My Take
William Devane is one of those actors who quietly built one of the most dependable careers in American entertainment without ever becoming a tabloid fixture, and honestly that's part of what makes him so compelling. Growing up in Albany, he came up through stage work before carving out a niche in 1970s cinema — his turns in Marathon Man and Rolling Thunder showed he could carry serious dramatic weight alongside the biggest names of that era. Then came Knots Landing, where he played Greg Sumner for nearly a decade and proved he could hold a primetime audience in the palm of his hand. His run as Secretary of Defense James Heller on 24 added another dimension entirely — gravitas without grandstanding. He's the rare kind of actor whose face alone tells you a character has lived a complicated life, and that's a gift no acting school can manufacture.
Overview
William Joseph Devane (born September 5, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Greg Sumner on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing (1983–1993) and as James Heller on the Fox serial dramas 24 (2001–2010) and 24: Live Another Day (2014). He is also known for his work in films such as Family Plot (1976), Marathon Man (1976), Rolling Thunder (1977), Payback (1999), and Space Cowboys (2000).
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- William Devane
- Name (Japanese)
- ウィリアム・ディヴェイン
- Reading
- うぃりあむ・でぃゔぇいん
- Born
- September 5, 1937 (age 88)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Ox
- Origin
- Albany, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- stage actor / film actor / television actor / screenwriter / voice actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Albany High School
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.