Leo Burmester

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Leo Burmester (born February 1, 1944 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an actor who who oft plays cops and rural types on TV and in films, but on stage has performed as Osric in "Hamlet" (Kevin Kline in title role) for the New York Shakespeare Festival, as well as in such Broadway hits as "Big River," and as the heartless innkeeper, Thenardier, in the original Broadway cast of "Les Misérables".

Burmester has worked for director John Sayles several times, including "Passion Fish" (1992) and "Lone Star" (1996), and is also for directors such as John Schlesinger, Sidney Lumet, and as the Apostle Nathaniel in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988).

Burmester was born and raised in Louisville, and studied at Western Kentucky University as a biology major before switching to drama. After receiving an MFA from the University of Denver, he taught college for a year before taking the plunge as a working actor.

Burmester appeared with the Actors Theatre of Louisville, originating roles in the plays "Getting Our" and "Lone Star", and eventually recreating them in his Off-Broadway and Broadway debuts, respectively. He made his feature film debut in "House of God" (1979), but first worked in a big budget project with "Cruising" (1980), and had a featured role as the mortuary director in "Honky Tonk Freeway" (1981). Burmester played one of the FBI agents hounding the faux Rosenberg couple in "Daniel" (1983). He was Holly Hunter's father in the prologue "youth backstory" sequence in "Broadcast News" (1987), and the bum in front of The Plaza in "Big Business" (1988). Roles started to get larger with James Cameron's "The Abyss" (1989), as Catfish DeVries, decompression expert.