THE DAVID MORSE FILE

Age: 48

Occupation: Actor. Starting this fall, he'll star in CBS's "Hack," player a cop-turned-cabdriver named Mike Olshansky.

Family: Married since 1982 to Susan, an actress, editor and writer with whom he has a daughter and twin sons.

Born: Hamilton, Mass. Moved to Philadelphia - his wife's hometown - after their Sherman Oaks, Calif., home was destroyed in the 1994 Northridge quake.

Before acting: Worked in a newspaper pressroom, stacking papers for $3 an hour. And yes, he once drove a cab.

Big breaks: Landing the job of a basketball player in the 1980 film, "Inside Moves," followed by the TV series "St. Elsewhere," where he played Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison, a dedicated doctor dogged by tragedy, from 1982-88.

A more recent sampling: Played Meg Ryan's kidnapped husband in "Proof of Life"; a deranged scientist in "Twelve Monkeys"; Jodie Foster's father in "Contact"; a prison guard in "The Green Mile"; the lecherous uncle in Paula Vogel's off-Broadway drama, "How I Learned to Drive" (for which he received several awards, including an Obie); the drunken driver who kills Jack Nicholson's daughter in "The Crossing Guard"; a Philadelphia cleric in "Diary of a City Priest"; and a Treasury investigator who has a tracking device implanted in Jamie Foxx's jaw in "Bait."

Upcoming: "Double Vision," in which he plays an FBI agent paired with a Taiwanese cop in the search for a serial killer, and "Slaughter Rule," which is currently on the festival circuit.

Unofficial Web site: www.davidmorse.org