JOHN C. REILLY (Murph) most recently starred as the lonely-heart cop Jim Kurring in Paul Thomas Anderson's ensemble drama, "Magnolia." Prior to that he co-starred in "For Love of the Game," with Kevin Costner, and was also featured in the Academy Award-nominated "The Thin Red Line." Last year, Reilly co-starred with Drew Barrymore in the comedy "Never Been Kissed."

Reilly charmed audiences in Anderson's Oscar-nominated "Boogie Nights," playing porn star Reed Rothchild, having previously worked with Anderson on his acclaimed debut "Hard Eight," starring opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. Among Reilly's other feature film credits are "Georgia," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "Dolores Claiborne," "The River Wild," "We're No Angels," "State of Grace," "Hoffa" and "Casualties of War."

On stage, Reilly appeared in "The Grapes of Wrath" on Broadway. He also starred as Mitch in The Steppenwolf Theater production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in Chicago and produced and played the title role in Ionesco's "Exit the King" at the Actors Gang Theater in Los Angeles.

Reilly kicked off 2000 with the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Sam Shepard's "True West," for which he won the Outer Critics' Circle Special Achievement Award and is currently a nominee for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.

Upon finishing his work on "The Perfect Storm," Reilly discovered an interesting personal connection to his character, Murph. His great-, great-, great-grandfather Alexander McClean was a fisherman on The Sioux City, in the early 1900s, and fished the same waters as the crew of the Andrea Gail.