Harry Connick Jr.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He
is the son of Anita Frances (Levy), a lawyer and judge, and Harry
Connick, Sr. (Joseph Harry Fowler Connick), who served as District
Attorney of New Orleans from 1973 to 2003. His father is of Irish,
English, and German ancestry, and his maternal grandparents were Jewish
immigrants from Vienna, Austria and Minsk, Belarus. Harry, Jr.'s mother
died of ovarian cancer when he was 13.
His parents owned a record store and encouraged their son's interest in
music - piano at age three, with a New Orleans jazz band aged ten. He
won piano competitions while playing French Quarter clubs and attending
the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. At eighteen, he studied
at New York's Hunter College and later on at the Manhatan School of
Music. At nineteen, he released his first album for Columbia Records
and began an extended run performing at the Algonquin's Oak Room,
followed a year later by his second album. He wrote the score and sang
several songs for Rob Reiner's
When Harry Met Sally... (1989),
the soundtrack for which went multi-platinum. So far, while bringing
back swing and big band music, he has earned one gold, four platinum
and three multi-platinum albums, plus two Grammies. His film acting
debut was as B-17 tail-gunner Clay Busby in
Memphis Belle (1990). He played
mass-murderer Daryll Lee Cullum in the
Sigourney Weaver and
Holly Hunter film
Copycat (1995) and Captain Jimmy Wilder
("Let's kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy!") in
Independence Day (1996).
Harry lives in Connecticut, is married to the former model
Jill Goodacre, and has three daughters,
Georgia Tatom, Sara Kate and Charlotte.
is the son of Anita Frances (Levy), a lawyer and judge, and Harry
Connick, Sr. (Joseph Harry Fowler Connick), who served as District
Attorney of New Orleans from 1973 to 2003. His father is of Irish,
English, and German ancestry, and his maternal grandparents were Jewish
immigrants from Vienna, Austria and Minsk, Belarus. Harry, Jr.'s mother
died of ovarian cancer when he was 13.
His parents owned a record store and encouraged their son's interest in
music - piano at age three, with a New Orleans jazz band aged ten. He
won piano competitions while playing French Quarter clubs and attending
the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. At eighteen, he studied
at New York's Hunter College and later on at the Manhatan School of
Music. At nineteen, he released his first album for Columbia Records
and began an extended run performing at the Algonquin's Oak Room,
followed a year later by his second album. He wrote the score and sang
several songs for Rob Reiner's
When Harry Met Sally... (1989),
the soundtrack for which went multi-platinum. So far, while bringing
back swing and big band music, he has earned one gold, four platinum
and three multi-platinum albums, plus two Grammies. His film acting
debut was as B-17 tail-gunner Clay Busby in
Memphis Belle (1990). He played
mass-murderer Daryll Lee Cullum in the
Sigourney Weaver and
Holly Hunter film
Copycat (1995) and Captain Jimmy Wilder
("Let's kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy!") in
Independence Day (1996).
Harry lives in Connecticut, is married to the former model
Jill Goodacre, and has three daughters,
Georgia Tatom, Sara Kate and Charlotte.