John Heard, Jr. (born March 7, 1945 or 1946) is an American actor well known for his recurring role as Peter McCallister, in the first two installments of the Home Alone movie series. In 2011 he appeared as Lehman Brothers COO Joe Gregory in Too Big to Fail, an HBO film. He also starred in Cat People, The Milagro Beanfield War, The Pelican Brief and Big. Heard was born in Washington, D.C., the son of John and Helen Heard. He grew up with two sisters, one of whom, Cordis, is also an actor, and a brother, Matthew, who died in 1975. He attended Gonzaga College High School, then went on to graduate from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. In the 1970s, Heard appeared on the stage, television and film. He appeared off-Broadway in 1974 in Mark Medoff's The Wager and at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in 1977 in a series of new plays. In 1979 he played Arthur Dimmesdale in a television production of The Scarlet Letter. Heard won Obie Awards for his performances in Othello and Split in 1979-80. He was the male lead in the 1979 film Head Over Heels (which was renamed and rereleased as Chilly Scenes of Winter in 1982).