Date of birth : 14 April 1949
Location : North Conway, New Hampshire, USA
Trivia : Children: Miranda (b. 2000), Jake (b. 1986)
Spouses: Laura Pettibone (19?? - 2000) (divorced) 2 children, Melissa MacCleod (August 2001 - present)
Height: 5'9" (about 1m75)

John Shea received his BA from Bates College where he attended on a debating and Football scholarship. He then earned an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama and was a special student at the Yale Film School. Actor John Shea launched his career on-stage in 1975 and made his feature-film debut in Hussy (1980). He began his long involvement with television in The Nativity (1978).

Since then, John has garnered a wealth of acting and directing experience. He earned an Emmy Award for his work in the television movie Baby M, he won also the Best Actor citation at the Montreal Film Festival for his role in "Windy City" (1984), and is well known for his role as the evil Lex Luthor in the international hit series, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Shea is not only one of his generation’s most versatile actors, but also a talented filmmaker.
John co-wrote and directed the independent film Southie, starring Donnie Wahlberg, Rose McGowan and Amanda Peet. That drama set in Irish-American South Boston, Southie won the Jury Award for Best Independent film at the 1998 Seattle International Film Festival and is distributed by Lion’s Gate Films.

Shea lives in New York City. When he’s not working, he spends time with his family at his home on Nantucket, where he is a founding member of the Nantucket Film Festival. He won the John F. Kennedy Award for outstanding cultural contribution by a person of Irish-American descent.

Other film credits include The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Catalina Trust, Missing and Nowhere To Go. John has also appeared in the television movie, A Will Of Their Own, HBO's The Impossible Sky, and the mini-series, Kennedy, starring Martin Sheen. On stage he has starred in the Pulitzer Prize winning hit, How I Learned To Drive, starring Molly Ringwald.