Prolific character actor Christian Clemenson was born Nov. 11, 1959, in Humboldt, Iowa. As a paperboy in his early teens, he earned a scholarship from the Des Moines Register to attend the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. During his summers home in Iowa, he became active in community theater and later studied at the Yale School of Drama.

Starting with an appearance on TV's "Fame" in 1985, Clemenson began a decades-long résumé of smaller parts in such films as Heartburn, The Big Lebowski and Apollo 13. On TV, he appeared in "The Golden Girls," "21 Jump Street," "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." "Mad About You" and as Abel Koontz on "Veronica Mars."

In 2006, he played real-life Sept. 11 victim Tom Burnett in United 93. The same year, he won a Best Guest Actor Emmy for his portrayal of Jerry "Hands" Espenson, an attorney with Asperger's syndrome on "Boston Legal."