Atherton was successful on the New York stage immediately after graduating and worked with many of the country's leading playwrights including
David Rabe,
John Guare, and
Arthur Miller, winning numerous awards for his work on and off Broadway. He got his big break playing hapless fugitive Clovis Poplin in
The Sugarland Express (1974), the feature film debut of
Steven Spielberg. After this, he garnered major roles in dark dramas such as
The Day of the Locust (1975) and
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), as well as the big-budget disaster film
The Hindenburg (1975). He provided lead vocals for "
What'll I Do", the main title theme for the
Robert Redford film version of
The Great Gatsby. Atherton also starred as cowboy Jim Lloyd in the miniseries
Centennial (1978), based on the novel by
James Michener. He appeared in the comedy
Ghostbusters (1984) as the officious and condescending
EPA agent
Walter Peck.
Martha Coolidge chose Atherton to play Professor Jerry Hathaway in the teen comedy
Real Genius (1985). He played reporter Richard "Dick" Thornburg in the blockbuster action film
Die Hard (1988), and reprised the role in its sequel
Die Hard 2 (1990). Other film credits include
No Mercy (1986),
The Pelican Brief (1993),
Bio-Dome (1996),
Mad City (1997),
The Crow: Salvation (2000),
The Last Samurai (2003),
Grim Prairie Tales (1990), the TV movies
Buried Alive (1990),
Headspace (2005) and
Virus (1995). He has also made guest appearances on such television series as
The Twilight Zone,
Murder, She Wrote,
Desperate Housewives,
Law & Order,
The Equalizer,
Boston Legal,
Castle and
Monk. Atherton provided the voice of
Dr. Destiny on
Justice League. He had a recurring role in NBC's detective drama
Life. His 2007 appearances included the film
The Girl Next Door, an adaptation of the best-selling Jack Ketchum
novel of the same name. He also reprised his role as Walter Peck in
Ghostbusters: The Video Game, released on June 16, 2009. Atherton was cast in the final season of ABC's
Lost. He appeared in the musical
Gigi for the
Reprise Theatre in Los Angeles as "Honoré Lachailles" in 2011. Following his work on the musical, he stepped into a comedic role in ''
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie'' (2012), produced by
Will Ferrell's
Funny or Die,
Gary Sanchez Productions and
Abso Lutely Productions. In summer 2014, Atherton was cast in a recurring role as Viceroy Mercado in the
Syfy series
Defiance's
second season. Atherton co-starred in the 2017
Netflix thriller,
Clinical, and appears in several upcoming documentaries on his most iconic films. The first to be released is ''
Cleanin' Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters'' (2019) which features the original 1984 cast. In 2024, Atherton reprised his role as Walter Peck, now the mayor of New York City, in the film
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. ==Personal life==