Edward Furlong Biography

Edward Walter Furlong (born August 2, 1977) is an American actor and musician. A former child star, Furlong won Saturn- and MTV Movie Awards for his breakthrough performance as John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The following year he gave an Independent Spirit Award-nominated turn opposite Jeff Bridges in American Heart, and earned a second Saturn Award nomination for his work in the critically derided Pet Sematary Two. He won a Young Artist Award for his performance alongside Kathy Bates in A Home of Our Own (1993), and shared a further ensemble nomination with the cast of the film.

Furlong received acclaim for his starring roles in the 1998 motion pictures Pecker and American History X, which co-starred Christina Ricci and Edward Norton, respectively. Other noteworthy titles from his early career include Little Odessa (1994), The Grass Harp (1995), and Before and After (1996), also starring Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson. He reprised his role as John Connor in the international Universal Studios parks attraction T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996). Aside from acting, Furlong released a 1991 album, Hold on Tight, which was a hit in Japan.

Furlong's last significant roles were in the comedy Detroit Rock City (1999) and the crime drama Animal Factory (2000). His career subsequently declined due to multiple arrests and court cases, and enduring substance abuse and alcoholism. Aside from a supporting role in The Green Hornet (2011), Furlong's latter work consists of critically panned, direct-to-video horror films including The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005), in which he plays the title character. Critic Rebecca Flint Marx in Allmovie recalled the youthful Furlong as a "young actor noted for his intense, older-than-his-years demeanor."

Early life

Furlong was born in Glendale, California, near Burbank, the son of Eleanor (née Tafoya), a youth-center worker, and an unknown father. He is of Mexican descent on his mother's side, and also has Russian and possibly Native American ancestry. Furlong has a younger half-brother, Bobby Torres, from his mother's marriage to Moises Torres.

Furlong moved in with his aunt and uncle, Nancy Tafoya and Sean Furlong, in 1990. The two gained legal guardianship of Furlong in September 1991 and subsequently lost it to his mother in August 1993. Furlong attended Charles W. Eliot Middle School in Altadena, and South Pasadena Junior High School in South Pasadena, California. He never completed high school. He became legally emancipated at the age of 16.

Career

1990s

In 1991, Furlong began his film career as John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a role that earned him an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Role and a Saturn Award for best young actor. He was discovered for the part by casting director Mali Finn while visiting the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club in September 1990. Furlong had no acting ambitions. He has stated, "I fell into [acting], it wasn't something that I planned".

He followed this role with a string of moderately successful high-profile films and indies, sharing the screen with Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson in Before and After; Tim Roth, Maximilian Schell, and Vanessa Redgrave in Little Odessa; and Anthony Edwards in Pet Sematary Two.

In 1993, Furlong was featured in Aerosmith's music video for "Livin' on the Edge". This was also the only major Aerosmith video from Get a Grip not to feature Alicia Silverstone. He played the lead role of Michael Brower, a horror and videogame-obsessed teen in the 1994 film Brainscan. In 1995, he starred in the film adaptation of Truman Capote's The Grass Harp.

In 1997, he starred in American History X alongside Edward Norton and appeared in his first comedy role in Pecker, directed by John Waters. Of his title role in Pecker, Furlong stated, "It's true most of the characters that I've played so far are kind of like suicidal. Really dark roles, which I like. But I wanted to do something different and John gave me a chance to do that."

In 1998, he starred in the film Detroit Rock City. During filming he met Natasha Lyonne, whom he then dated. Furlong played a young convict in Steve Buscemi's film Animal Factory, filmed in the summer of 1999.

2000s

Furlong's career and stardom declined considerably after the end of the 1990s, with most of his subsequent films being released straight to DVD. In 2001 he took a role in I Cavalieri che fecero l'impresa aka The Knights of the Quest, a little-seen film by Italian filmmaker Pupi Avati.

Furlong was supposed to reprise his most famous role as John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. However, in December 2001 it was reported he had been dropped from the film, and that the producers were looking for a different actor to play the role. Eventually Nick Stahl was cast just before filming began in April 2002. Furlong later stated, "It just wasn't the time. I was going through my own thing at the point in my life " whatever, it just wasn't meant to be".

He appeared in a music video for Metallica's "The Unnamed Feeling", released in February 2004.

He starred as Jimmy in the low budget independent film Jimmy & Judy in 2004, during which time he met Rachael Bella. The two became romantically involved and later married.

In the summer of 2003, Furlong played the lead in the fourth film in The Crow series, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, alongside David Boreanaz and Tara Reid. The film was planned for a theatrical release, but eventually went straight to DVD in 2005. Despite this, Furlong was optimistic, stating, "I feel through word of mouth people will find it. There's a huge base for Crow fans. Just from what I've seen on the Internet, people are really excited about it. Personally, I say it's the best one since the first one".

In 2006 and again in 2010, Furlong appeared in five episodes of the television program CSI: NY as character Shane Casey.

Furlong appeared in the 2009 remake of the 1988 horror classic Night of the Demons, shot in New Orleans. The film was released straight to DVD.

2010s

Several of Furlong's recent films are still in post-production, or have been shown at film festivals rather than in major theatrical release. He appeared in the film Kingshighway, which was due to be released 2010. He starred in Mortician 3D alongside Method Man. He played the role of Ravi in the psychological thriller Crave, which was filmed in Detroit, Michigan. Furlong played the lead role alongside Michael Berryman in the low budget Canadian horror thriller Below Zero.

He also appeared in one scene of the 2011 Seth Rogen film, The Green Hornet.

He starred in This is not a Movie, an English language Mexican film written and directed by Olallo Rubio and co starring Peter Coyote and Edi Gathegi. The film is scored by ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash. The film was released in Germany in 2010 and Mexico in January 2011.

Other work

After Furlong achieved particular popularity in Japan as a result of Terminator 2, he appeared in TV advertisements for various Japanese products. He also released an album in Japan called Hold on Tight, which included a cover of The Doors song "People Are Strange". Furlong would later say that the music was "the exact opposite of rock" and "a bad mistake".

Furlong has also modeled, in 1996 for Calvin Klein and for The Gap.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	John Connor	Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Young Artist Award for Best Youth Actor Leading Role in a Motion Picture Drama Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Youth in Film Teen Choice Award for Film - Choice Breakout Performance Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
1992	Pet Sematary II	Jeff Matthews	Nominated " Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor
	American Heart	Nick Kelson	Nominated " Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1993	A Home of Our Own	Shayne Lacey	Young Artist Award for Best Youth Actor Leading Role in a Motion Picture Drama Nominated " Young Artist Award for Outstanding Youth Ensemble in a Motion Picture
1994	Brainscan	Michael Brower
	Little Odessa	Reuben Shapira
1995	The Grass Harp	Collin Fenwick
1996	T2 3-D: Battle Across Time	John Connor
	Before and After	Jacob Ryan
1998	Pecker	Pecker
	American History X	Danny Vinyard	Nominated " Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Young Actor Performance in a Feature Film
1999	Detroit Rock City	Hawk
2000	Animal Factory	Ron Decker
2001	The Knights of the Quest	Simon di Clarendon
2003	3 Blind Mice	Thomas Cross
2005	Venice Underground	Gary
	Intermedio	Malik
	Nice Guys	Tye	Released as High Hopes
	The Crow: Wicked Prayer	Jimmy Cuervo/The Crow
	Cruel World	Philip Markham
2006	Jimmy and Judy	Jimmy Wright
	The Visitation	Brandon Nichols	Premiered on DVD
	The Covenant: Brotherhood of Evil	David Goodman
	Warriors of Terra	Chris
	Canes	David Goodman	Premiered in Cannes film festival. DVD elsewhere
2007	Living & Dying	Sam
2008	Dark Reel	Adam Waltz
2009	Stoic	Harry Katish
	Night of the Demons	Colin Levy
	Darfur	Adrian Archer	Released as Attack on Darfur
2010	Kingshighway	Dino Scarfino	awaiting release
	Crave	Ravi	post production
	This is not a movie	Pete Nelson	forthcoming
	The Mortician	Petrovsky	post production
2011	The Green Hornet	Mr. Tupper
	Tequila	Smith	forthcoming
	For The Love of Money	Tommy
	Bind	Teddy	pre production
	Witness Insecurity	Johnny	post production
2012	The Zombie King	Samuel Peters/The Zombie King
	Remnants	Brad
	Arachnoquake	Charlie
	Below Zero	Jack/Frank

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Saturday Night Live	John Connor	Episode: Linda Hamilton/Mariah Carey
2006	CSI: NY	Shane Casey	Episode: Hung Out to Dry Episode: Raising Shane
2010	CSI: NY	Shane Casey	Episode: Redemption Episode: Vacation Getaway Episode: The 34th Floor
2012	Perception	Pete	Episode: Nemesis
2012	The Glades	Wayne Baldinger	Episode: Public Enemy

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1992	MTV Movie Award	Best Breakthrough Performance	Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1992	Saturn Award	Best Performance by a Younger Actor	Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1993	Saturn Award	Best Performance by a Younger Actor	Pet Sematary Two
1994	Independent Spirit Award	Best Supporting Male	American Heart
1994	Young Artist Award	Best Youth Actor Leading Role in a Motion Picture Drama	A Home of Our Own
1994	Young Artist Award	Outstanding Youth Ensemble in a Motion Picture (shared with Miles Feulner, Clarissa Lassig, Amy Sakasitz and Sarah Schaub)	A Home of Our Own
1999	Young Artist Award	Best Supporting Young Actor Performance in a Feature Film	American History X