John Matthew Heard Jr. was born on March 7, 1946, in Washington and briefly pursued a master’s degree in theater at the Catholic University of America in that city before leaving to build a professional acting career. His early years were spent in Off Broadway productions.
He made his film debut in 1977 in “Between the Lines,” about a socially conscious alternative newspaper in Boston about to be taken over by a big company. He led a cast that featured Jeff Goldblum, Lindsay Crouse and Marilu Henner.
I nterviewed by The New York Times afterward — he was performing onstage at the time as an anxious husband in a production of August Strindberg’s “Creditors” — Mr. Heard struck a note of searching self-deprecation.
“I think this interview is a little premature,” he said, adding, “I don’t know, maybe after this is over, I’ll go back to Washington and be a plumber’s helper again.”
Instead, he went on to star in art house films like “Cutter’s Way” and later in commercial hits like “Big” (1988), in which he played an executive who mocks the little boy in a man’s body (Mr. Hanks), only to watch him climb the corporate ladder and win over his girlfriend.
In “Home Alone,” a 1990 John Hughes movie that The Times said might be the “first Christmas black comedy for children,” Mr. Heard’s character, Peter McCallister, panics as he realizes that he has forgotten his son Kevin in the rush to get to the airport for a family trip to France. Kevin awakes to an empty house, announces, “I made my family disappear!” and goes on to fend off two bumbling burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
He made his film debut in 1977 in “Between the Lines,” about a socially conscious alternative newspaper in Boston about to be taken over by a big company. He led a cast that featured Jeff Goldblum, Lindsay Crouse and Marilu Henner.
I nterviewed by The New York Times afterward — he was performing onstage at the time as an anxious husband in a production of August Strindberg’s “Creditors” — Mr. Heard struck a note of searching self-deprecation.
“I think this interview is a little premature,” he said, adding, “I don’t know, maybe after this is over, I’ll go back to Washington and be a plumber’s helper again.”
Instead, he went on to star in art house films like “Cutter’s Way” and later in commercial hits like “Big” (1988), in which he played an executive who mocks the little boy in a man’s body (Mr. Hanks), only to watch him climb the corporate ladder and win over his girlfriend.
In “Home Alone,” a 1990 John Hughes movie that The Times said might be the “first Christmas black comedy for children,” Mr. Heard’s character, Peter McCallister, panics as he realizes that he has forgotten his son Kevin in the rush to get to the airport for a family trip to France. Kevin awakes to an empty house, announces, “I made my family disappear!” and goes on to fend off two bumbling burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
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