Taylor Kitsch Biography

Taylor Kitsch (born April 8, 1981) is a Canadian actor and model. He is known for his role as Tim Riggins in the NBC television series Friday Night Lights and for his role as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). He also starred in three films John Carter, Battleship, and Savages in 2012.

Early life and modeling career

Kitsch was born in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. His mother worked for the BC liquor board and his father in construction. He has two older brothers and two younger paternal half sisters, and was raised by his single mother in Vancouver. He played junior ice hockey for the Langley Hornets in the British Columbia Hockey League, before a knee injury ended his career.

Kitsch moved to New York in 2002 after receiving an opportunity to pursue modeling with IMG and studied acting there as well. While in New York, he became a nutritionist and a personal trainer. For a time in New York he was homeless and took to sleeping on subway trains in the middle of the night.

In 2004, he relocated to Los Angeles where he modeled for Diesel and Abercrombie & Fitch. He also appears in the limited edition coffee table book About Face by celebrity photographer John Russo.

Acting career

In 2006, Kitsch was cast in his breakout role on the NBC sports teen drama television series Friday Night Lights based on the 2004 film, both from Peter Berg. The series centers on the small-town football team Dillon Panthers in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas. Kitsch portrayed for five seasons the role of Tim Riggins, a high school student who is the fullback/running back of the Dillon Panthers. The series premiered in October 2006 to universal critical acclaim from critics and over 7.7 million viewers. Kitsch has ruled out reprising the role of Riggins in a potential film sequel to the television series.

He played Pogue Parry in The Covenant alongside Steven Strait, Sebastian Stan, Laura Ramsey, Toby Hemingway, Jessica Lucas and Chace Crawford. In February 2008, he signed on to play Gambit in the X-Men franchise spinoff X-Men Origins: Wolverine, released in May 2009. Of the fan-favorite character of Gambit, Kitsch states, "I knew of him, but I didn't know the following he had. I'm sure I'm still going to be exposed to that. I love the character, I love the powers, and I love what they did with him. I didn't know that much, but in my experience, it was a blessing to go in and create my take on him. I'm excited for it, to say the least."

In 2009, Kitsch signed up for Steven Silver's The Bang Bang Club, a historical drama set in South Africa which documents the final bloody days of the apartheid. He had to lose 35 pounds in two months to play the role of photojournalist Kevin Carter, alongside Ryan Phillippe and Malin "?kerman.

In November 2010, The Hollywood Reporter named Kitsch as one of the young male actors who are "pushing " or being pushed" into taking over Hollywood as the new "A-List".

Kitsch's first lead role in a film was in Disney's John Carter, based on the novel A Princess of Mars, which was released in March 2012. He played the title role of John Carter, a Confederate soldier who gets transported to Mars. The film made back less than a third of its budget domestically, and worldwide grosses barely recouped its production and marketing costs. Despite this, Kitsch said, "I'm very proud of John Carter. Box office doesn't validate me as a person, or as an actor."

In May 2012, Kitsch starred in Peter Berg's Battleship, an adaptation of Hasbro's Battleship game, as Naval commander Alex Hopper. It, too, failed at the domestic box office, boasting the worst opening in history for a film that cost more than $200 million. Again, international revenues are expected to help mitigate its performance. The film marked his reunion with Berg and former co-star Jesse Plemons, who also starred in Friday Night Lights.

In July 2012, he starred in Oliver Stone's Savages opposite Blake Lively, Salma Hayek, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. HitFix film critic Drew McWeeny was positive of Kitsch's bond with Johnson which he described as "not only credible but lived in and authentic throughout the film". McWeeny wrote that Kitsch was used the right way in this film with an ensemble that pushes him or challenges him in scenes which resulted in him playing hard, playing intense.

His next projects include The Grand Seduction, remake of Jean-François Pouliot's French-Canadian La Grande Séduction (2003) to be directed by Don McKellar, and a new Peter Berg film, Lone Survivor based on Marcus Luttrell's book. In July 2012, it was reported that DreamWorks had offered Kitsch the lead role in an upcoming adaptation of Need for Speed. Aaron Paul was eventually cast in the part. He will also play alongside Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo in Ryan Murphy's The Normal Heart, whose release is planned for 2014.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	John Tucker Must Die	Justin
	Snakes on a Plane	Kyle "Crocodile" Cho
	'	Pogue Parry
2008	Gospel Hill	Joel Herrod
2009	X-Men Origins: Wolverine	Remy LeBeau / Gambit
2010	'	Kevin Carter
2012	John Carter	John Carter
	Battleship	Lt. Alex Hopper
	Savages	Chon
2013	The Grand Seduction	Dr. Lewis	Post-production
	Lone Survivor	Michael P. Murphy	Post-production
2014	'	Bruce Niles	Filming
2014	Almost Heroes 3D	Sam	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Godiva's	Colm	Episode: "Flipping Switches"
2006	Kyle XY	Male Camper	Episode: "Pilot"
2006"2011	Friday Night Lights	Tim Riggins	Lead Role; 68 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2007	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Breakout	Friday Night Lights
2008		Choice TV Actor: Drama
2009		Choice Movie Fresh Face Male	X-Men Origins: Wolverine
2010	People's Choice Awards	Favorite On-Screen Team
2012	Genie Awards	Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role	The Bang Bang Club
2012	CinemaCon Awards	Male Star of Tomorrow