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Russel Crowe Biography
Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964 in Wellington, New Zealand) is an Oscar-winning New Zealand-Australian film actor.
Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, of British, and Norwegian and distant Maori descent. When he was four years old, his family moved to Australia, where his parents pursued a career in filmset catering. His maternal grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer who, according to Crowe, produced the first film by New Zealander, Geoff Murphy.[1] The producer of the Australian TV series Spyforce was his mother's godfather, and Crowe at age five or six was hired for a line of dialogue in one episode, opposite series star Jack Thompson, who years later played Crowe's father in The Sum of Us and who coincidentally had been educated at the same school which Crowe was to attend for two years. This was Sydney Boys High School.
When he was 14, however, Crowe's family moved back to New Zealand, where he attended Auckland Grammar School. He did not complete secondary school, leaving early to help his family financially. In the mid-1980's Russell, under guidance from his good mate Tom Sharplin, performed as a rock'n'roll revivalist, under the stage name Russ Le Roq, and had a New Zealand single with "I wanna be Marlon Brando".
Crowe returned to Australia at age 21, intending to apply to the National Institute of Dramatic Art. "I was working in a theater show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA," Crowe recalled. "I asked him what he thought about me spending three years at NIDA. He told me it'd be a waste of time. He said, 'You already do the things you go there to learn, and you've been doing it for most of your life, so there's nothing to teach you but bad habits.'" In 1987 Crowe spent a six month stint as a busker when he couldn't find other work.
After appearing in the TV series Neighbours, Living with the Law and The Late Show (Australian TV series) as 'Shirty' - The Slightly Aggressive Bear, Crowe was cast in his first film, The Crossing (1990), a small-town love triangle directed by George Ogilvie. Before production started, a film-student protege of Ogilvie's, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film "Blood Oath," a.k.a. "Prisoners of the Sun" (1990), which was released a month earlier, although actually filmed later.
Hollywood
After initial success in Australia, Crowe began acting in American films. He went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award as Best Actor in 2001 for Gladiator. Crowe wore his grandfather Stan Wemyss's Member of the Order of the British Empire medal to the ceremony.
Crowe received three consecutive best actor Oscar nominations for The Insider, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. All three films were also nominated for best picture. Within the six year stretch from 1997-2003, he also starred in two other best picture nominees, LA Confidential and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, though he was nominated for neither.
On March 9, 2005, Crowe revealed to GQ magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25, 2001 and told him that the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap him. Crowe told the magazine that it was the first time he had ever heard of al-Qaeda (the September 11 attacks took place later that year) and was quoted as saying:
"You get this late-night call from the FBI when you arrive in Los Angeles, and they're, like, absolutely full-on. 'We’ve got to talk to you now before you do anything. We have to have a discussion with you, Mr. Crowe.'" Crowe recalled that "it was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers...it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan."
Crowe was guarded by Secret Service agents for the next few months, both while shooting films and at award ceremonies (Scotland Yard also guarded Crowe while he was promoting Proof of Life in London in February 2001). Crowe said that he "never fully understood what the fuck was going on." The FBI confirmed Crowe's statement (which is uncharacteristic of the agency in that it usually does not comment to the media).
Temperament
Crowe has been involved in a number of altercations in recent years which have given him a reputation for having a bad temper. When part of Crowe's appearance at the 2002 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards was cut out to fit into the BBC's tape-delayed broadcast, Crowe accosted producer Malcolm Gerrie. During the filming of A Beautiful Mind on the campus of Princeton University, Crowe made an obscene gesture to Princeton student Meredith Moroney whom he spotted photographing him, which raised a media stir. [4] In 1999, Crowe was involved in a scuffle at the Saloon Bar in Coffs Harbour, Australia, which was caught by a security video.
In June 2005, Crowe was arrested and charged with second degree assault by New York Police, in connection with an incident at the Mercer Hotel, SoHo, New York. Crowe threw a broken telephone at a hotel employee, and was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (the telephone). Crowe, who was sentenced to conditional release, paid about US$100,000 to settle the civil lawsuit to the concierge, who was treated for a facial laceration. Crowe's temperament was parodied in an episode of the cartoon South Park titled The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer. In this episode, Crowe is the star of his own, fictional TV series: Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around The World, and he travels the globe in his tug boat to fight people of different nationalities. Crowe's temperament was also parodied on the Australian Seven Network skit show "Big Bite" in 2003. The Network Ten show The Secret Life of Us was parodied on the show as The Secret Life of Russ. The "phone incident" was parodied in Scary Movie 4 when Brenda is dreaming, one of her lines is "Look out, Russell Crowe's got a phone!"
On other occasions, however, he has been known to show compassion. Following the death of his friend, naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin, Russell remarked that Irwin was "the Australian we all aspire to be." He also recently slammed a report claiming he was hoping to portray Irwin in a biopic about his life, stating, "It's appalling to me and offends me very deeply. It's so awful that I have to deal with millions of people thinking I would dance on my friend's grave. Yes, I do think there should be a movie made about Steve but I'm not the sort of person who will be doing commerce on my friend's grave."
Family and general interests
On April 7, 2003, his 39th birthday, Crowe married Australian singer and actress Danielle Spencer. Crowe met Spencer while filming "The Crossing" (1990). Crowe also dated American actress Meg Ryan after they had an admitted affair while filming Proof of Life (2000) and in the past, he was been linked to Erica Baxter, Peta Wilson and Courtney Love. Crowe and Spencer have two sons: Charles Spencer Crowe (born December 21, 2003) and Tennyson Spencer Crowe (born July 7, 2006).
Two of Russell Crowe's cousins, Martin and Jeff Crowe are former New Zealand national cricket captains.
Most of the year, Crowe resides in Australia at both his Sydney home in Woolloomooloo and his 320 hectare rural property in Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, but he is renting a house for Summer 2006 in Nyack, New York while he works on a movie being shot in New York City.
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| Russel Crowe Biography |
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