Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe

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Birth name: Russell Ira Crowe
Date of birth: 7 April 1964
Place of birth: Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
Nickname: Rusty
Height: 5′ 11½” (1.82 m)
Spouse: Danielle Spencer (7 April 2003 – present) 2 children

Famous Quote: “I’m still excited by it. I still love the process. I want to make movies that pierce people’s hearts and touch them in some way, even if it’s just for the night while they’re in the cinema; in that moment, I want to bring actual tears to their eyes and goosebumps to their skin. That’s what motivates me, and it may sound strange but if you’re not focused on the audience, why are you bothering to make a movie?”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Russell Crowe
William Morris Agency NY
1325 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10019, USA 

Biography:  Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-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 as Best Actor for his starring role in the film Gladiator.

A galvanizing presence whose prodigious talents earned him Hollywood’s highest acting accolades, but whose mercurial – and occasionally violent – temperament put him in hot water publicly, actor Russell Crowe ultimately built a reputation as an A-list leading man, whose electric performances well overshadowed his so-called bad boy nature. With an intense breakout performance as a racist skinhead in the Australian-made “Romper Stomper” (1992), Crowe established himself as an actor on the rise. Crossing the Pacific, he exploded off the screen as a violent 1950s police detective in “L.A. Confidential” (1997), announcing loudly to American audiences that he had arrived on U.S. shores. Two years later, Crowe earned his first Academy Award nomination with a sterling performance as a tobacco executive trapped between telling the truth and protecting his family in “The Insider” (1999). But it was his turn as a Roman general-turned -professional fighter in “Gladiator” (2000) that brought home Oscar glory and cemented Crowe’s status as one of the truly gifted actors of his generation.

Crowe was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Jocelyn Yvonne (née Wemyss) 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-great grandmother was Māori, and as a result Crowe is registered on the Māori electoral roll in New Zealand; Crowe also has British, 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.

Crowe grew up in and around show business. His grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer whose footage of World War II earned him the title of Member of the Order of the British Empire. His parents, Alex and Jocelyn, were both film set caterers who moved the family to Australia because of better job opportunities, providing Crowe ready access when he began acting at age six. His first onscreen role was in an episode of the Australian TV series “Spyforce,” starring Jack Thompson – a part he landed thanks to his mother, who worked on the show. When Crowe was 14, the family moved back to their native New Zealand where his father took over managing a pub called The Flying Jug. About this time, Crowe began performing in rock bands under the name Rus Le Roq, though much of his early music was not especially well-received.

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 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.” 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.

Determined to pursue a career in show business, Crowe returned to Australia when he was 18. Within a year of his return, Crowe landed a role singing and dancing on stage in an Australian production of “Grease.” While he spent two years (1986-88) touring as Dr Frank N Furter in “The Rocky Horror Show,” it was his turn in Willy Russell’s “Blood Brothers” (1989) that caught the attention of director George Ogilvie, who cast him in a leading role the triangular drama “The Crossing” (1990). It was on the set of this film that he met his longtime girlfriend and later wife, actress-singer, Danielle Spencer. Playing a dishwasher who befriends a blind photographer in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s “Proof” (1991) earned Crowe strong reviews, as well as the Best Supporting Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute. He copped a Best Actor trophy and international fame the following year for a blistering, yet nuanced performance as the vicious leader of a skinhead gang lashing out against a growing number of Asian immigrants in the controversial “Romper Stomper.” That same year, Crowe – who had been a musician since he was a teenager – formed the rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts with his old mates from Australia. Over the years, the band recorded several albums, none of which achieved any notable recognition or success.

With several films achieving success on the art house circuit, Crowe was established internationally and began to invoke comparisons with another transplanted Aussie, Mel Gibson. He followed up with an intriguing variety of offbeat projects, ranging from the historical drama “Hammers Over the Anvil” to the children’s film “The Silver Stallion King of the Wild Brumbies” (both 1993). Crowe gave another splendid performance as a virginal Welsh Baptist in “Love in Limbo” (1993) and shone as a gay plumber living with his middle-aged father (Jack Thompson) as both search for love in “The Sum of Us” (1994). It was inevitable for Hollywood to woo him with roles like his gunslinger-turned-preacher in the punchy Sharon Stone-produced western, “The Quick and the Dead” and as the malevolent computer-generated serial killer in Denzel Washington’s star vehicle, “Virtuosity” (both 1995).

Thanks to Crowe’s brooding onscreen intensity, director Curtis Hanson offered him the plum role of Officer Bud White, a quick-tempered, brutal homicide detective in the superb adaptation of James Ellroy’s noir thriller “L.A. Confidential” (1997). Paired with fellow Aussie mate Guy Pearce and Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey, the actor completed a trio of detectives who investigate a web of police corruption and public scandal in 1950s Los Angeles. With a higher profile and an armload of good notices, Crowe next played a hockey player who gets the chance to play against a professional team in the David E. Kelley-scripted “Mystery, Alaska” before landing the choice role of tobacco industry whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand in Michael Mann’s fictional take on a true story, “The Insider” (both 1999). Crowe won particular acclaim – including a Best Actor Oscar nomination – for his characterization of a family man who risks his life and reputation to refute public testimony given by cigarette manufacturers. The fact the he was able to morph into a paunchy, balding middle-aged man believably, also added to the growing comparisons to Brando and DeNiro.

After 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.

As a follow-up, Crowe buffed up and undertook the title role in Ridley Scott’s big-budgeted summer release “Gladiator.” Playing Maximus, a fallen Roman general-turned-professional fighter, the actor more than dominated the film – he tore a hole in the big screen with his intensity – earning rave notices and a Best Actor Academy Award for his efforts. The role solidified Crowe as one of Hollywood’s top actors and most bankable male movie stars. He rounded out the year playing a professional negotiator in kidnapping cases who comes to the aid of an American woman in a fictional South American country in “Proof of Life.” The movie, however, was overshadowed by the media’s reporting of his brief fling with co-star Meg Ryan, whose then-marriage to Dennis Quaid was falling apart. A critical drubbing coupled with audience indifference – and some disgust over Crowe’s assumed corrupting of “America’s Sweetheart” by the press – put a final stake into the film, making it one of Crowe’s least memorable.

The disappointing box office and domestic scandal notwithstanding, Crowe emerged unscathed. He next portrayed John Nash, a real-life mathematician who descended into schizophrenia only to overcome his illness and go on to win a Nobel Prize in Ron Howard’s biopic “A Beautiful Mind” (2001). His beautifully realized, nuanced performance ranked as one of his best to date and earned the actor his third consecutive Best Actor Academy Award nomination, as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Unfortunately, the well-earned Oscar slipped through his fingers following the first of a series of public altercations which cast a temporary shadow over his onscreen accomplishments. During Crowe’s acceptance of a BAFTA for Best Actor for “A Beautiful Mind,” the BAFTA show’s producer cut him off mid-speech and mid-poem, causing a fracas backstage when Crowe reportedly pinned the producer against the wall, threatening him and hurling obscenities. Feeling put upon by the media’s excessive attention to his personal life – especially his reputation as a brawler – Crowe retreated from the limelight for a spell, emerging only to marry longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Danielle Spencer and to subsequently announce his impending fatherhood in 2003.

At the end of that year, however, Crowe’s name was again on the lips of filmgoers, critics and the Hollywood elite following his much-praised performance in director Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.” In the rollicking, harrowing high-seas adventure based on the series of 20 historical novels by Patrick O’Brien, Crowe made for a perfect screen incarnation of Capt. “Lucky” Jack Aubrey, the skipper of the beleaguered British naval vessel the H.M.S. Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars, who wrestles with his conscience as he forces his crew to embark on a perilous pursuit of their enemy. Crowe’s turn was immediately hailed as award-worthy, and the actor yet again demonstrated his lack of vanity and commitment to his craft when he physically bulked up to match the heavyset literary description of Lucky Jack. Though no Oscar nod was forthcoming, Crowe did receive a nomination for Best Actor in a dramatic role at the 2003 Golden Globes.

After a yearlong absence from the big screen, Crowe reunited for the third time with director Ron Howard for “Cinderella Man” (2005) and received yet another round of glowing reviews – and another Golden Globe nod – for his effective, charming turn as Depression-era fighter and folk hero Jim Braddock, who defeated heavyweight champ Max Baer in a 15-round slugfest in 1935. In his initial public appearances to promote the film, Crowe seemed more relaxed and at peace with himself than ever before. So it came as a bit of a shock when, in an even more publicized smackdown, the actor was arrested for assault in New York City the week of the film’s debut after he allegedly threw a telephone at a hotel concierge in a fit of pique when he could not reach his wife in Australia. The actor subsequently appeared on “The Late Show” (CBS, 1993- ) alongside host David Letterman to publicly apologize for his by-then infamous short fuse, while pleading guilty in November 2005 to third-degree assault in a court of law. He paid $160 in court fees and was told to behave himself for a year, avoiding a more serious charge that could have landed him in prison and cost him his U.S. work visa.

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 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 (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”.

With the ugliness of the assault behind him – at least legally – Crowe went back to work, starring in a couple of small budget films – perhaps, in part, to maintain a low profile. In “A Good Year” (2006), his second collaboration with Ridley Scott, Crowe played an investment banker operating in the cutthroat world of London finance who reluctantly agrees to take over a small vineyard after the death of his uncle (Albert Finney). It is in the open French countryside where he eventually learns – thanks in part to a local café owner (Marion Cotillard) – that life is meant to be savored. After providing the narration for “Bra Boys” (2007), an Australian documentary about a much-maligned surfer community living near the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, Crowe returned to high profile features with the gritty western “3:10 to Yuma” (2007). In it, he played an imprisoned desperado who convinces a desperate rancher (Christian Bale) to help him escape in exchange for a share of hidden loot. Also in 2007, Crowe played a detective who teams up with a former drug kingpin (Denzel Washington) in order to expose corrupt cops and foreign nationals profiting from smuggling heroin in the true-to-life drama, “American Gangster.” 

Crowe, 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.”

On 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 making 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. It is believed Crowe is looking for an upmarket home in Townsville for his niece to live in, so she can study 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.”

On 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 (Australia Day). The game was played at the University of North Florida. Crowe told ITV Local Yorkshire says the game wasn’t a marketing exercise.

He 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 SERIEA club AS Roma. Crowe is a big supporter of the Michigan Wolverines football team, he watched the Michigan-Notre Dame college football game from the Michigan bench on 15 September 2007. Before the game, he appeared in the Michigan locker room, and players said he gave a rousing performance, urging them to play with honour and heart. Former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr is a good friend of Crowe’s and had previously gone to Australia to spend time with Crowe’s South Sydney Rabbitohs. After the 7-5 2005 season, coach Carr used Crowe’s film Cinderella Man to encourage his team, which went on to win 11 games in a row until Ohio State University beat them in the 2006 season.

Crowe is also a fan of the NFL, and has appeared in the booth of Monday Night Football at an Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars game on 22 October 2007. Crowe 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.

Crowe, 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. 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.

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 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. It likens him to Popeye in his style of dress(a sailor costume) , tuneful whistling and gait. In the way he describes the people he aggravates, he is made to seem alike to Steve Irwin, especially with his australian accent. 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!”

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