Moved to New York to pursue acting at age 17

Made stage debut in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona"

Appeared off-Broadway in "El Grande de Coca-Cola"

Film debut, "Death Wish"

Appeared with Ben Vereen in ABC's "Tenspeed and Brown Shoe"

Joined an ensemble cast in Lawrence Kasdan's "The Big Chill"

First lead role in a feature, John Landis's "Into the Night"

First film with Geena Davis, "Transylvania 6-5000"

Breakthrough role in David Cronenberg's "The Fly"; also co-starring Geena Davis

Cast in Robert Altman's "Beyond Therapy"

Again co-starred with Geena Davis in the comedy, "Earth Girls Are Easy"

Played Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician and chaos theorist in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster hit, "Jurassic Park"

Played Hugh Grant's perpetually single artist friend in the comedy, "Nine Months"

Co-starred with Will Smith in Roland Emmerich's "Independece Day"

Reprised role of Dr. Malcolm in "The Lost World"

Lent his voice to the animated feature, "The Prince of Egypt"

Appeared with Selma Hayek and Steve Zahn in the comedy "Chain of Fools"

Cast as the title character's extremely wealthy, morally corrupted godfather in the indie feature, "Igby Goes Down"

Had a supporting role in Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"

Cast as Karen's old nemesis and Grace's new love interest on NBC's "Will & Grace"; garnered an Emmy nomination

Cast opposite Robin Williams in Barry Levinson's political comedy, "Man of the Year"

Played the title character on the short-lived series "Raines" (NBC)

Returned to the stage opposite Kevin Spacey in the London Old Vic revival of David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow"

Joined the cast of USA's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," replacing Chris Noth