He has worked with his Williams College classmate and director John Sayles. He made his film debut in "Return of the Secaucus 7", and worked in the films "Passion Fish", "Matewan", "Limbo" and "City of Hope", for which he won the Independent Spirit Award. Alongside Sayles, he played one of the "men in black" in the 1983 film "The Brother from Another Planet". Strathairn created the role of Edwin Booth with Maryann Plunkett in a workshop production of "Booth! A House Divided", by W. Stuart McDowell, at The Players in New York.