John Carroll Lynch (born August 1, 1963) is an American actor. He may be best known for his role as Drew Carey's cross-dressing brother on The Drew Carey Show and for his role as Norm, the unassuming husband of Margie Gunderson (Frances McDormand) in Fargo.
In the fall of 2003, he starred in the CBS show The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire, with Randy Quaid, Chris Penn, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth McGovern, and Ann Cusack. The show was cancelled after only a few episodes. He also had a recurring role in the HBO show Carnivàle, playing Varyln Stroud. Lynch appeared as a district attorney in the CBS series Close to Home.
Lynch recently appeared in Zodiac, in a stark role that contradicts much of his previous work as a lightweight comic actor. He is currently in Fox's new police drama series K-Ville as New Orleans Police Captain James Embry.
John Carroll Lynch was born August 1st, 1963 in Boulder, Colorado. He was raised most of his young life in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he stayed to attend the University of Minnesota. It was there John found a passion for acting and auditioned for the school of drama & theatre arts. He graduated in the mid-80s with a B.F.A. in theatre from the The Catholic University of America / Hartke Theatre Acting program. From then, he continued to work in theatre around the country, but concentrated mostly on his work at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Through the mid-90s, he was a member of the Guthrie Theater Acting Company, acting in many plays from Shakespeare to Shaw to Chekhov. In the early nineties, John was able to find time away from the theatre to work in film, as productions came through Minnesota. In 1996, he received critical acclaim for his role as Marge Gunderson's simple husband Norm Gunderson in Fargo (1996). He went on to make two more films that year, both of which were conveniently set in Minnesota, the acclaimed Beautiful Girls (1996) and Feeling Minnesota (1996). Since then, John's film career has been on an amazing climb. Much like other well respected actors from the theatre, such as John Malkovich and Gary Sinise, he chooses to play very interesting and diverse roles.
