Russell Crowe Biography

Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is a New Zealand-born actor, film producer and musician who lives mostly in Australia. He came to international attention for his role as the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which Crowe won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, an Empire Award for Best Actor and a London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and 10 further nominations for best actor. Crowe appeared as the tobacco firm whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand in the 1999 film The Insider, for which he received five awards as best actor and seven nominations in the same category. In 2001, Crowe's portrayal of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash in the biopic A Beautiful Mind brought him numerous awards, including an BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.

Crowe's other films include L.A. Confidential (1997), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Cinderella Man (2005), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), American Gangster (2007), Body of Lies (2008) and Robin Hood (2010). Crowe's work has earned him several accolades during his career including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three Academy Award nominations in a row (1999"2001), one Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. Due to his success and character variety, some critics have called him a "virtuoso" actor. He is also co-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, an Australian National Rugby League team. Crowe portrayed Javert in Les Misérables, an adaptation of the popular musical. He appeared in Man of Steel, where he played Jor-El, the father of Superman. He will co-star in Winter's Tale, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Mark Helprin, and star in Noah, in which he will play the titular biblical patriarch.

Early life

Crowe was born on 7 April 1964 in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Jocelyn Yvonne (née Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom were movie set caterers; his father also managed a hotel. Crowe's maternal grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer who was named an MBE for filming footage of World War II. Crowe's paternal grandfather, John Doubleday Crowe, was from Wrexham, Wales, while one of Crowe's maternal great-grandmothers was M?ori. Crowe also has English, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Scottish, and Swedish ancestry. He is a cousin of former New Zealand cricket captains Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe.

When Crowe was four years old, his family moved to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, where his parents pursued a career in film set catering. 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 (in 1994 Thompson played Crowe's father in The Sum of Us). Crowe also appeared briefly in the serial The Young Doctors. Crowe was educated at Sydney Boys High School. When he was 14, his family moved back to New Zealand where, along with his brother Terry, he attended Auckland Grammar School with cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe. He then continued his secondary education at Mount Roskill Grammar School, which he left at the age 16 to pursue his ambitions and childhood dreams of becoming an actor. Crowe returned to Australia in the early 1980s to pursue his acting career. Despite basing himself in Australia for most of his adult life, Crowe was denied Australian citizenship in 2006 and again in 2013 because he had spent too much time in other countries.

Career

Australia

Crowe began his performing career as a musician in the early-1980s, under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, when he performed under the stage name "Russ Le Roq". He released several New Zealand singles including "I Just Want To Be Like Marlon Brando", "Pier 13", "Shattered Glass", none of which charted. He managed an Auckland music venue called "The Venue" in 1984. When he was 18, he was featured in A Very Special Person?, a promotional video for the theology/ministry course at Avondale College, a Seventh-day Adventist tertiary education provider in New South Wales.

Crowe returned to Australia at age 21, intending to apply to the National Institute of Dramatic Art. "I was working in a theatre show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA", Crowe has 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.'" From 1986 to 1988, he was given his first professional role by director Daniel Abineri, in a production of The Rocky Horror Show. He played the role of Eddie/Dr Scott. He repeated this performance in a further Australian production of the show. In 1987, Crowe spent six months busking when he could not find other work. In the 1988 Australian production of Blood Brothers, Crowe played the role of Mickey. He was also cast again by Daniel Abineri in the role of Johnny, in the stage musical Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom in 1989.

After appearing in the TV series Neighbours and Living with the Law, Crowe was cast by Faith Martin 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, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film Blood Oath (1990) (aka Prisoners of the Sun), which was released a month earlier than The Crossing, although actually filmed later. In 1992, Crowe starred in the first episode of the second series of Police Rescue. Also in 1992, Crowe starred in Romper Stomper, an Australian film which followed the exploits and downfall of a racist skinhead group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne, directed by Geoffrey Wright. For the role, Crowe won an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for Best Actor, following up from his Best Supporting Actor award for Proof in 1991.

United States

After initial success in Australia, Crowe began acting in American films. He co-starred with Denzel Washington in Virtuosity and with Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead in 1995. He went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award as Best Actor in 2000 for Gladiator. Crowe was awarded the (Australian) Centenary Medal in 2001 for "service to Australian society and Australian film production."

Crowe received three consecutive best actor Oscar nominations, for The Insider, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. Crowe won the best actor award for A Beautiful Mind at the 2002 BAFTA award ceremony, as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for the same performance. However, he failed to win the Oscar that year, losing to Denzel Washington. It has been suggested by the Guardian and Entertainment Weekly that his attack on television producer Malcolm Gerrie for cutting short his acceptance speech may have turned voters against him.

All three films were also nominated for best picture, and both Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind won the award. Within the six-year stretch from 1997 to 2003, he also starred in two other best picture nominees, L.A. Confidential and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. In 2005, he re-teamed with A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard for Cinderella Man. In 2006, he re-teamed with Gladiator director Ridley Scott for A Good Year, the first of two consecutive collaborations (the second being American Gangster co-starring again with Denzel Washington, released in late 2007). While the light romantic comedy of A Good Year was not greatly received, Crowe seemed pleased with the film, telling STV in an interview that he thought it would be enjoyed by fans of his other films.

In recent years, Crowe's box office standing has declined. The Hollywood stock market (HSX) share Russell Crowe (RCROW), issued in 1997, however maintains constant accretion. Crowe appeared in Robin Hood, a film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and released on 14 May 2010. Crowe starred in the 2010 Paul Haggis film The Next Three Days, an adaptation of the 2008 French film Pour Elle.

After a year off acting, Crowe played Jackknife in The Man with the Iron Fists, opposite RZA. He took on the role of Inspector Javert in the musical film of Les Misérables. It was announced that Crowe will be the lead in the Darren Arnofsky film Noah, set to be released in March 2014. He portrayed Superman's biological father, Jor-El, in the Christopher Nolan-produced Superman reboot, Man of Steel, released in the summer of 2013. He will play a gangster in the film adaptation of Mark Helprin's 1983 novel Winter's Tale. In June 2013 Crowe has signed to make his directional debut with an historical drama film The Water Diviner, he'll also star in the film. Film will focused the time of 1919 will be produced by Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Keith Rodger.

Music

In the 1980s, Crowe, going under the name of "Russ le Roq", recorded a song titled "I Want To Be Like Marlon Brando".

In the 1980s, Crowe and friend Billy Dean Cochran formed a band, "Roman Antix", which later evolved into the Australian rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (abbreviated to TOFOG). Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for the band, which formed in 1992. The band released The Photograph Kills EP in 1995 as well as three full length records, Gaslight (1998), Bastard Life or Clarity (2001) and Other Ways of Speaking (2003). In 2000 TOFOG performed shows in London, Los Angeles and the now famous run of shows at Stubbs in Austin, Texas which became a live DVD that was released in 2001 called Texas. In 2001 the band came to the US for major press, radio and TV appearances for the Bastard Life or Clarity release and returned Stubbs in Austin, Texas to kick off a sold out US tour with dates in Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York City and the last show at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. In early 2005, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts as a group has "dissolved/evolved" with Crowe feeling his future music would take a new direction and he began a collaboration with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea, and with it a new band: The Ordinary Fear of God which also involved some members of the previous TOFOG line-up. A new single, Raewyn, was released in April 2005 and an album entitled My Hand, My Heart which was released and is available for download on iTunes. The album includes a tribute song to actor Richard Harris, who became Crowe's friend during the making of Gladiator.

Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God set out to break the new band in by performing a successful sold out series of dates of Australia in 2005 and then in 2006 returned to the US to promote their new release My Hand, My Heart with another sold-out US Tour and major press, radio and television appearances. In March 2010, Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God's version of the John Williamson song "Winter Green" was included on a new compilation album The Absolute Best of John Williamson: 40 Years True Blue, commemorating the singer-songwriter's milestone of 40 years in the Australian music industry. As of May 2011, there are plans to release a new Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God recording (co-written with Alan Doyle) and for a US tour which would be the first live dates in the US since 2006.

On 2 August 2011, the third collaboration between Crowe and Doyle was released on iTunes as The Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol III, featuring nine original songs followed by their acoustic demo counterparts (for a total of 18 tracks). Danielle Spencer does guest vocals on most tracks. The release coincided with a pair of live performances at the LSPU Hall in St. John's, Newfoundland. The digital album was released as download versions only on Amazon.com, iTunes, spotify. The album has since charted at No. 72 on the Canadian Albums Chart. On 26 September 2011, Crowe appeared on-stage at Rogers Arena in Vancouver in the middle of Keith Urban's concert. He sang a cover of Folsom Prison Blues, before joining the rest of the band in a rendition of "The Joker". On 18 August 2012, Crowe appeared along with Doyle at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík, Iceland as part of the city's Menningarnótt program. They also appeared at downtown bars, Gaukurinn and Kex.

In 2012, Crowe starred and sang as Javert in '.

Philanthropy

During location filming of Cinderella Man, Crowe made a donation to a Jewish elementary school whose library had been damaged as a result of arson. A note with an anti-Semitic message had been left at the scene. Crowe called school officials to express his concern and wanted his message relayed to the students. The school's building fund received donations from throughout Canada and the amount of Crowe's donation was not disclosed.

On another occasion, Crowe donated a large sum of money ($200,000) to a struggling primary school near his home in rural Australia. Crowe's sympathies were sparked when a pupil drowned at the nearby Coffs Harbour beach in 2001, and he believes the pool will help students become better swimmers and improve their knowledge of water safety. At the opening ceremony he dived into the pool fully clothed as soon as the venue was declared open. Nana Glen principal Laurie Renshall says, "The many things he does up here, people just don't know about. We've been trying to get a pool for 10 years."

Personal life

Relationships and family

Crowe began an on-again, off-again relationship with Australian singer Danielle Spencer in 1989, when they co-starred in the 1990 film The Crossing. Crowe and Spencer reconciled in 2001 and married on 7 April 2003 (Crowe's 39th birthday) at Crowe's cattle property in Nana Glen, New South Wales. They have two sons: Charles Spencer Crowe (born 21 December 2003) and Tennyson Spencer Crowe (born 7 July 2006). In October 2012, it was reported that Crowe and Spencer had separated.

In 2000, Crowe was romantically involved with his co-star Meg Ryan while on the set of their film Proof of Life.

Residences

Most of the year, Crowe resides in Australia. He has an apartment in Sydney at the end of the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo and a rural property in Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour. This Nana Glen property, a cattle farm (700 Black Angus), includes a chapel that Crowe built for his wedding to Danielle Spencer. In 2011, Crowe and his family moved to a house with a garden in Sydney´s Rose Bay.

Crowe also owns a house in the North Queensland city of Townsville: he purchased the $450,000 home in the suburb of Douglas on 3 May 2008. It is believed the home is for his niece, who is studying at James Cook University.

Al-Qaeda threats

On 9 March 2005, Crowe revealed to GQ magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards on 25 March 2001 and told him that the 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 and was quoted as saying:

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Crowe recalled that:

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Crowe was guarded by United States 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.

Stamps series Australian Legends of the Screen

In the beginning of 2009, Crowe appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps called "Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actors. He, Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-winning character.

Interests and other information

From his youth to the present, Crowe has had a special love of horses. "They're just like people," he told CraveOnline, "there are some horses that you have a deeper connection with immediately, and you can work on that over time." He has also noted that he sometimes finds it difficult to part with his equine co-stars when a film involving horses wraps.

Crowe stated in November 2007 that he would like to be baptised a Christian, and feels that he has put it off for too long. "I do believe there are more important things than what is in the mind of a man," he says. "There is something much bigger that drives us all. I'm willing to take that leap of faith."

In June 2010, Crowe, who had started smoking when he was only 10, announced he had quit for the sake of his two sons. On 10 November 2010, Crowe told David Letterman that he had been smoking more than 60 cigarettes a day for 36 years of his life, and that he had fallen off the wagon the previous night and smoked heavily. By April 2011, it was officially confirmed that Crowe's attempt to quit smoking was unsuccessful.

In preparation for several film roles in 2012, from June to November 2011 Crowe underwent a gluten-free and non-alcoholic diet and fitness programme that consisted of walking, mountain biking and workout in the gym. During this period he lost reducing his weight from to .

Crowe publicly endorsed Barack Obama, whom he called "the light and the future", in the 2012 US presidential election, and urged Americans to vote for him.

Crowe also publicly endorsed Julia Gillard, whom he called "Leader through tough times", in the 2013 Australian federal election, although he was unable to vote for her as he is not an Australian citizen.

Sport

Rugby league

Crowe is a known sports fan and has been a supporter of the rugby league football team the South Sydney Rabbitohs since childhood. Since his rise to fame as an actor, he has continued appearing at home games, and supported the financially troubled club. Following the Super League war of the 1990s Crowe made an attempt to use his Hollywood connections to convince Ted Turner, rival of Super League's Rupert Murdoch, to save the Rabbitohs before they were forced from the National Rugby League competition for two years. In 1999 Crowe paid $42,000 at auction for the brass bell used to open the inaugural rugby league match in Australia in 1908 at a fund-raiser to assist Souths' legal battle for re-inclusion in the League. In 2005, he made the Rabbitohs the first club team in Australia to be sponsored by a film, when he negotiated a deal to advertise his film Cinderella Man on their jerseys. Crowe is friends with many current and former players of the club, and currently employs former South Sydney forward Mark Carroll as a bodyguard and personal trainer. He has encouraged other actors to support the club, such as Tom Cruise and Burt Reynolds. On 19 March 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney club voted (in a 75.8% majority) to allow Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court to purchase 75% of the organisation, leaving 25% ownership with the members. It cost them A$3 million, and they received four of eight seats on the board of directors. A six part television miniseries entitled "South Side Story" depicting the takeover aired in Australia in 2007. On 5 November 2006, Crowe appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to announce that Firepower International was sponsoring the South Sydney Rabbitohs for $3 million over three years. During a Tonight Show with Jay Leno appearance, watched by over 11 million viewers, Crowe showed viewers a Rabbitoh playing jersey with Firepower's name emblazoned on it.

Crowe helped to organise a rugby league game that took place in Jacksonville, Florida between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the English Super League champions Leeds Rhinos on 26 January 2008 (Australia Day). The game was played at the University of North Florida. Crowe told ITV Local Yorkshire the game was not a marketing exercise. Crowe wrote a letter of apology to a Sydney newspaper following the sacking of South Sydney's coach Jason Taylor and one of their players David Fa'alogo after a drunken altercation between the two at the end of the 2009 NRL season. Also in 2009 Crowe persuaded young England international forward Sam Burgess to sign with the Rabbitohs over other clubs that were competing for his signature, after inviting Burgess and his mother to the set of Robin Hood, which he was filming in England at the time.

In the 2010 post-season it was reported that Crowe's influence was critical in persuading Greg Inglis, one of the world's best players, to renege on his deal to join the Brisbane Broncos and sign for the Rabbitohs for 2011. On 5 December 2010 the Sunday Telegraph reported that the NRL was investigating the business relationships Russell Crowe has with a number of media and entertainment companies in relation to the South Sydney Rabbitohs' salary cap. Salary cap auditor Ian Schubert was reported to be delving into Crowe's recent dealings with Channel Nine, Channel Seven, ANZ Stadium and V8 Supercars.

On 26 January 2011 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Rabbitohs were about to embark on a five-year multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with the giant Star City Casino. Souths also announced a corporate partnership with the bookmaking conglomerate Luxbet. Previously Crowe had been prominent in trying to prevent gambling being associated with the Rabbitohs. Reuters, on 3 January 2008, reported that Crowe was "fighting a new gladiatorial combat to wean his countrymen off their addiction to gambling machines." In May 2011 Crowe was credited for an arrangement with Fox to have the 2011 State of Origin series broadcast live for the first time in the United States, in addition to the NRL Grand Final. In November 2012 the South Sydney Rabbitohs confirmed that Russell Crowe was selling his 37.5% stake in the club. At the Rabbitohs Annual General Meeting on 3 March 2013, Chairman Nick Pappas claimed Crowe "would not be selling his shareholding in the short-to-medium term and at this stage has no intention of selling at all".

Other sporting interests

In football (soccer), Crowe said he followed Bristol City and Leeds United. Crowe watches and plays cricket. He played in school, and his cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe are former Black Caps Captains. Russell Crowe captained the 'Australian' Team containing Steve Waugh against an English side in the 'Hollywood Ashes' Cricket Match. On 17 July 2009 Crowe took to the commentary box for the British sports channel, Sky Sports, as the 'third man' during the second Test of the 2009 Ashes series, between England and Australia.

Crowe supports the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League and the Richmond Tigers in the Australian Football League (AFL) Crowe supports the University of Michigan Wolverines American football team, an interest that stems from his friendship with former Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr. Carr used Crowe's movie Cinderella Man to motivate his team in 2006 following a disappointing 7"5 season the previous year. Upon hearing of this, Crowe called Carr and invited him to Australia to address his Rugby league team the South Sydney Rabbitohs, an offer Carr took Crowe up on the following summer. In September 2007, after Carr came under fire following the Wolverines' 0"2 start, Crowe travelled to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Wolverines' 15 September game against Notre Dame to show his support for Carr. He addressed the team before the game and watched from the sidelines as the Wolverines defeated the Irish 38"0. Crowe is also a fan of the National Football League, and on 22 October 2007 appeared in the booth of a Monday Night game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is also a devout fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs which stems from his shooting of Cinderella Man at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Altercations and controversies

Between 1999 and 2005 Crowe was involved in four altercations which gave him a reputation for having a bad temper.

In 1999, Crowe was involved in a scuffle at the Plantation Hotel in Coffs Harbour, Australia, which was caught on security video. Two men were acquitted of using the video in an attempt to blackmail Crowe.

Four years later, when part of Crowe's appearance at the 2002 BAFTA awards was cut out to fit into the BBC's tape-delayed broadcast, Crowe used strong language during an argument with producer Malcolm Gerrie. The part cut was a poem in tribute to actor Richard Harris who was then terminally ill, and was cut for copyright reasons. Crowe later apologised, saying "What I said to him may have been a little bit more passionate than now, in the cold light of day, I would have liked it to have been."

Later that year, Crowe was alleged to have been involved in a "brawl" with businessman and fellow New Zealander Eric Watson inside a fashionable Japanese restaurant in London. The fight was broken up by British actor Ross Kemp.

In June 2005, Crowe was arrested and charged with second-degree assault by New York City police, after he threw a telephone at an employee of the Mercer Hotel who refused to help him place a call when the system did not work from his room, and was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (the telephone). The employee, a concierge, was treated for a facial laceration. After his arrest Crowe underwent a perp walk, a procedure customary especially in New York exposing the enchained suspect to the news media to take pictures. This procedure was under discussion as potentially violating Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Crowe later described the incident as "possibly the most shameful situation that I've ever gotten myself in... and I've done some pretty dumb things in my life". Crowe pleaded guilty and was conditionally discharged. Before the trial he settled a lawsuit filed by the concierge, Nestor Estrada. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed but amounts in the six-figure range have been suggested.

Crowe's altercations were lampooned in the South Park episode, "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer". The telephone incident had a generally negative impact on Crowe's public image, an example of negative public relations in the mass media. A professional public image as "The Gladiator" had to compete alongside one as "the telephone throwing actor". Crowe commented the ongoing media perpetuation in November 2010, five years into the process, during an interview with American television talk show host and journalist Charlie Rose: "it affected me psychologically" (...) "it indelibly changed me". A new drive to the topic brought the actor's participation in the microblogging service Twitter from April 2010.

In June 2011, Crowe expressed in the course of a friendly Twitter conversation with his colleague, Jewish screenwriter Eli Roth, his views against infant circumcision, calling the practice "barbaric" and asking, "Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that [God] requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are [born] perfect." The comments coincided with a debate to ban the procedure on infants in California, USA. Crowe, living in New South Wales, Australia, and not being a member of any church, removed the comments the following day and tweeted an apology: "My personal beliefs aside I realise that some will interpret this debate as me mocking the rituals and traditions of others. I am very sorry."

Since 15 November 2011 Crowe has supported the Occupy Wall Street movement via Twitter, asking his 310,000 followers to listen to Keith Olbermann reading the Occupy Wall Street Declaration and stating on 15 November 2011 via his Twitter account

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Close encounters

On 5 March 2013, Crowe posted a video on YouTube purporting to show a UFO flying over Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, recorded four years earlier. Crowe and his friend, cinematographer Duane Manwiller, had set up cameras to film fruit bats, but captured footage of the unexplained phenomenon instead. Crowe has been accused of perpetrating a publicity stunt, which his publicist denies.

Filmography

See Russell Crowe filmography for more information

See also