Career
Whaley made his film debut in 1987's Ironweed, and performed mostly in made-for-TV movies until 1989, when he appeared in Field of Dreams alongside Burt Lancaster and Kevin Costner, and Born on the Fourth of July alongside Tom Cruise. This latter film began a long collaboration with director Oliver Stone, including 1991's The Doors, in which he played Robby Krieger, and, in the same year, JFK, in which he played a conspirator in the JFK assassination. In 1991, Whaley also starred in the John Hughes production Career Opportunities alongside Jennifer Connelly.
Over the next two years, he played supporting roles in movies such as Hoffa and Swing Kids. He appeared in his second leading film role in 1994's Swimming with Sharks, in which he starred opposite Kevin Spacey. During the same year, he played a supporting role as the doomed Brett, who was memorably killed by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta's characters in Pulp Fiction. Whaley also had a memorable cameo as himself in an episode of The State, singing "We Didn't Start the Fire".
In 1998, he started a regular role on the short-lived CBS series Buddy Faro. He has also appeared in episodes of The Dead Zone, Law & Order, and its spinoff Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He made his writing-directorial debut in his own independent film, Joe the King, in 1999, featuring his Doors costar Val Kilmer and longtime friend and colleague Ethan Hawke in starring roles. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and earned Whaley the prestigious Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. His second film as writer and director, The Jimmy Show, starred Whaley and Carla Gugino. This film also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Whaley's third film as writer and director, New York City Serenade, starring Chris Klein and Freddie Prinze, Jr., premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. The film received poor reviews and the New York Times said "the story is transparently banal." He starred as the villain in Screen Gems' 2007 horror film Vacancy alongside Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, and guest starred on the April 10, 2007 episode of Boston Legal where he plays a man who tried to alter the crime scene of a murder his brother committed.
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