About Stephen McKinley Henderson
Stephen McKinley Henderson (born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominence as a character actor often performing the plays of August Wilson. He has received nominations for two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2021 Vulture named Henderson as one of "The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working Today". Henderson made his Broadway debut in Wilson's King Hedley II in 2001. He earned Tony Award nominations for his performances in Wilson's Fences in 2010 and Stephen Adly Guirgis's Between Riverside and Crazy in 2023. He acted in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun in 2014. He made his film debut in A Pleasure Doing Business (1979) and has appeared in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Lincoln (2012), Fences (2016), Manchester by the Sea (2016), Lady Bird (2017), Dune (2021), Causeway (2022), Beau Is Afraid (2023), and Civil War (2024). His television debut came in 1984 in PBS's The Killing Floor. He has appeared in Law & Order (1995–2010), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2005–2006), The Newsroom (2013), The Blacklist (2018), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019–2020), Devs (2020), and A Man on the Inside (2024). He won the 2015 Obie Award for Best Actor for his starring role of Walter "Pops" Washington in the Atlantic Theatre Company and Second Stage productions of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Between Riverside and Crazy. His signature August Wilson role is the gossipy Turnbo in Jitney, for which he won a Drama Desk Award as part of the ensemble. He had created the role in the 1996 premiere at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, then honed it in other regional theaters before its arrival Off-Broadway in 2000. Though it did not transfer to Broadway, he and the core of the cast took Jitney to London, where it won the 2002 Olivier Award for best new play.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.