From the Boardroom to the Courtroom: All About The Rainmaker Star John Slattery's Career
The Mad Men star plays a legal powerhouse in the new adaptation of the John Grisham novel.
In USA Network's upcoming legal drama The Rainmaker, a rookie lawyer will argue the case of a lifetime against a powerful health insurance company, facing off with a veteran defense attorney in the courtroom. In the movie adaptation of the John Grisham novel, Jon Voight played the formidable lawyer, Leo F. Drummond, but in the upcoming series, a new actor will step into Leo's (very expensive) shoes: John Slattery.
Slattery, who will star alongside series lead Milo Callaghan (Rivals, Dune: Prophecy), is arguably the biggest name attached to the new series, as he's best known for his leading role in the acclaimed drama Mad Men. However, Slattery's filmography is much more than just playing Roger Sterling on the AMC series.
Before The Rainmaker premieres on August 15, 2025, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on USA Network, here's what you need to know about John Slattery.
John Slattery's Early Life & Career
John Slattery was born in Boston on August 13, 1962, to parents Joan and John "Jack" Slattery. One of six children in the Irish-Catholic family, he graduated from The Catholic University of America with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1984.
He got his first acting role a few years later, when he was cast as Pvt. Dylan Leeds in Dirty Dozen: The Series, a TV adaptation of the classic World War II movie. The Fox show was canceled early, after only seven of the 13 episodes had aired. However, this early disappointment only marked the start of a successful career on TV and on the big screen.
He is married to actress Talia Balsam, who also played his on-screen wife in Mad Men. Their son, Harry Slattery, was born in 1999.
John Slattery's TV Roles: Mad Men & Beyond
Slattery’s next notable TV role following Dirty Dozen: The Series was ABC’s Under Cover, a 1991 secret agent drama that only ran for one season. He appeared in Homefront, another ABC series about three American families at the end of World War II. Slattery played a union organizer and suspected Communist sympathizer in the show, which was critically acclaimed.
His next main role was in the Lifetime Television series Maggie in the late ‘90s, and he had recurring roles in Ed (2001-2002) and Desperate Housewives, in which he played Victor Lang in 14 episodes. He had main roles in HBO’s Washington lobby drama K Street in 2003 and The WB drama Jack & Bobby (2004-2005). Throughout the first two decades of his career, Slattery also made TV appearances on shows such as Party of Five, Becker, Law & Order, Will & Grace, Judging Amy, and Sex and the City.
But Slattery's biggest role came in 2007 when he was cast as Roger Sterling, the confident and charismatic account executive in AMC’s acclaimed period drama Mad Men. Slattery played the career-defining role for all seven seasons of the show, appearing in 85 episodes. He was nominated for four Emmy Awards throughout the show's run.
After Mad Men ended in 2015, Slattery continued to pop up regularly on TV, with roles in the Netflix Wet Hot American Summer prequel series, HBO’s Veep, the FX Miniseries Mrs. America, the Fox sci-fi crime drama neXt, and The Good Fight.
Slattery has also worked behind the camera, directing five episodes of Mad Men and three episodes of the Netflix romance series Love.
John Slattery's Movie Career
Although primarily known as a TV star, Slattery's no slouch when it comes to the big screen. He made his film debut in City Hall, a 1996 political thriller where he played a detective. He played Paul, the boyfriend of Julia Roberts’ character in 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile, and he had parts in Flags of Our Fathers, Reservation Road, Charlie Wilson’s War, and The Adjustment Bureau.
His best-known film role is undoubtedly that of Howard Stark, the father of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Appearing in flashbacks, Slattery’s Howard made his debut in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and made further appearances in Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Endgame.
Slattery played Ben Bradlee Jr., editor-in-chief of the Boston Globe, in the Best Picture-winning Spotlight. Other credits include Ted 2, Churchill, Confess, Fletch, and Unfrosted — a Jerry Seinfeld comedy where he made a cameo appearance playing Mad Men’s Roger Sterling...
Slattery will next appear in The Rainmaker, which premieres on August 15. In the show, he's not just rookie lawyer Rudy Baylor's formidable opponent; he's also his old boss, as Leo Drummond fired Rudy on his first day at a new job, leading him to take a job at another firm that has them facing off in court. Notably, Rudy's law school girlfriend still works for Leo.
The Rainmaker premieres on USA on August 15, 2025, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
