James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying eccentric characters in such films as the romantic comedy-drama Pretty in Pink (1986), the drama Less Than Zero (1987), the Steven Soderbergh-directed drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), the action science fiction film Stargate (1994), the horror thriller drama film Wolf (1994), the controversial psychological thriller Crash (1996), the erotic romance Secretary (2002), the historical TV film The Pentagon Papers (2003), and the epic historical drama film Lincoln (2012).
His most well-known television roles are those of attorney Alan Shore in The Practice and its spin-off Boston Legal (for which he won three Emmy Awards), and Robert California in the comedy-mockumentary The Office. He currently stars as high-profile criminal Raymond "Red" Reddington in the crime drama The Blacklist and is set to play the villainous android Ultron in Marvel Studios' upcoming 2015 superhero film Avengers: Age of Ultron.