Jeffrey Donovan

Jeffrey Donovan (born May 11, 1968) is an American actor. He has played Michael Westen in the television series Burn Notice, and appeared in films such as Hitch, Believe in Me, Changeling, and Come Early Morning. He played Robert F. Kennedy in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (2011) and his brother John F. Kennedy in Rob Reiner's LBJ (2016). He had a recurring role in the second season of the TV series Fargo (2015). From 2022 to 2023, he starred as NYPD Detective Frank Cosgrove on the revival of the NBC crime drama Law & Order. He left the show before the 23rd season due to creative differences.

Donovan was born the middle of three boys to Nancy Matthews (1946–2010); his older brother was Michael Donovan (1965–2024) and his younger brother was Sean (1970-1987). Donovan’s mother raised her sons alone on welfare after their father abandoned the family. They moved several times before settling in Amesbury, Massachusetts.

At Amesbury High School, Donovan was mentored by a teacher who helped him start a drama club and find a private scholarship, enabling him to participate in a summer program that helped him start his acting career. He attended Bridgewater State College before transferring to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in drama.

While attending college, Donovan was a commercial bus driver at UMass Transit Service, where he operated passenger buses as part of the PVTA.^{[citation needed]} He went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts from New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.

Donovan has guest-starred in several television shows, including CSI: Miami, Spin City, Monk, Millennium, Witchblade, The Pretender, Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order. In the short-lived TV series Threshold, Donovan played the antihero Dr. Sloan. Donovan also played the recurring role of William Ivers in Crossing Jordan. In 2004, he had his first leading role in the American remake of the British television series Touching Evil with Vera Farmiga on the USA Network.

From 2007 to 2013, Donovan starred in Burn Notice, as Michael Westen, a spy who was burned, for reasons unknown to him, and marooned in Miami, Florida. The show follows Westen as he attempts to find out why he was burned and regain his job as a covert intelligence agent, in addition to bringing justice to the people of Miami. Donovan made his directorial debut with the series' episode, "Made Man" which first aired on June 17, 2010. Donovan also directed a prequel film starring co-star Bruce Campbell, titled Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, which first aired on USA Network on April 17, 2011. The series lasted for seven seasons, received positive reviews from both fans and critics, and was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards.

In 2015, Donovan had a recurring role on Fargo as North Dakota mobster Dodd Gerhardt. In 2016, he began starring as Tarot-reading con artist Charlie Haverford in Shut Eye on Hulu. On January 30, 2018, Shut Eye was canceled after two seasons.

In 2021, he was cast as a series regular detective for the 21st season of Law & Order.