Russell Crowe Totally Explained

Everything about Russell Crowe totally explained

Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an Academy Award- BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning New Zealand 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. Crowe is also co-owner of National Rugby League team the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Biography

Early life

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 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've 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 didn't 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.

Hollywood

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.
   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 wasn't 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'd 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". It's believed the home is for his niece, who is studying at James Cook University. Crowe stated in November 2007 that he'd like to be Baptised, and feels that he's 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 Rabbitohs

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 that'll 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.

Other sporting interests

He is also a fan of the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League.^{(External Link)} 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, 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 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's said that he instructed Crowe while shooting "Cinderella Man" movie.

Musical activities

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.

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'd 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 didn't 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 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. 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!"

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Blood Oath	Lt. Jack Corbett
1990	The Crossing	Johnny Ryan	Nominated for AFI Award for Best Actor in Lead Role
1991	Proof	Andy	AFI Award Win for Best Supporting Actor
1992	Spotswood	Kim Barrett
1992	Romper Stomper	Hando	AFI Award Win for Best Actor in Lead Role, FCCA Award Win for Best Male Actor, Golden Space Needle Award Win for Best Actor.
1993	Hammers Over the Anvil	East Driscoll	Golden Space Needle Award Win for Best Actor.
	The Silver Brumby	The Man (Egan)
	For The Moment	Lachlan Currie
1994	The Sum of Us	Jeff Mitchell
1995	The Quick and the Dead	Cort
	No Way Back	FBI Agent Zack Grant
	Virtuosity	SID 6.7
	Rough Magic	Alex Ross
1997	L.A. Confidential	Officer Wendell "Bud" White	Chlotrudis Award Win for Best Actor, Golden Satellite Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Actor nomination for Outstanding Performance by Cast
	Heaven's Burning	Colin O'Brien
	Breaking Up	Steve
1999	Mystery, Alaska	Sheriff John Biebe
1999	The Insider	Jeffrey Wigand	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor, Nominated - BAFTA Award, Nominated - Golden Globe, Won Critics Choice Award for Best Actor, Nominated for CFCA Award for Best Actor, Nominated for Sierra Award for Best Actor, ALFS Award Win for Best Actor, NSFC Award win for Best Actor, OFCS Award nomination for Best Actor, SFFCC Award win for Best Actor, Golden Satellite nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture- Drama, Actor nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
2000	Gladiator	Maximus Decimus Meridius	Academy Award for Best Actor, Nominated - BAFTA Award, Nominated - Golden Globe, Oscar win for Best Actor in Leading Role, Saturn Award nomination for Best Actor, Blockbuster Entertainment Award win for Favorite Actor- Action, Critics Choice Award win for Best Actor, DFWFCA Award win for Best Actor, Empire Award win for Best Actor, Sierra Award nomination for Best Actor, ALFS Award win for Best Actor, MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Fight (Maximus vs Tigers and Masked Man), MTV Movie Award nomination for Best male Performance, OFCS Award nomination for Best Actor, SDFCS Award win for Best Actor, Golden Satellite Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture- Drama, Actor nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Actor Nomination for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture
2000	Proof of Life	Terry Thorne
2001	A Beautiful Mind	John Nash	BAFTA Award nomination, Golden Globe win for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Academy Award for Best Actor, AFI Award Nominaation for Best Actor, Oscar Nomination for Best Actor in Leading Role, Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Actor, CFCA Award nomination for Best Actor, DFWFCA Award Win for Best Actor, MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Male Performance, OFCS Award nomination for Best Actor, PFCS Award win for Best Actor in Leading Role, Golden Satellite Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama, Actor Win for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Actor nomination for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture,
2003		Capt. Jack Aubrey	Nominated - Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Actor,
2005	Cinderella Man	Jim Braddock	Nominated - Golden Globe, International Award win for Best Actor, Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Actor, Actor nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role,
2006	A Good Year	Max Skinner
2007		Ben Wade	Actor nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
2007	American Gangster	Det. Richie Roberts	Actor nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
2008	Tenderness	Detective Cristofuoro
2008	Body of Lies	Ed Hoffman	post-production
2009	State of Play	Cal McCaffrey	post-production, replacing Brad Pitt
2009	Nottingham	Sir Robert Tornham	pre-production

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, (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) Further Information
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