Russell Crowe Biography

Russell Crowe was born on April 07, 1964 in New Zealand, Russell has made his home in Australia since he was a small child. The son of movie set caterers, Crowe's first American film was The Quick and the Dead (1995) which, if you believe the rumors, Sharon Stone held up shooting on until Crowe was available. Not a great film, and neither was his follow-up, Virtuosity (1995). But the same can not be said of his third U.S. film -- L.A. Confidential (1997). In 1998 he had to lace up a pair of hockey skates as he played hockey player John Biebe in Mystery, Alaska. For the role he not only had to wear skates, but he had to learn how to skate, and skate well. The next year, he gained 30 pounds for the role of tobacco industry tattle-tale, Jeffrey Wigand. Not only did he gain the weight for his role in The Insider (1999), but an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He would quickly have to shed those love handles and replace them with rippling muscle for his next role as the heroic Roman general Maximus in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000). He would also need to resort back to his dance training to help him memorize some of the fight sequences which could take up to 200 moves. Crowe won the 2000 Oscar® Award for Best Actor for his role in Gladiator, and earned his third Academy Award® nomination the following year for his starring role in A Beautiful Mind (2001).