why it's not always about [my parents] - is about knowing that they were always on the other side of the wall, wondering if this kid was ever going to amount to anything, or just keep pretending he was Alice Cooper.