Thomas Haden Church

Thomas Haden Church (born Thomas Richard McMillen;[2][3] June 17, 1960)[4] is an American actor. After appearing in the 1990s sitcom Wings and playing the lead for two seasons in Ned & Stacey (1995–1997), Church became known for his film work, including his Academy Award-nominated performance in Sideways (2004), his role as the villain Sandman in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 (2007), which he reprised in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and his role of Lyle van de Groot in George of the Jungle (1997). He also made his directorial debut with Rolling Kansas (2003).

Church was born as Thomas Richard McMillen in Woodland, Yolo County, California,[4] the son of Maxine (née Sanders; born 1936)[5] and Carlos “Carl” Richard McMillen (1936–2008), who served for eight years in the Marines and who was on active duty at the end of the Korean War; after 1962, Carlos worked as a surveyor.[6] Church’s parents divorced and his mother moved to Texas. She remarried in 1969, to widower George A. Quesada, a veteran of an Army Air Forces reconnaissance unit which served in Guam in World War II.[7] Church took his stepfather’s surname for a time but changed it to ‘Haden Church’, extracted from the names of other relatives, when people found ‘Quesada’ difficult to pronounce.[2] He left high school in 1977 to work in the oil fields of Louisiana, but he returned to graduate from Harlingen High School in 1979. He attended the University of North Texas while living in Dallas.[2