Before He Was Howard Stark: John Slattery’s Nerdiest Roles

Happy birthday to John Slattery, who turns 64 today — and who, depending on your particular corner of fandom, is probably either Roger Sterling, Howard Stark or the extremely well-dressed man currently explaining that your entire existence has been predetermined.

Slattery is best known to many television audiences for Mad Men, where he spent years stealing scenes as Roger Sterling. But his résumé has also taken some surprisingly nerdy turns.

We’re talking Marvel. Philip K. Dick. Rogue artificial intelligence. And yes, a superhero movie in which his fictional son eventually invents time travel and accidentally gets the chance to have one last conversation with him.

So in honor of Slattery’s birthday, we’re taking a look back at some of his best — and nerdiest — roles.

Iron Man 2 — Howard Stark Arrives

John Slattery made his MCU debut in 2010’s Iron Man 2 as Howard Stark, Tony Stark’s late father and one of the key architects of the world Tony inherited.

Technically, Slattery wasn’t the first actor to play Howard Stark. Gerard Sanders briefly appeared as the character in the original Iron Man, while Dominic Cooper later played the younger Howard in Captain America: The First Avenger and Agent Carter.

But Slattery became the face of Howard during Tony’s childhood and adulthood — and brought exactly the right amount of charisma, ego and emotional distance to explain quite a lot about why Tony Stark became Tony Stark.

In Iron Man 2, much of Howard’s presence comes through archival footage left behind for his son. Even from beyond the grave, he’s still challenging Tony to solve a problem.

Which is, frankly, the most Stark-family form of affection imaginable.

Slattery would eventually reprise Howard in Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame.

Captain America: Civil War — One Scene Changes Everything

Slattery’s appearance in Captain America: Civil War isn’t particularly long.

It also happens to be one of the most important Howard Stark appearances in the MCU.

The movie finally shows audiences exactly what happened to Howard and Maria Stark on December 16, 1991 — and reveals that the “car accident” Tony had spent years believing killed his parents was actually an assassination carried out by the Winter Soldier while Bucky Barnes was under HYDRA control.

It turns Howard from a complicated memory into the center of one of Marvel’s nastiest emotional conflicts.

Tony watches his parents die.

Steve already knew Bucky was involved.

And suddenly the ideological fight between Captain America and Iron Man becomes brutally personal.

For a character who had already been dead for decades within the MCU timeline, Howard Stark managed to cause an impressive amount of damage.

Avengers: Endgame — Tony Gets One More Moment With His Dad

And then Marvel did something unexpectedly kind to Tony Stark.

During the Avengers’ time heist in Avengers: Endgame, Tony and Steve Rogers travel to 1970 after their original plan goes sideways. While there, Tony unexpectedly encounters a younger version of his father — played once again by Slattery.

Howard doesn’t know who Tony is.

Tony knows exactly who Howard is.

And for a few minutes, Tony gets something he never thought he would have: a conversation with his father as two adult men.

Howard talks about his unborn child. Tony listens to him admit that becoming a father scares him. And the man who spent much of his life carrying resentment toward Howard finally gets to see him as something other than the impossible standard looming over his childhood.

Just a guy who didn’t know what the hell he was doing yet.

It’s one of the quieter scenes in Endgame, but it gives Tony a piece of closure shortly before his own story ends.

The Adjustment Bureau — Slattery Controls Your Destiny

If Marvel isn’t nerdy enough, how about some Philip K. Dick?

Slattery appeared alongside Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and future Captain America Anthony Mackie in 2011’s The Adjustment Bureau, a science-fiction thriller loosely based on Dick’s short story “Adjustment Team.”

Slattery plays Richardson, one of the mysterious agents responsible for keeping humanity on a predetermined path.

In other words, somewhere there is apparently an entire supernatural bureaucracy dedicated to making sure you don’t accidentally derail destiny.

And naturally, John Slattery looks completely at home working there.

Richardson spends much of the film attempting to keep Damon’s David Norris away from Emily Blunt’s Elise because their relationship isn’t part of “the Plan.”

The whole thing is essentially a romance battling cosmic middle management.

Honestly? Incredible concept.

neXt — What If Artificial Intelligence Decided We Were the Problem?

Ten years after becoming Howard Stark, Slattery jumped directly into another extremely Nerd Wire-friendly premise.

In Fox’s 2020 science-fiction series neXt, he played Paul LeBlanc, a former tech CEO who discovers that the artificial intelligence his company created has become dangerously powerful.

LeBlanc teams up with FBI cybersecurity agent Shea Salazar to stop it.

So yes: John Slattery went from playing the father of a fictional technological genius to playing a technological genius trying to prevent rogue AI from destroying everyone.

Apparently the man has a type.

The series only lasted one season, but its central premise — an AI system becoming increasingly intelligent, manipulative and difficult to contain — has somehow become considerably less comforting with age.

Underdog — Yes, We’re Counting It

We promised nerdy roles.

We did not promise they would all be prestige television.

In 2007, Slattery appeared in Disney’s live-action Underdog as the Mayor of Capitol City.

You know.

The movie where a beagle gains superpowers.

We have Marvel Studios, Philip K. Dick, artificial intelligence and Underdog living on the same résumé.

That’s range.

But Fine, We Have to Talk About Roger Sterling

No John Slattery retrospective would feel remotely complete without Mad Men.

Roger Sterling isn’t technically a nerdy role. There are no superheroes, rogue computers or reality-manipulating bureaucrats involved.

There is, however, an almost supernatural quantity of alcohol.

Slattery played Roger throughout the AMC drama’s run and earned four Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the performance.

Roger could be charming, infuriating, unexpectedly vulnerable and devastatingly funny — frequently within the same scene.

It’s the role that made Slattery instantly recognizable long before many Marvel fans realized Tony Stark’s father was the same guy.

From Sterling Cooper to Stark Industries

John Slattery has one of those careers where you start looking through the filmography and suddenly realize just how many different worlds he’s wandered into.

He’s worked at Sterling Cooper.

He’s helped found S.H.I.E.L.D.

He’s tried to keep Matt Damon on his predetermined cosmic itinerary.

He’s fought a rogue artificial intelligence.

He’s been mayor of a city protected by a superhero dog.

Not bad for one résumé.

And for Marvel fans, he’ll always hold a particularly strange place in MCU history: Howard Stark was rarely the main character, but his decisions shaped Tony, Steve Rogers, S.H.I.E.L.D. and ultimately huge pieces of the universe around them.

So happy 64th birthday to John Slattery — and here’s to whichever impeccably dressed authority figure, scientist, executive or possible cosmic bureaucrat he plays next.