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Russell Crowe Measurements:
Height : 6'0
Weight : 190 lbs
Russell Crowe
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Left : Russell Crowe
as Maximus, in Gladiator. Russell Crowe
Filmography :
Cinderella Man
(2005)
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
(2003)
A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001)
TEXAS (2001)
PROOF OF LIFE (2000)
GLADIATOR (2000)
THE INSIDER (1999)
MYSTERY, ALASKA (1999)
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997)
HEAVEN'S BURNING (1997)
BREAKING UP (1997)
NO WAY BACK (1996)
ROUGH MAGIC (1995)
VIRTUOSITY (1995)
THE QUICK AND THE DEAD (1995)
SUM OF US (1994)
LOVE IN LIMBO (1993)
SILVER BRUMBY (1993)
ROMPER STOMPER (1992)
FOR THE MOMENT (1992)
PROOF (1991)
HAMMERS OVER THE ANVIL (1991)
SPOTSWOOD (1991) (aka The Efficiency Expert)
BRIDES OF CHRIST (1991)
THE CROSSING (1990)
BLOOD OATH (1990) |
Though
perhaps best-known internationally for playing tough-guy
roles in Romper Stomper (1993), L.A. Confidential
(1997), and Gladiator (2000), New Zealand-born actor
Russell Crowe has proven himself equally capable of
playing gentler roles in films such as Proof (1991) and
The Sum of Us (1992). No matter what kind of characters
he plays,
Crowe's weather-beaten handsomeness and gruff
charisma combine to make him constantly watchable: his
one-time Hollywood mentor Sharon Stone has called him
"the sexiest guy working in movies today."
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 7, 1964,
Russell Crowe
was raised in Australia from the age of four. His
parents made their living by catering movie shoots, and
often brought Crowe with them to work; it was while
hanging around the various sets that he developed a
passion for acting. After making his professional debut
in an episode of the television series Spyforce when he
was six, Crowe took a 12-year break from professional
acting, netting his next gig when he was 18. In film, he
had his first major roles in such dramas as The Crossing
(1990) and Jocelyn Moorhouse's widely praised Proof
(1991) (for which he won an Australian Film Institute
award). He then went on to gain international
recognition for his intense, multi-layered portrayal of
a Melbourne skinhead in Geoffrey Wright's controversial
Romper Stomper (1992), winning another AFI award, as
well as an Australian Film Critics award.
It was Sharon Stone who helped bring
Crowe to Hollywood
to play a gunfighter-turned-preacher opposite her in Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead (1995). Though the film
was not a huge box-office success, it did open Hollywood
doors for Russell Crowe, who subsequently split his time between
the U.S. and Australia. In 1997, the actor had his
largest success to date playing volatile cop Bud White
in Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential (1997). Following
the praise surrounding both the film and his performance
in it, Russell Crowe found himself working steadily in
Hollywood, starring in two films released in 1999:
Mystery, Alaska and The Insider. In the latter, he gave
an Oscar-nominated lead performance as Jeffrey Wigand, a
real-life tobacco industry employee whose personal life
was dragged through the mud when he chose to blow the
whistle on his former company's questionable business
practices.
In 2000, however, Russell Crowe finally crossed over into the
public's consciousness with, literally, a tour de force
performance in Ridley Scott's glossy Roman epic
Gladiator. The Dreamworks/Universal co-production was a
major gamble from the outset, devoting more than 100
million dollars to an unfinished script (involving the
efforts of at least half a dozen writers), an untested
star (stepping into a role originally intended for Mel
Gibson), and an all-but-dead genre (the
sword-and-sandals adventure). Thanks to an aggressive
marketing campaign and mostly positive notices, however,
the public turned out in droves the first weekend of the
film's release, and kept coming back long into the
summer for Gladiator's potent blend of action, grandeur,
and melodrama -- all anchored by
Russell Crowe's passionate
man-of-few-words performance.
Anticipation was high, then, for the actor's second 2000
showing, the hostage drama Proof of Life. Despite -- or
perhaps because of -- the widely publicized affair
between Russell Crowe and his co-star Meg Ryan, the film failed
to generate much heat during the holiday box-office
season, and attention turned once again to the actor's
star-making role some six months prior. In an Oscar year
devoid of conventionally spectacular epics, Gladiator
netted 12 nominations in February 2001, including one
for its lead performer. While many wags viewed the
film's eventual Best Picture victory as a fluke, the
same could not be said for
Crowe's Best Actor victory:
nudging past such stiff competition as Tom Hanks and Ed
Harris,
Crowe finally nabbed a statue, affirming for
Hollywood the talent that critics had first noticed
almost ten years earlier.
Crowe's 2001 role as real-life Nobel Prize-winning
schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. brought
the actor back into the Oscar arena. Directed by Ron
Howard and co-starring Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful
Mind was criticized for omitting the more sordid and
unsightly details of Nash's troubled marriage and decent
into mental illness. Still, Crowe's sensitive portrayal,
coupled with Howard's assured direction, put the actor
back on the mountain of fame that he had previously
conquered with Gladiator. A Beautiful Mind quickly
vaulted past the 100-million-dollar mark as it took home
Golden Globes for Best Picture, Supporting Actress,
Screenplay, and Actor and racked up eight Oscar
nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Russell
Crowe.
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