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Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is an Academy Award-, BAFTA-, Golden Globe-, and Screen Actors Guild Award -winning New Zealand-Australian actor. His acting career began in the early 1990s with roles in Australian TV series such as Police Rescue and films such as Romper Stomper. In the late 1990s, he began appearing in US films such as the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential. In the 2000s, he was nominated for three Oscars, and in 2001, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in the film Gladiator. Crowe is also co-owner of National Rugby League team the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
BiographyEarly lifeCrowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Jocelyn Yvonne and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom were movie set caterers; his father also managed a hotel.
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Quotations
I think my reputation is something that I'll probably try to spend the rest of my life living it down and it probably won't work.
People accuse me of being arrogant all the time. I'm not arrogant, I'm focused. I don't make demands. I don't tell you how it should be. I'll give you fucking options, and it's up to you to select or throw 'em away. That should be the headline: If you're insecure, don't fucking call.
Los Angeles Times (October 31,1999)
I'd move to Los Angeles if New Zealand and Australia were swallowed up by a tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in England and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack.
New York Daily News (2000)
I'm fundamentally quite shy, so that thing of taking on another character is quite a liberating thing to do if you're a shy person, because within that character framework you can now go to all these other places. pauses And I never found another job that I was actually that good at.
I suppose I'm still too young to say everything I want to say, though nobody'd ever give me credit for holding anything back. But I do ... I just have no desire or need to slag Joe Fiennes. But I would look at that particular thing differently. I see the opportunity differently.
Encyclopedia
Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is an Academy Award-, BAFTA-, Golden Globe-, and Screen Actors Guild Award -winning New Zealand-Australian actor. His acting career began in the early 1990s with roles in Australian TV series such as Police Rescue and films such as Romper Stomper. In the late 1990s, he began appearing in US films such as the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential. In the 2000s, he was nominated for three Oscars, and in 2001, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in the film Gladiator. Crowe is also co-owner of National Rugby League team the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
BiographyEarly lifeCrowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Jocelyn Yvonne 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, according to Crowe, produced the first film by New Zealander Geoff Murphy, and was also named an MBE for filming footage of World War II. Crowe's maternal great-great grandmother was Maori, and as a result Crowe is registered on the Maori electoral roll in New Zealand; Crowe also has Welsh, Scottish, Norwegian and Irish ancestry. Two of Russell Crowe's cousins, Martin and Jeff Crowe are former New Zealand national cricket captains.
When Crowe was four years old, his family moved to 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, who years later played Crowe's father in The Sum of Us and who coincidentally had been educated at the same school which Crowe was to attend for two years: Sydney Boys High School.
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 wraps.
When he was 14, however, Crowe's family moved back to New Zealand, where he (along with his brother Terry) attended Auckland Grammar School with his cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe, then Mt Roskill Grammar School, playing 1st XI cricket and 2nd XV rugby. Showing his intelligence and creativity in his senior school years, he easily achieved 7th form, was editor of the school newspaper and acted in the school play. He started his first band 'The Profile' while in 6th form playing rock covers and a few of his first original songs. In 7th form he changed the band name to 'The Interrogatives' and they played at lunchtime to other school audiences. For his contribution to the school community, he was selected as a prefect in 1981. His brother Terry played 1st XV rugby and parents Jocelyn and Alex actively followed Russell and Terry's rugby illustrated by them donating the 'Crowe Shield' for traditional rugby games between Mt Roskill Grammar and rivals Marcellin College. The 'Crowe Shield' is a highlight of traditional rugby at these two schools to the day.
In the mid-1980s Russell, under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, performed as a rock 'n' roll revivalist, under the stage name Russ Le Roq, and had a New Zealand single with "I Wanna Be Marlon Brando." In 1986 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. He was also cast again by Daniel Abineri in the role of Johnny in the stage musical of Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom in 1989.
Crowe returned to Australia at age 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.'" In 1987 Crowe spent a six-month stint as a busker when he couldn't find other work.
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 protegé of Ogilvie's, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film Blood Oath (1990) (aka Prisoners of the Sun) which was released a month earlier, 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 follows the exploits and downfall of a racist skinhead group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne, directed by Geoffrey Wright.
HollywoodAfter initial success in Australia, Crowe began acting in American films. He first co-starred with Denzel Washington in Virtuosity in 1995. He went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee, winning 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. Crowe won the best actor award for A Beautiful Mind at the 2002 BAFTA award ceremony. However he failed to win the Oscar that year, losing to Denzel Washington. It has been suggested 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 1997-2003, he also starred in two other best picture nominees, L.A. Confidential and , though he was nominated for neither. 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.
On 9 March 2005, Crowe revealed to GQ magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards on 25 March 2001 and told him that the Islamist 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 (the September 11 attacks took place later that year) and was quoted as saying:
- "You get this late-night call from the FBI when you arrive in Los Angeles, and they're, like, absolutely full-on. 'We’ve got to talk to you now before you do anything. We have to have a discussion with you, Mr Crowe.'" Crowe recalled that "it was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers...it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilisation plan".
Crowe was guarded by Secret Service agents for the next few months, both while shooting films and at award ceremonies. Crowe said that he "...never fully understood what the fuck was going on".
CharitiesCrowe, who was in Toronto filming Cinderella Man with director Ron Howard, learned of a fire-bombing at a Jewish elementary school that took place in Montreal. Police said a note with anti-Semitic comments was found on the outside wall of the gutted library. He was so distraught that he offered (reported $250,000 donation) to help rebuild its library to help the school get back on its feet. Montreal resident Shelley Paris says, "It was a huge morale boost for the school community. He said he was very upset about what had happened that a place of learning should be attacked that way. He wanted to make sure that our students knew that he was thinking about them and that he was very upset about the fire-bombing."
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 in characteristic Crowe style 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 lifeOn 7 April 2003, his 39th birthday, Crowe married Australian singer and actress Danielle Spencer. Crowe met Spencer while filming The Crossing (1990). Crowe and Spencer have two sons: Charles "Charlie" Spencer (born 21 December 2003) and Tennyson Spencer (born 7 July 2006).
Prior to his marriage to Spencer, Crowe had a relationship with Meg Ryan during and after the filming of Proof of Life in 2000.
Most of the year, Crowe resides in Australia. He has a home in Sydney at the end of the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo and also a 320-hectare rural property in Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.
Crowe also now has a house in the North Queensland city of Townsville, he purchased the $450,000 home in the suburb of Douglas on the on the 3rd May 2008
It's believed the home is for his niece, who is studying at James Cook University.
Crowe stated in November 2007 that he would like to be Baptised, 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."
South Sydney RabbitohsOn 19 March, 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney Rabbitohs National Rugby League rugby club voted (in a 75.8% majority) to allow Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court to purchase 75% of the club, leaving 25% ownership with the members. It has cost them A$3 million, and they will receive four of eight seats on the board of directors.
Crowe has been a major supporter of the Rabbitohs rugby league club for many years, appearing at many home games, and supporting the club during its time when they were forced from the National Rugby League competition for two years. Crowe paid $40,000 for a brass bell used to open the inaugural rugby league match in Australia in 1908, which he then returned to the club. In 2005, he made them the first club team in Australia to be sponsored by a film, when he negotiated a deal to advertise his movie Cinderella Man on their jerseys.
He 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. Business and television personality Eddie McGuire has been offered a seat on the Rabbitohs board.
South Side Story, a mini-series documenting the takeover of the club, revealed Crowe urging Souths players to profess their love for one another during training.
Crowe helped organize a rugby league game that took place in Jacksonville, Florida between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the European Super League champions Leeds Rhinos on 26 January, 2008. The game was played at the University of North Florida. Crowe told ITV Local Yorkshire the game wasn't a marketing exercise.
Other sporting interestsHe is also a fan of the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League.
As with Leeds Rhinos, Crowe is well known to be a supporter of Leeds United. He has also admitted to being a big fan of SERIE A club S.S Lazio.
Crowe is a big supporter of the Michigan Wolverines 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 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' shocking 0-2 start, Crowe traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Wolverines' September 15 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 October 22, 2007, appeared in the booth of a Monday Night game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
He is also considered to be a friend of Kostya Tszyu, who is a boxing world champion, and it is said that he instructed Crowe while shooting "Cinderella Man" movie.
Musical activitiesCrowe, going under the name of "Rus le Roq", recorded a 1980s tune titled "I Want To Be Like Marlon Brando".
Crowe and a friend formed a band, "Roman Antix", which later evolved into the Australian pub rock band 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts (TOFOG). Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for the band, 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. The band's web site indicates that group has "dissolved/evolved" and states that Crowe's music would take a new direction.
He continued with a collaboration with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea in early 2005, which also involved members of his previous band. A new single, Raewyn, was released in April 2005 and an album entitled My Hand, My Heart has been released for download on iTunes. The album includes a tribute song to the late actor, Richard Harris, who became Crowe's friend during the making of Gladiator. In 2002, he directed the music video clip (which starred former child actor Duy Nguyen) for his wife Danielle Spencer's single 'Tickle Me' from her 'White Monkey' album. On March 10, 2006, Russell Crowe performed with his new band The Ordinary Fear of God on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Crowe landed a role in a musical, "Grease", in 1983. From 1986-88, Crowe headlined in the touring production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".
Crowe did about 458 performances of The Rocky Horror Show. He played Dr. Frank N. Furter 50 times, and 400 times as Eddie and Dr Scott.
TemperamentCrowe has been involved in a number of altercations in recent years which have given 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 by a security video. Two men were acquitted of using the video in an attempt to blackmail Crowe.
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 apologized, 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" inside a trendy Japanese restaurant in London.
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.
Crowe 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". He was sentenced to conditional release, and paid US$100,000 to settle a civil lawsuit out of court.
In popular cultureCrowe's temperament was parodied in an episode of the cartoon South Park titled "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer". In this episode, Crowe is the star of his own, fictional TV series named Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around the World, in which he travels the globe in his tug boat to instigate altercations with strangers of different nationalities. In the episode, it likens him to Popeye in his style of dress (a sailor costume), tuneful whistling and gait.
Awards and nominationsAcademy Award
Australian Film Institute- Nominated: Best Actor, The Crossing (1990)
- Won: Best Supporting Actor, Proof (1991)
- Won: Best Actor, Romper Stomper (1992)
- Won: Global Achievement Award (2001)
- Won: Best Actor International, Cinderella Man (2005)
BAFTA Award
Golden Globe Award- Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, The Insider (2000)
- Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Gladiator (2001)
- Won: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, A Beautiful Mind (2002)
- Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, (2004)
- Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Cinderella Man (2006)
Screen Actors Guild- Won: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, A Beautiful Mind
- Nominated: Cast Ensemble - Motion Picture Drama, (2007)
- Nominated: Cast Ensemble - Motion Picture Drama, American Gangster (2007)
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