Thomas Haden Church was born Thomas Richard McMillen in Yolo, California, to Maxine and Carlos Richard McMillen, who was a U.S. marine and surveyor. He was raised in Texas. Church began his show business career in front of a microphone instead of a camera, first as a radio deejay and then as a voice-over announcer. After landing a role in the independent film, Stolen Moments, Church moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career.
Says he had pretty much retired from acting and was spending most of his time on his ranch in Texas when Alexander Payne asked him to star in Sideways .
Invited to join AMPAS in 2005.
Graduated from high school in 1979 in Harlingen, Texas, and worked at KBFM, a local radio station, for a time.
At director Sam Raimi s request, Church worked out in a gym for more than thirteen months and put on more than twenty pounds of muscle to play the lead villain Flint Marko/Sandman in Spider-Man 3 .
His breakthrough was Sideways , which led to a role in Spider-Man 3 .
In the last episode of "Ned and Stacey" , he said that he intended to spend the next time on a farm in Texas -- which he did in real life.
Engaged to actress Mia Zottoli. They have a daughter, Cody (b. 2004).
Turned down the role, which eventually went to Greg Kinnear , in Little Miss Sunshine , a decision he later regretted.
Director Sam Raimi thanked him for doing Spider-Man 3 by giving him a copy of Amazing Spiderman #4, the comic book issue that featured the first appearance of his Sandman character.
Began working on a cattle ranch at age 13.
Raised in Laredo, Texas, he graduated from Harlingen High School, Harlingen, Texas in 1979 and attended the University of North Texas.
Was born Thomas Richard McMillen, the third of six children, in Yolo, California, to an army officer/health care worker father and homemaker mother. He was raised, however, under his stepfathers surname, "Quesada", and later changed his surname to "Haden Church," both names of which he states are in his family tree.
Did not start acting until he was 28 years old.
(July 2002) Supplied voice to Cartoon Network short, Bagboy! .
(May 2009) Currently the voice of Bus, the red 1963 VW Microbus in the VWoA "Meet the Volkswagens" ad campaign.
(June 2010) "The voice of your TV" on Direct TV commercials.
His ancestry includes English, Norwegian, Danish, Scottish, and German.
(On Tombstone) That was my first REAL movie. It was terrific, because it,was just a bunch of dudes in the desert. I was young. We shot the whole,movie in Tucson and outside of Tucson. And it was just great to go on,location for a whole summer. I was on hiatus from Wings, and the movie,just fell in perfectly. And I literally was in Arizona the whole,summer-June, July, August, even into September. We actually started,shooting in May. It took the better part of four months to shoot that,movie. I was still such a neophyte. But I felt like I had enough,experience moving around the camera, and moving around sets and in,rehearsal, knowing professionally what was expected of me. Wings was a,filmed show, and I had been on single-camera film projects. But you,know, I was a little intimidated. Powers Boothe and Val Kilmer and Kurt,Russell. I was fairly intimidated by the environment the first week or,so. Because everything was big and fast-moving. And the director got,fired. He was the screenwriter. I was there for, like, two weeks, and,he got fired and they brought in George Cosmatos. That was a little,intimidating also.
And there have certainly been movies I wanted to be in and milestones I wanted to surpass that did not happen. .
