# Peter Coyote
**Peter Coyote** (born Robert Peter Cohon, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator, known for film roles including the government agent Keys in *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* (1982) and for narrating documentaries, particularly those of filmmaker [Ken Burns](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-burns).[1](https://petercoyote.com/) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) His official site describes him as an actor in more than 160 films, an Emmy Award-winning narrator of over 200 documentaries and audiobooks, and the author of two memoirs, *Sleeping Where I Fall* and *The Rainman's Third Cure*; he is also a songwriter, guitarist, singer, and ordained Zen Buddhist priest.[1](https://petercoyote.com/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Peter Cohon, 1941, New York City, New York[1](https://petercoyote.com/) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) |
| Education | Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Grinnell College; attended California State University for a master's degree in creative writing[3](https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/show/841) |
| Arts administration | Member and then Chairman of the California State Arts Council, 1975 to 1983; annual expenditures on the arts rose from 1 to 16 million dollars during his chairmanship[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) |
| Film career | Began in 1980 with *Die Laughing*; more than 150 movies and television productions since[4](https://pryorcenter.uark.edu/interview.php?displayName=Peter+Coyote&thisInterviewee=628&thisProfileURL=COYOTE-Peter-628&thisProject=Arkansas+Memories) |
| Signature narration | Ken Burns documentaries including *The Roosevelts: An Intimate History*, *The Vietnam War*, *Prohibition*, *The West*, and *The Dust Bowl*[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/person/peter-coyote/) |
| Emmy Awards | Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Narrator, 2015, for *The Roosevelts*; Emmy for Outstanding Historical Program, 1993, for *The Pacific Century*[6](https://petercoyote.com/actor/) |
| Zen ordination | Ordained a priest by teacher Lew Richmond in 2011; received Dharma transmission in 2015 under the name HoSho JiShi, Dharma Voice, Compassion Warrior[7](https://blogs.sfzc.org/blog/2022/01/10/a-conversation-with-peter-coyote/) |
## Early life and name
Coyote was born Robert Peter Cohon in 1941 to what his official site describes as a highly intellectual, culturally Jewish, secular family involved in liberal politics.[1](https://petercoyote.com/) The Television Academy lists his birthplace as New York City and his birthday as October 10.[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) He grew up in rural and suburban Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and moved to San Francisco in 1963 after graduating from [Grinnell College](https://www.edgepedia.org/grinnell-college) with a degree in English Literature.[8](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/peter-coyote/) • [9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/)
He changed his name to Coyote well before his acting career began. A 1987 Washington Post profile dates the change to 1962 and reports that he described it as part of a mystical experience, saying, "I just took my real name."[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/04/05/peter-coyote-lone-wolf-spurns-hollywood-mold/8c05f6dd-a493-4ad2-8948-5ef056f990c3/) In a 2021 Tricycle interview, Coyote himself dated the change to age 27, inspired by a vision experienced while taking peyote.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/) His official site adds that he later came across *Coyote's Journal*, a poetry magazine whose logo matched paw prints from his peyote experience, and changed his last name as a first step toward understanding its significance.[1](https://petercoyote.com/)
## Counterculture years and arts administration
After moving to San Francisco, Coyote joined the counterculture movements of the 1960s, living in a commune, participating in nonviolent protests against the [Vietnam War](https://www.edgepedia.org/vietnam-war), and working to provide meals, clothing, and shelter to people in need.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/) He has described the period as ten years spent "de-educating" himself, learning to live with no money, no future, and no security, and he lived for a time with the Hell's Angels in San Francisco, though he says he was never a member.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/04/05/peter-coyote-lone-wolf-spurns-hollywood-mold/8c05f6dd-a493-4ad2-8948-5ef056f990c3/) He became involved with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a street theater company with radical politics, and moved irregularly through the city's theater world.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/04/05/peter-coyote-lone-wolf-spurns-hollywood-mold/8c05f6dd-a493-4ad2-8948-5ef056f990c3/)
In 1975 he was appointed by then-governor [Jerry Brown](https://www.edgepedia.org/jerry-brown), whom the Post describes as a fellow Zen follower, to head the California Council of the Arts.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/04/05/peter-coyote-lone-wolf-spurns-hollywood-mold/8c05f6dd-a493-4ad2-8948-5ef056f990c3/) From 1975 to 1983 he was a member and then Chairman of the California State Arts Council, and during his chairmanship annual expenditures on the arts rose from 1 to 16 million dollars.[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) He summarized the arc to the Post: "I tell people that I retired at 22 and went back to work at 35."[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/04/05/peter-coyote-lone-wolf-spurns-hollywood-mold/8c05f6dd-a493-4ad2-8948-5ef056f990c3/)
## Acting career
Coyote began his film career in 1980 with *Die Laughing* and has since appeared in more than 150 movies and television productions.[4](https://pryorcenter.uark.edu/interview.php?displayName=Peter+Coyote&thisInterviewee=628&thisProfileURL=COYOTE-Peter-628&thisProject=Arkansas+Memories) His official site lists him as having performed for directors including [Barry Levinson](https://www.edgepedia.org/barry-levinson), Roman Polanski, Pedro Almodovar, Steven Spielberg, Walter Hill, Martin Ritt, Steven Soderbergh, Diane Kurys, Sidney Pollack, and Jean-Paul Rappeneau.[6](https://petercoyote.com/actor/) Notable roles include the NASA agent Keys in Spielberg's *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* (1982), a role that brought him global attention a year after it was released,[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/) the driven district attorney in *Jagged Edge*, and the undercover lover in *Outrageous Fortune*.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/04/05/peter-coyote-lone-wolf-spurns-hollywood-mold/8c05f6dd-a493-4ad2-8948-5ef056f990c3/) Later film work includes *[Bitter Moon](https://www.edgepedia.org/bitter-moon)* (Polanski), *Kika* (Almodovar), *Patch Adams*, *[A Walk to Remember](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-walk-to-remember)*, and *Erin Brockovich*, in which he played a slick attorney.[11](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/peter-coyote-mn0000266518) • [12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-03-ca-25893-story.html)
On television he played DA Jerry Hardin in eight episodes of *Law & Order: LA* (2010 to 2011), Homeland Security chief Dennis Ryland in *The 4400*, and [Robert Mueller](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-mueller) in the 2020 miniseries *[The Comey Rule](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-comey-rule)*.[13](https://petercoyote.com/tv/) He received a Primetime Emmy nomination in 1991 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for playing Romney Penhallow in *Avonlea*.[6](https://petercoyote.com/actor/) In 2000 he provided the voice-over of the 72nd Academy Awards, hosted by [Billy Crystal](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-crystal).[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) In a 2000 Los Angeles Times interview he described himself as "by any stretch, a character actor," and said he considered himself more a writer who supported himself as an actor.[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-03-ca-25893-story.html)
## Narration
Coyote's distinctive, husky voice has served as narration for over 200 documentaries, and he has been described as a quintessential component of the American documentary, particularly those produced and directed by Ken Burns.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/) The Television Academy counts him as an Emmy-winning narrator of over 120 documentary films, including Burns's *National Parks*, *Prohibition*, *The West*, *The Dust Bowl*, and *The Roosevelts: An Intimate History*, for which he received his second Emmy nomination in July 2015.[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) He won the 2015 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Narrator for the first episode of *The Roosevelts*, "Get Action (1858-1901)"; his earlier Emmy, in 1993, was for Outstanding Historical Program for *The Pacific Century*.[6](https://petercoyote.com/actor/) His narration credits also include *The Vietnam War* (2017), *Hemingway* (2021), *Benjamin Franklin* (2022), *The U.S. and the Holocaust* (2022), *The American Buffalo* (2023), and *[The American Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-american-revolution-tv-series)* (2025).[5](https://www.metacritic.com/person/peter-coyote/) He has described his narration method as reading a Burns script for the first time without preparation, relying on a meditative state of being "empty" so his spontaneous response carries the listener through the text.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/)
## Writing
His debut memoir, *Sleeping Where I Fall*, which recounts the counterculture of the 1960s, drew reviews the Television Academy describes as universally excellent, made three best-seller lists, reached five hardback printings in sales, and came out again in May 2009 with a fresh cover and a new afterword.[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) A chapter from the book, "Carla's Story," won the 1993/94 Pushcart Prize for Excellence in non-fiction.[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) His second memoir, *The Rainman's Third Cure: An Irregular Education*, about mentors and the search for wisdom, was released by Counterpoint Press on April 14, 2015.[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote) A closet poet since the 1960s, he published his first book of poetry, *Tongue of a Crow*, in September 2021, shaped over two years with the poet Patrick Donnelly.[7](https://blogs.sfzc.org/blog/2022/01/10/a-conversation-with-peter-coyote/) His book *The Lone Ranger and Tonto Meet Buddha: Masks, Meditation, and Improvised Play to Induce Liberated States* details his approach to teaching acting through mask work and meditation.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/)
## Zen Buddhism
Coyote has practiced Zen for decades. In 1974, the Beat poet Lew Welch brought him together with the poet [Gary Snyder](https://www.edgepedia.org/gary-snyder), a Buddhist of many years, whose friendship led him to take up Buddhism and break off his involvement with drugs; he credits Zen meditation and psychotherapy with enabling the shift he describes as going from a heroin-using hippie to a drug-free Buddhist practitioner.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/) During a week-long sesshin (intensive multi-day Zen meditation retreat) at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in California in 2009, he experienced what he describes in *The Rainman's Third Cure* as a spiritual awakening, and his teacher Lewis Richmond urged him to undertake a three-year training to become a Buddhist teacher.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/) According to San Francisco Zen Center's Sangha News, he was ordained as a priest by Lew Richmond in 2011 and received Dharma transmission in 2015, receiving the name HoSho JiShi, Dharma Voice, Compassion Warrior.[7](https://blogs.sfzc.org/blog/2022/01/10/a-conversation-with-peter-coyote/) The Tricycle interview states he decided to become ordained and did so in 2016.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/) He connects the two disciplines directly: meditation, he says, gives actors the ability to stay out of their own way, and in forty years of teaching he reports never having failed to help a student find a character.[9](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/)
## References
1. [Peter Coyote, official site, Home](https://petercoyote.com/)
2. [Peter Coyote, Television Academy biography](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/peter-coyote)
3. [Interview with Peter Coyote, Binghamton University Digital Collections (McKiernan Interviews, 2010)](https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/show/841)
4. [Peter Coyote interview, Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas](https://pryorcenter.uark.edu/interview.php?displayName=Peter+Coyote&thisInterviewee=628&thisProfileURL=COYOTE-Peter-628&thisProject=Arkansas+Memories)
5. [Peter Coyote, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/person/peter-coyote/)
6. [ACTOR, Peter Coyote official site](https://petercoyote.com/actor/)
7. [A Conversation with Peter Coyote, Sangha News Journal, San Francisco Zen Center, January 10, 2022](https://blogs.sfzc.org/blog/2022/01/10/a-conversation-with-peter-coyote/)
8. [Peter Coyote, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/peter-coyote/)
9. [Peter Coyote on Transforming the Self, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, December 6, 2021](https://tricycle.org/article/peter-coyote/)
10. [Peter Coyote Lone Wolf Spurns Hollywood Mold, The Washington Post, April 4, 1987](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/04/05/peter-coyote-lone-wolf-spurns-hollywood-mold/8c05f6dd-a493-4ad2-8948-5ef056f990c3/)
11. [Peter Coyote Biography, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/peter-coyote-mn0000266518)
12. [Coyote on His Career, His Social Conscience and Things to Come, Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2000](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-03-ca-25893-story.html)
13. [All Television, Peter Coyote official site](https://petercoyote.com/tv/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames Co to C*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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