Full name: James Pickens Jr.
Grey's character: Dr. Richard Webber
Nickname: None
Date of birth: October 26, 1954
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Currently residing in: Los Angeles, California
Education: BFA from Bowling Green State University
Bet you didn't know... James is an accomplished cattle roper, competing in roping events across the country as a card-carrying member of the United States Team Roping Championship. Good thing that he was able to lasso his role as Dr. Webber, too!
With an impressively full résumé, James Pickens, Jr. is one of Hollywood's most valued character actors. Yet James arrived to acting relatively late — he tried his hand at theater for the first time when he was in college at Bowling Green State University, and one of his first roles was Walter Lee in Roundabout Theatre's production in of A Raisin in the Sun. After obtaining his degree in 1976, James starred alongside Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson in the Negro Ensemble Company's 1981 production of the critically acclaimed drama A Soldier's Play. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-'80s, where he joined the soap opera Another World in 1986 as Zack Edwards, a character he portrayed until 1990. Roles in silver screen action flicks and bit parts on TV shows like The X-Files, NYPD Blue, and Six Feet Under paid the bills.
Grey's Anatomy actually provided James with his biggest role to date, as Chief of Surgery Dr. Richard Webber, and he has received tremendous critical acclaim for his role as the tortured doc. In his personal life, James has two children, Carl and Gavyn, with his wife Gina.
RELATED FEATURES:
Video: James Pickens Jr. on Just Wright
Video: James on The View
Gallery: Grey's Stars at the Frankie and Alice Premiere
MORE ON JAMES PICKENS JR. BELOW!
Video: James Pickens Jr. on Just Wright
Video: James on The View
Gallery: Grey's Stars at the Frankie and Alice Premiere
MORE ON JAMES PICKENS JR. BELOW!
