Paul Giamatti Biography

Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (born June 6, 1967) is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the 2000s such as American Splendor, Sideways, Cinderella Man, The Illusionist, John Adams, Cold Souls, Barney's Version, and Win Win.

Early life

Giamatti, the youngest of three children, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Angelo Bartlett Giamatti, a Yale University professor who later became president of the university and commissioner of Major League Baseball, and Toni Marilyn (née Smith), a homemaker and English teacher who taught at Hopkins School and had also previously acted. His paternal grandfather's family were Italian immigrants from Telese Terme, near Naples (the surname was originally spelt "Giammattei", ). The rest of Giamatti's ancestry includes English, Dutch, Irish, Scottish, and French. His paternal grandmother had deep roots in New England, dating back to the colonial era. His brother, Marcus, is also an actor and his sister, Elena, is a jewelry designer.

Giamatti was first educated at The Foote School and later graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1985. Giamatti attended Yale, where he was elected to the Skull and Bones secret society. Giamatti was active in the undergraduate theater scene, working alongside actors Ron Livingston and Edward Norton, who were also Yale students. Giamatti graduated from Yale in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English and went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama, where he studied with Earle R. Gister. Giamatti performed in numerous theatrical productions, including Broadway and a stint from 1989 to 1992 with Seattle's Annex Theater, before appearing in some small television and film roles in the early 1990s.

Career

In 1997, Giamatti landed in his first high-profile role as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton in the film adaptation of Howard Stern's Private Parts. Stern praised Giamatti's performance often on his radio program, calling for him to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Giamatti appeared in a number of supporting roles in the 1998 big-budget films including The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, and The Negotiator. In 1999, Giamatti played Bob Zmuda (and Tony Clifton) in Milo? Forman's Andy Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon. Giamatti continued steadily in the early 2000s by appearing in major studio releases including Big Momma's House, Planet of the Apes, and Big Fat Liar.

In 2003, Giamatti began to earn critical acclaim after his lead role in film American Splendor. In 2004, Giamatti gained mainstream recognition and fame with the 2004 independent romantic comedy Sideways. His portrayal of a depressed writer vacationing in the Santa Barbara wine country garnered him a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award. Following the commercial success of Sideways, Giamatti appeared in Cinderella Man, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture. In 2006, Giamatti was the lead in M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, a supernatural thriller, followed by the animated film The Ant Bully, and Neil Burger's drama The Illusionist co-starring Edward Norton.

In 2008, Giamatti received his first Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie" for his title performance in the HBO miniseries John Adams, a role that also led to a Screen Actors Guild award. That same year, he starred in the independent film Pretty Bird which is a fictionalized retelling about the drama behind the invention of a rocketbelt. Giamatti was set to play the lead role, Colonel Tom Parker, in Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires, which was to co-star Ron Perlman, who replaced Bruce Campbell.

In 2012, Giamatti became the voiceover actor for Liberty Mutual insurance commercials.

In 2013, Giamatti returned to his alma mater to play Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Yale University Theater in New Haven to rave reviews.

Giamatti will play villain The Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Giamatti has been cast to play Harold Levinson in the Christmas special of the fourth series of Downton Abbey.

Awards

Giamatti was nominated for 45 separate awards between 2001 and 2008, and won 26 of them, including both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for John Adams. All of his nominations except one were for American Splendor, Sideways, Cinderella Man, or John Adams; the exception was a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for Big Momma's House. In 2011, he won a second Golden Globe, for his portrayal of the titular character in the Canadian film Barney's Version. The Brooklyn Academy of Music asked Giamatti, its "2007 BAM Cinema Club Chair", to pick films for an eight-movie series called "Paul Giamatti Selects" and shown at the Academy in August and September 2007. His selections indicated a taste for paranoia and "the darkest of dark comedy," according to a writer for The New York Times, and included Frenzy, Dr. Strangelove, Brewster McCloud, The Big Clock, The Seventh Victim, Dawn of the Dead (1978 version), Seconds, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version).

Personal life

A resident of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, Giamatti has been married to Elizabeth Giamatti (née Cohen) since 1997. They have a son, Samuel Paul, known as Sam (born 2001), who is raised in Elizabeth's Jewish religion. Giamatti himself is an atheist.

In culture

Comedian James Adomian performs an impression of Giamatti on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast. The AV Club describes Adomian's caricature of Giamatti as "a fantastically broken-down sad-sack."

In the comic book series Ultimate Spider-Man, that series' version of the villain Tinkerer was rendered by artist Mark Bagley to resemble Giamatti, as per writer Brian Michael Bendis' instructions.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Past Midnight	Larry Canipe
1992	Singles	Kissing Man
1995	Mighty Aphrodite	Extras Guild Researcher
	Sabrina	Scott
1996	Breathing Room	George
	Before and After	Member of the Jury	Uncredited
1997	Arresting Gena	Detective Wilson
	Donnie Brasco	FBI Technician
	Private Parts	Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton
	My Best Friend's Wedding	Richard the Bellman
	Deconstructing Harry	Professor Abbot
	'	Hotel Clerk
1998	'	Control Room Director
	Dr. Dolittle	Blaine
	Saving Private Ryan	Sergeant Hill
	'	Rudy Timmons
	Safe Men	Veal Chop
1999	Cradle Will Rock	Carlo
	Man on the Moon	Bob Zmuda/Tony Clifton
2000	If These Walls Could Talk 2	Ted Hedley	Segment: "1961"
	Big Momma's House	John Maxwell	Nominated " Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor " Comedy
2001	Duets	Todd Woods
	Storytelling	Toby Oxman	Segment: "Non-Fiction"
	Planet of the Apes	Limbo
2002	Big Fat Liar	Marty Wolf
	Thunderpants	Johnson J. Johnson
2003	American Splendor	Harvey Pekar
	Paycheck	Shorty
	Confidence	Gordo
2004	Sideways	Miles Raymond
2005	Robots	Tim the Gate Guard	Voice
	The Fan and the Flower	Narrator	Voice Short
	Cinderella Man	Joe Gould
2006	Asterix and the Vikings	Asterix	English dub
	'	George Gattling
	'	Chief Inspector Uhl
	Lady in the Water	Cleveland Heep
	'	Stan Beals	Voice
2007	'	Mr. X
	Shoot 'Em Up	Karl Hertz
	Fred Claus	Nicholas "Nick" Claus
2008	Pretty Bird	Rick
2009	Duplicity	Richard "Dick" Garsik
	Cold Souls	Paul
	'	Dr. Satan	Voice
	'	Vladimir Chertkov
2010	Barney's Version	Barney Panofsky
2011	Win Win	Mike Flaherty	Indiana Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
	Ironclad	King John
	'	Kingsley
	'	Tom Duffy
2012	Rock of Ages	Paul Gill
	Cosmopolis	Benno Levin
	John Dies at the End	Arnie Blondestone	Also producer
2013
	Turbo	Chet	Voice
	'	TBA
	Romeo and Juliet	Friar Laurence
	Parkland	Abraham Zapruder	Complete
	12 Years a Slave	Theophilus Freeman	Post-Production
	All Is Bright	Dennis	Also producer
	Saving Mr. Banks	Ralph	Post-Production
2014	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	Aleksei Sytsevich / The Rhino	Post-Production
	Love and Mercy	Dr. Eugene Landy	Post-Production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	She'll Take Romance	Heckler #2	TV Fim
1994	NYPD Blue	Man in Sleeping Bag	Episode: "You Bet Your Life"
1995	New York News	Dr. Wargner	Episode: "Past Imperfect"
1996	'	Jeffrey Roffman	Episode: "Pilot"
1998	Tourist Trap	Jeremiah Piper	TV Film
	Homicide: Life on the Street	Harry Tjarks	Episode: "Pit Bull Sessions"
	Winchell	Herman Kurfeld	TV Film
1999	American Experience	Narrator	Voice Episode: "New York: Part V - Cosmopolis"
2001	King of the Hill	Mr. McKay	Voice Episode: "It's Not Easy Being Green"
2003	'	Anthony Russo	TV Film
2005	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Paul Giamatti/Ludacris featuring Sum-41"
2006	'	Screw-On Head	Voice Television pilot
2008	John Adams	John Adams	TV Miniseries
2010	30 Rock	Ritchie	Episode: "When It Rains, It Pours"
2011	Too Big to Fail	Ben Bernanke	TV Film
	Prohibition	Himself	TV Documentary
2013	Downton Abbey	Harold Levinson

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Ripper	Doctor Bud Cable