Douglas Howard Sills
Douglas Sills was born on July 5, 1960 and he is an American actor. He was born in Detorit, Michigan, United States and he is the son of Arthur Milton and Rhoda (nee Nemeth) Sills. He grew up in the suburb of Franklin in a Jewish household. He was friends with and did amateur theatrics and films with both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campell. Douglas attended Cranbrook School from which he graduated in 1978, and the University of Michigan where he majored in music. He then continued his education at the American Conservatory Theater in California.
During the 1990's, Douglas built a solid reputation as a
stage characther actor, especially in the professional theaters of southern
California. He also performed in several national tours, including
Into the Woods and The Secret Garden, which would also feature
future Broadway stars as James Stacy Barbour and Audra McDonald. His first
Broadway role, however, came when composer Frank
Wildhorn and lyricist Nan Knighton approached him in hopes of finding a male
lead for their new musical, The Scarlet Pimpernal. Before the
audition, he told his agent not to send him to any more auditions because he
planned to attend law school. With a score in th 99th percentile on the
Law School Admission Test, he hoped to attend Stanford Law School.
However, being a fan of the movie as a child, he decided to give action one more
chance and was offered the lead as Sir Percy Blakeney.
Douglas Sills opened on his first Broadway show on November 9, 1997. Continuing the role in three other versions of the show, he received a Tony Award nomination. He protrayed the foppish hero in SP 1.0 (The Original Broadway Production, starring Terrence Mann, Christine Andreas, and Gilles Chiason), SP 2.0 (Revised Broadway Production, starring Rachel York and Rex Smith), and for several months in the National Tour (4.0). Although rumored as the title role of Wildhorn's Dracula, The Musical, Douglas opted out (despite doing a recording demo), and rather Tom Hewitt portrayed the gothic character at the premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2001. He played Orin Scrivello, and several other roles in the 2003 Broadway revival cast of Little Shop of Horrors.
In 2004, Douglas Sills joined the Broadway-bound Chicago production of Monty Python's Spamalot. However, before the production began, he left on his own account due to reported "major script changes." In early 2005, production plans were announced for Wildhorn's new musical Cyrano de Bergerac, from the same team that helped launch his career with The Scarlet Pimpernel. The title role was written specifically for Douglas Sills, however, producers dropped plans for the show in spring 2006 without explanation. A studio-concept recording was planned, starring him, Linda Eder and Rob Evan, but plans also quickly fell through.
In 2009, Douglas Sills starred opposite Kristin Chenoweth at the New York City Center production of Music in the Air, a long-forgotten Kern-Hamerstein project from the 1930's. The concert-style version ran February 5 through Frebruary 8. He assumed the role of Gomez Addams in the national tour of The Addams Family in September 2011 until the company's closing on December 30, 2012.
From March 27 to April 2013, Douglas Sills took on the role of Jack in Long Wharf Theatre's production of William Mastrosimone's Ride the Tiger.
Douglas Sills also played Walter Burns in La Jolla Playhouse's production of His Girl Friday from May 28 to June 30, 2013.