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Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is an Oscar-winning New Zealand-Australian film actor.

Early life and career

Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, of British, Norwegian and Māori descent. When he was four years old, his family moved to Australia, where his parents pursued a career in filmset catering. His maternal grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer who, according to Crowe, produced the first film by New Zealander, Geoff Murphy.http://franklovece.com/subpage2.html#croweNewsday 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. This was Sydney Boys High School.

When he was 14, however, Crowe's family moved back to New Zealand, where he attended Auckland Grammar School. He did not complete secondary school, leaving early to help his family financially. 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.'"http://franklovece.com/subpage2.html#croweNewsday In 1987 Crowe spent a six month stint as a busker when he couldn't find other work. http://russellcrowe.5u.com/Interviews/JuiceMagazine_5_93.html

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 protege of Ogilvie's, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film "Blood Oath," a.k.a. "Prisoners of the Sun" (1990), which was released a month earlier, although actually filmed later.

Hollywood

After initial success in Australia, Crowe began acting in American films. 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. All three films were also nominated for best picture. Within the six year stretch from 1997-2003, he also starred in two other best picture nominees, LA Confidential and The Far Side of the World, though he was nominated for neither.

On March 9, 2005, Crowe revealed to GQ magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25, 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-destabilization plan."

Crowe was guarded by 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). Crowe said that he "never fully understood what the fuck was going on." The FBI confirmed Crowe's statement (which is uncharacteristic of the agency in that it usually does not comment to the media).

Temperament

Crowe has been involved in a number of altercations in recent years which have given him a reputation for having a bad temper. He won the Best Actor in the 2002 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for his portrayal of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. During the presentation for his award, he planned to read a piece of poetry called Sanctity by Patrick Kavanagh but was cut short to fit in the BBC's tape-delayed broadcast. At the awards after party, he accosted producer Malcolm Gerrie. * Crowe later apologised for his actions, but many believe this incident was responsible for depriving Crowe of the Oscar for Best Actor that year. A Beautiful Mind won four of the eight awards for which it was nominated, with the most conspicuous exception being Crowe's nomination for Best Actor. During the filming of A Beautiful Mind on the campus of Princeton University, he made an obscene gesture to Princeton student Meredith Moroney whom he spotted photographing him, which raised a media stir.http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2001/03/29/news/2730.shtml

In the early hours of November 18, 1999, Crowe was involved in a scuffle at the Saloon Bar in Coffs Harbour, Australia. The altercation was caught by a security video, which three men unsuccessfully used to attempt to extort money from him.

In the early morning of June 6, 2005, Crowe was arrested and charged with second degree assault by New York Police, in connection with an incident at the Mercer Hotel, SoHo, New York, in which Crowe threw a broken telephone at a hotel employee. He was further charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (the telephone).

Crowe released a statement saying he was jet-lagged, missing his family in Australia and became frustrated after having repeated difficulties making a phone call to his wife in Australia. He was sentenced to conditional release on the basis that he not be arrested in the United States for a year and pay US$160 in court costs. He also paid about US$100,000 to settle the civil lawsuit to the concierge, Nestor "Josh" Estrada, who was treated for a facial laceration on his upper right cheek.

Crowe'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 "Russell Crowe – Fightin' 'Round the World" in which he travels the world in his tug boat "Tugger" to fight people of different nationalities.

Crowe's temperament was also parodied on the now cancelled Australian Seven Network skit show "Big Bite" in 2003. The Network Ten show The Secret Life of Us was parodied on the show as The Secret Life of Russ. The parodied Crowe was acting as a housemate wearing a Gladiator costume, who started repeatedly punching his housemate in the hallway after noticing that he was writing poetry on his computer. Crowe was parodied as saying before he looked at the computer "It better not be poetry on there. 'Cause I'm the only poet around here" in a threatening manner.

Family and general interests

On April 7, 2003, his 39th birthday, Crowe married Australian singer and actress Danielle Spencer. Crowe met Spencer while filming "The Crossing" (1990). Crowe also dated American actress Meg Ryan after they met while filming Proof of Life (2000) and was linked to Erica Baxter and Peta Wilson.

Crowe and Spencer's first son, Charles Spencer Crowe, was born on December 21, 2003. In January 2006, Crowe announced they were expecting their second child, and in March, Crowe announced on the Tonight Show that they were expecting a boy. Their second son, Tennyson Spencer Crowe, was born on July 7, 2006.

Two of Russell Crowe's cousins, Martin and Jeff Crowe are former New Zealand cricket captains.

Crowe currently resides in Australia at both his Sydney home in Woolloomooloo and his 320 hectare rural property in Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.

South Sydney Rabbitohs

On 19 March, 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney Rabbitohs National Rugby League 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 will cost them (AUD) $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 team 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, once paying $40,000 during an auction for a brass bell used to open the first rugby league competition 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 across the front of their jerseys throughout the latter half of the season.

He is friends with many current and former players of the club, and currently employs former South Sydney forward Mark Caroll as a bodyguard and personal trainer. He has been noted on several occasions to have tried to sway co-stars or friends in supporting the club. Some who have supported the club or have been seen at the clubs games along with Crowe are Tom Cruise and Burt Reynolds.

Prominent business and television identity Eddie McGuire has been offered a seat on the Rabbitohs board.

Music career

Crowe is also a singer and composer. He was the lead singer and guitarist of an Australian pub rock band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts, 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. His early stage name was "Rus Le Roq" and he was billed as such while performing with the New Zealand production of Rocky Horror.

According to a message from Crowe on his band's web site, the group has "dissolved/evolved" and his music would take a new direction. He continued with a collaboration with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band, Great Big Sea, in early 2005. A new single, Raewyn, was released on April 19, 2005. Former members of his previous band have taken part in the new project. An album entitled My Hand, My Heart has been released for download on iTunes and includes a tribute song to the late actor, Richard Harris, who became a close friend when the two were making Gladiator.

According to Russell, there is no 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts without his longtime musical partner, Dean Cochran, who was absent for the recording of My Hand, My Heart. Though Dean was present for a mid-2000s show in Le Thor, France. and took part in the filming of a music video for the song Weight of a Man, the band was billed as Russell Crowe and Friends. Crowe has also been behind the camera: 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, Crowe performed with his new band The Ordinary Fear of God on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Filmography

Tenderness (2006)

Academy Awards and Nominations

Other Awards

References

External links

1964 births | Living people | Australian child actors | Australian film actors | Best Actor Oscar | Best Actor Academy Award nominees | Neighbours actors | New Zealand actors | New Zealand pop singers | New Zealand Australians | People from Sydney | Welsh Australians | Welsh-New Zealanders | Wellingtonians | Buskers

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