Birth Name: Russell Ira Crowe
Date of Birth: 7 April 1964,
Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
Russell Crowe mini-bio: 
Russell Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand of Welsh, Scottish, Norwegian and New Zealand M?ori 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 whom Crowe says produced the first film by New Zealander Geoff Murphy. The producer of the Australian TV series Spyforce was his mother's godfather, and Crowe at age 5 or 6 got hired for a line of dialogue in one episode, opposite series star Jack Thompson, whom years later played Crowe's father in The Sum of Us.
Russell Crowe attended Sydney Boys High School. When he was 14, his family moved back to New Zealand, where he then attended the Auckland Grammar School. He did not complete secondary school, leaving early to help his family financially. Crowe returned to Australia at 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' "
After appearing in the TV series Neighbours and Living with the Law, 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 protégé of Ogilvie's, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film "Blood Oath," a.k.a. "Prisoners of the Sun" (1990), which though filmed later was released a month ealier.
After initial success in Australia, Crowe began acting in American films. The first,
Romper Stomper (1992), gained him a name throughout the film community in Australia and the neighboring countries. The second,
The Sum of Us (1994), helped put him on the American map, so to speak.
Sharon Stone heard of him from
Romper Stomper (1992) and wanted him for her film,
The Quick and the Dead (1995). But filming on
The Sum of Us (1994) had already begun. Sharon is reported to have held up shooting until she had her gunslinger-Crowe, for her film. With
The Quick and the Dead (1995) under his belt as his first American film, the second was offered to him soon after.
Virtuosity (1995), starring
Denzel Washington, put Russell in the body of a Virtual Serial Killer, Sid6.7 ... a role unlike any he had played so far.
Virtuosity (1995), a Sci-Fi extravaganza, was a fun film and, again, opened the door to even more American offers.
L.A. Confidential (1997), Russell's third American film, brought him the US fame and attention that his fans have felt he deserved all along A three-time Oscar nominee, he won 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.
Russell Crowe has a reputation for bad temper and a predilection for brawling. 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.
Russell Crowe has a reputation for bad temper and a predilection for brawling.
He won the Best Actor in the 2002 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for his portrayal of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. During the presentation for his award, he planned to read a piece of poetry called Sanctity by Patrick Kavanagh but was cut short to fit in the BBC's tape-delayed broadcast. A Beautiful Mind won four of the eight awards for which it was nominated, with the lone and conspicuous exception being Crowe's nomination for Best Actor. During the filming of A Beautiful Mind on the campus of Princeton University, he made an obscene gesture to a Princeton student who he spotted photographing him, which raised a media stir.
On April 7, 2003, his 39th birthday, Crowe married the Australian singer and actress Danielle Spencer. Their son, Charles Spencer Crowe, was born on December 21 of that year. Crowe met Spencer while filming "The Crossing" (1990). In January 2006, Crowe announced they were expecting their second child in July. Crowe previously dated the American film star
Meg Ryan, after they met while filming Proof of Life (2000).
Russell Crowe is also a singer and composer. He was the lead singer and guitarist of an Australian pub rock band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts, which formed in 1992. The band had found neither critical nor popular success but had several releases including 1998's Gaslight, 2001's Bastard Life or Clarity and 2003's Other Ways of Speaking, plus various CD releases now out of print. His early stage name was "Rus Le Roq" and he was billed as such while performing with the New Zealand production of Rocky Horror.
Nickname: Rusty
Trade Mark: Fiery temper.
Family: Wife Danielle Spencer, sons: Charles and Tennyson.
Height: 5' 11½" (1.82 m)
Other:
- Cousin of former New Zealand international cricketers Jeff and Martin Crowe.
- Lost his front tooth playing rugby when he was ten. Never got it fixed until, at the insistence of the director for
The Crossing (1990), who paid for it out of his own pocket.
- Owns a 560-acre farm in 7.5 hours North-West from Sydney.
- After filming
Gladiator (2000), he and some friends took a 4,000 mile motorcycle trip around Australia.
- Took violin lessons in preparing for
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) because his character, Jack Aubrey, played the violin several times during the movie.
- Favorite toy growing up was Action Man.
- Plans to donate his brain to medical science when he dies.
- Good friends with
Nicole Kidman. She also mentioned him in her oscar acceptance speech when she won 'Best Actress in a Leading Role' for
The Hours (2002) and
Jodie Foster.- Once he was cast as Bud White in
L.A. Confidential (1997), he read in the book that his character was the largest cop on the police force, off-putting for him due to his medium-sized frame (just under 6 feet). To capture a "big guy" presence, Crowe lived in a tiny flat in which he could barely fit through any of the doors. This experience, he said, made him come to the set feeling like a giant.
- Turned down the role of "Aragorn" in
Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy since filming on
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) would coincide with
Ron Howard's
A Beautiful Mind (2001). However, Crowe really loved the idea of filming a movie in his home country, New Zealand, for an extended amount of time.
- Has worked with Director/producer Ridley Scott 5 times. Including the upcoming Robin Hood project that is due in U.S. theaters May 2010.
Personal Quotes:
* "One of the most painful things of the
L.A. Confidential (1997) character I played was that the author,
James Ellroy, kept telling me that Bud White wasn't a drinker.I said, 'come on, this is 1953.He's a blue-collar bloke, a cop. You're telling me he doesn't sit around with the boys after his shift and have a beer?'And Ellroy says, 'absolutely not'.So for five months and seven days, I didn't have a drink.It's probably the most painful period of my life".
* [on winning the Best Actor Oscar] "If you grow up in the suburbs of anywhere, a dream like this seems kind of vaguely ludicrous and completely unattainable. But this moment is directly connected to those imaginings. And for anybody who's on the downside of advantage, and relying purely on courage, it's possible."
* After
The Insider (1999), I know the exact chemical compounds in a commercial cigarette, but I've been smoking since I was 10. I know it's terrible, but I am a great fan of irony.
* "I felt this tap on my shoulder and I turned around and, you know that De Niro fellow? Well, he didn't say a word. He didn't say 'Hello', 'Good evening' or anything or 'Hi, I'm Robert'. He just looked at me and he nodded his head and he smiled. And he walked off." - About meeting
Robert De Niro.
* You don't have to like an actor to do a scene with him. You don't have to like a director. But it's just better if you do. And I think, you know, you've got to begin that with respect.
* I'd like to play passionate women, but no one will let me.
