Michael O'Keefe

Michael O'Keefe (born Raymond Peter O'Keefe, Jr.; April 24, 1955) is an American film and television actor, known for his roles as Danny Noonan in Caddyshack and Ben Meechum in The Great Santini — for which he received a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. 2Early life O'Keefe was born Raymond Peter O'Keefe Jr., in Mount Vernon, New York, the oldest of seven children in a devoutly Roman Catholic Irish American family. He is the son of Stephanie (née Fitzpatrick) and Raymond Peter O'Keefe, who was a law professor at Fordham University, and also taught at St. Thomas University. O'Keefe grew up in Larchmont, New York and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and New York University, and made his acting debut in a 1970 Colgate television commercial. 2Career O'Keefe is known for his role as Danny Noonan in the comedy film Caddyshack. He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role as Ben, the oldest son of a Marine aviator in The Great Santini (1979), starring Robert Duvall, also nominated for an Academy Award for the film. He played a Marine in the CBS miniseries A Rumor of War (1980) as the friend of Brad Davis' character, Philip Caputo. He played the lead role in the 1982 film, Split Image, as a college athlete who gets lured into a religious cult by a beautiful girl (Karen Allen). He appeared in the thriller film The Glass House, and starred with Tommy Lee Jones in the 1983 pirate adventure Nate and Hayes (also known as Savage Islands