Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.
"If you have to be The Antagonist, you often have a lot more creative powers. You have a lot more color to you."
William Atherton (born William Atherton Knight; July 30, 1947 in Orange, Connecticut) is an American film, stage and television actor. He's perhaps best known for his role as jerkass EPA inspector Walter "Dickless" Peck in Ghostbusters (1984), and since then has mostly (but not exclusively) played jerks.
Partial filmography:
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Film roles
- The Sugarland Express (1974) as Clovis Poplin
- The Day of the Locust (1975) as Tod Hackett
- The Hindenburg (1975) as Karl Boerth
- Looking For Mr Goodbar (1977) as James
- Ghostbusters (1984) as Walter Peck
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
- Real Genius (1985) as Prof. Jerry Hathaway
- Die Hard (1988) as Richard 'Dick' Thornberg
- Die Hard 2 (1990) as Richard Thornberg
- Grim Prairie Tales (1990) as Arthur
- Diagnosis of Murder (1992) as Eric Walker
- The Pelican Brief (1993) as Bob Gminski
- Frank and Jesse (1995) as Allan Pinkerton
- Bio-Dome (1996) as Dr. Noah Faulkner
- Mad City (1997) as Dohlen
- The Crow: Salvation (2000) as Nathan Randall
- The Last Samurai (2003) as Winchester Rep
- The Girl Next Door (2007) as Adult David Moran
Television roles
- Centennial (1978–79) as Jim Lloyd
- The Twilight Zone (1985) (2 episodes, 1985-87) as Mr. Dundee/Brian Wolfe
- Murder, She Wrote (3 episodes, 1985–91) as Larry Holleran/Greg Dalton/Andy Henley
- The Equalizer (2 episodes, 1987–89) as Martin 'Alpha' Loeber/Gideon
- Tales from the Crypt (1 episode, 1991) as Malcolm Mayflower
- Nash Bridges (1 episode, 1996) as Dr. Linus Mills
- The Practice (3 episodes, 1997–99) as DA Keith Pratt
- The Outer Limits (1995) (1 episode, 1998) as Franklin Murdoch
- Night Visions (1 episode, 2001) as William Price
- Law & Order (2 episodes, 2002–04) as Don Snyder/Dan Jensen
- Justice League (1 episode, 2003) as Dr. Destiny/John Dee (voice)
- Boston Legal (1 episode, 2005) as ADA Howard Zale
- Stargate SG-1 (1 episode, 2006) as Emissary Varta
- Desperate Housewives (1 episode, 2006) as Dr. Barr
- Monk (1 episode, 2008) as Commander Nathan Whitaker
- Life (2008–09) as Mickey Rayborn
- Lost (1 episode, 2010) as Principal Donald Reynolds
- The Glades (1 episode, 2010) as Big Jack Hasker
- Castle (1 episode, 2011) as Dr. Ari Weiss
- Workaholics (1 episode, 2012) as Thor Holmvik
- Childrens Hospital (1 episode, 2013) as Levon Bainter
- Defiance (2014) as Viceroy Berto Mercado
Tropes associated with William Atherton:
- Deadpan Snarker: In keeping with their smugness and jerkish behavior, his characters get a lot of barbed remarks.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Has been called "dickless" more times than he can count because of an insult directed at his character in Ghostbusters (1984) by Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd).
- Evil Redhead: By the nature of his career path, he plays mostly bad guys. Though few are really evil. They're mostly Obstructive Bureaucrat types.
- I Am Not Spock: While he doesn't necessarily mind the association with roles like Walter Peck and Dick Thornburg, he's made a point of letting fans know that he isn't anything like the smarmy, sarcastic jerks he plays.
- Jerkass: Not in real life, but many of his characters post Ghostbusters (1984). At the time he resented it, but in the Entertainment Weekly interview for Ghostbusters 30th anniversary he says it gave him a great niche that he wound up making a good living off of.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Several roles, most notably his most famous: Walter Peck in Ghostbusters (1984).
- Playing Against Type: He played a rare sympathetic role as the adult David in The Girl Next Door.
- Playing with Character Type: In Justice League, he voiced Doctor Destiny, who was a smug jerk like many of his other characters. However, Doctor Destiny’s smugness came from being a flat-out sociopath with delusions of grandeur, and he psychologically tortured people out of petty vengeance, even murdering his ex-wife for leaving him, taking his characters’s usual cruelty to downright unsettling levels.
- Smug Snake: Many characters. Few characters actors can sell smarmy overconfidence and arrogance as well.
- Typecasting: After Ghostbusters (1984) as Walter Peck he was mostly cast as the arrogant, smug jerkass character.
