Harry Northup


Harry Northup is an American actor and poet. As an actor, he would make frequent appearances in the films of Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme.

Personal life and career

Northup was born in Amarillo, Texas. He lived in seventeen places by the time he was seventeen, but mostly lived in Sidney, Nebraska, where he graduated from high-school in 1958. From 1958-61, he served in the United States Navy, where he attained the rank of Second Class Radioman. From 1963 to 1968, he studied Method acting with Frank Corsaro, in New York City.
Northup received his B.A. in English from California State University, Northridge, where he studied poetry with poet Ann Stanford. He has made a living as an actor for over thirty years and has been in thirty-seven films including Martin Scorsese's first six feature films: Who's That Knocking at My Door, Boxcar Bertha, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver and New York, New York. He was Mr. Bimmel in Jonathan Demme's film The Silence of the Lambs. He starred in Over the Edge and Fighting Mad.
Harry E. Northup: From Acting in Martin Scorsese Films To Writing Poetry,
Northup has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1976. His second wife, poet and novelist, Holly Prado, died on June 14, 2019.
. He has a son, Dylan, by his first marriage. Poets such as Walt Whitman, Leland Hickman, Paul Blackburn, Ann Stanford, William Carlos Williams, and Holly Prado have all influenced Harry Northup's poetry. He conceived and coordinated the weekly poetry-reading-series, "Poetry on Melrose", at Gasoline Alley, in Los Angeles, from 1986-88. Poets who read at the venue included Robert Peters, Jack Hirschman and Lewis MacAdams.

Awards and honors

The City of Los Angeles, as represented by the L.A. City Council, awarded Harry Northup a "Certificate of Recognition" on November 15, 2006.

Poetry