DAVID HARBOUR
BECAME A NATIONAL TREASURE
HOW
By Kirsten Howard
David Harbour has been acting for decades, but in recent years his popularity has skyrocketed for good reason.
New York native Harbour was born in 1975 and his parents both worked in real estate.
The acting bug bit hard in 1999 when he snagged a Broadway role in a revival of The Rainmaker.
Harbour has been open about his struggles with addiction, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 25, calling acting “a lifeline” for his mental wellbeing.
He got his TV start in the long running soap opera As the World Turns playing ‘Officer Shanks.’
It certainly wouldn’t be the last time he was the fictional face of law enforcement!
Stranger Things
He would go on to get TV roles in the likes of Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent among other shows.
But it was his role as police chief Jim Hopper in Netflix’s smash hit sci-fi series Stranger Things that would really put him on the map.
He won several awards for his performance as the beaten down but good-hearted adoptive father of Millie Bobby Brown’s character, Eleven.
Harbour even officiated the wedding of some enthusiastic Stranger Things fans in his Hopper costume!
Off the back of his Stranger Things success, he was cast as the new Hellboy in the 2019 comic book reboot movie.
The project wasn’t a success, but fans agreed that it wasn’t down to Harbour’s performance, and that he did well in the role.
Due to his honesty, upbeat attitude and his willingness to appear unvarnished by the Hollywood machine, Harbour was slowly becoming a “national treasure.”
It soon emerged that the actor was set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He would play Alexei Shostakov, aka the Red Guardian, in Marvel’s Natasha Romanoff swan song, Black Widow.
The Marvel fandom embraced Alexei when Black Widow was released, and thanks to the film’s surprising box office success we may see Harbour return in a future MCU installment.