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Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is a New Zealand-Australian actor. Crowe
is a recipient of an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 2000's
Gladiator.
 Early
life
Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand to Jocelyn Yvonne Wemyss and John
Alexander Crowe, both of whom were caterers. His 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-great grandmother was Māori, and as a result Crowe
is registered on the Māori electoral roll in New Zealand; Crowe also has Norwegian,
Scottish, Irish and Welsh 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 filmset 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.
As an eleven-year-old, Crowe had an early taste of fame by having his photograph
(in a ballroom-dancing costume) in the February 1988 edition of National Geographic
magazine, the commemorative edition for Australia's Bicentennial.
When he was 14, however, Crowe's family moved back to New Zealand, where he
attended Auckland Grammar School with his cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe. He
did not complete secondary school, leaving early to help his family financially. 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."
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 protege of Ogilvie's,
Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film Blood Oath (1990) (a.k.a. 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.
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, 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 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, 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, due for release 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 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".
Temperament
Crowe 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
culture
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' Around The World, in which he travels the globe in his tug
boat to instigate altercations with strangers of different nationalities.
Crowe's temperament was also parodied on the 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 "phone incident" was parodied in
Scary Movie 4 when Brenda is dreaming, one of her lines is "Look out, Russell
Crowe's got a phone!"
Charities
Crowe, who was in Toronto filming Cinderella Man with director Ron Howard learned
of a firebombing at a Jewish elementary school that took place is 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 firebombing."
On another occasion, Russell 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. 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."
Family and home
life
On April 7, 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 Crowe (born December 21, 2003) and
Tennyson Spencer Crowe (born July 7, 2006).
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.
In May 2007, Crowe put in a bid on a house in Riverside Gardens, an estate in the
Townsville suburb of Douglas, the home was listed for $680,000 but his offer was
beaten by an unknown buyer and he missed out. Crowe was in Thuringowa to watch his
Rabbitohs rugby league team take on the Cowboys at the Dairy Farmers Stadium and it
was on the morning before the game that Russell inspected the home and made an
offer on the spot.
It is believed Russell is looking for an upmarket home for his niece to live in, so
she can study at James Cook University.
Knitting is also among Crowe's interests.
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. Crowe paid
$40,000 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 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.
Other sporting
interests
He supports the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League. Russell
has also been quoted as being a supporter of Leeds United.
Musical
activities
Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for an
Australian pub rock band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts 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.
Awards and
nominations
Academy Award
Nominated: Best Actor, The Insider (1999)
Won: Best Actor, Gladiator (2000)
Nominated: Best Actor, A Beautiful Mind (2001)
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
Nominated: Best Actor, The Insider (2000)
Nominated: Best Actor, Gladiator (2001)
Won: Best Actor, A Beautiful Mind (2002)
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, Master and Commander: The Far Side of
the World (2004)
Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Cinderella Man (2006)
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com
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Russell Crowe -
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