Paul Giamatti

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Paul Giamatti
Born
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti
Years active1990 – present
SpouseElizabeth Cohen (1997-)
ParentA. Bartlett Giamatti
AwardsNYFCC Award for Best Actor
2004 Sideways

Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (born June 6, 1967) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. He began acting in films during the 1990s, appearing in several supporting performances, and came to fame in the early 2000s, after his roles in the well-received films American Splendor, Sideways and Cinderella Man.

Biography

Early life

Giamatti was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, A. Bartlett Giamatti, was a Yale University professor who later became president of the university and commissioner of Major League Baseball.[1] His mother, Toni Smith, was an English teacher who taught at Hopkins School and had also previously acted. Giamatti's mother was Irish American,[2] while his paternal grandfather, Valentine Giamatti, was an Italian American, of parentage from Telese, and his paternal grandmother was Mary Claybaugh Walton, whose ancestors lived in New England.[3] He has a brother, Marcus, who is also an actor.

Giamatti attended Humberside Collegiate Institute as a young boy and says the reason he started acting was because of a red haired temptress named Luka. Giamatti attended The Foote School, then the elite boarding school Choate Rosemary Hall

He attended Yale University, where he was active in the undergraduate theater scene and worked alongside actors Ron Livingston and Edward Norton who were also Yale students. In his senior year he was elected to the Skull and Bones secret society. He graduated from Yale in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English. He went on to earn a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama. He performed in numerous theatrical productions (including Broadway) before appearing in some small television and film roles in the early 1990s.

Career

Giamatti's first high profile role was in the film adaptation of Howard Stern's Private Parts. He played Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, Stern's antagonistic program director at WNBC. Stern praised Giamatti's performance often on his radio program, calling for him to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. That didn't happen, but Giamatti's career received a boost. He appeared in a number of supporting roles in big-budget movies such as The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, and The Negotiator (all 1998). In 1999 he played Bob Zmuda (and Tony Clifton) in the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon. Giamatti continued to featured in major studio releases such as Big Momma's House (2000) with Martin Lawrence, the Planet of the Apes remake (2001), and in Big Fat Liar (2002) opposite Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes. In 2006 he appeared in M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural thriller Lady in the Water, the animated film The Ant Bully, and Neil Burger's drama The Illusionist co-starring Edward Norton. He is also the voice behind the audiobook of the novel A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, released in the summer of 2006. Most recently, he played Mr. Hertz in the action movie Shoot 'em Up and Santa Claus in the comedy Fred Claus (which also stars Kevin Spacey and Vince Vaughn), and will co-star alongside Bruce Campbell in Bubba Nosferatu, the prequel to Bubba Ho-tep. Giamatti will also play noted science fiction author Philip K. Dick in the semi-biopic The Owl In Daylight, which he is also producing through his production company, Touchy Feely Productions. He also played a role in the 1996 video game Ripper, where he portrayed the character of Dr. Bud Cable. He is also working on Pretty Birds which is a fictionalized retelling about the drama behind the invention of a rocketbelt.[4]

He is most often confused in public with Rob Schneider. When he hosted a season 30 episode of Saturday Night Live (musical guest: Sum 41 with special guest Ludacris), there was a sketch reflecting this, where a limo driver (played by Finesse Mitchell) mistook him for several other actors, including former castmember Rob Schneider. Giamatti has commented on the fact that he often plays Jewish characters, but is almost never cast in Italian American roles.[1]

Giamatti has starred in three films (Private Parts, American Splendor and Man on the Moon) that feature historical characters who actually appeared on Late Night with David Letterman during the film and a fourth, StoryTelling, which starred Conan O'Brien, who hosted "Late Night" after Letterman moved to his own show on CBS.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music asked Giamatti, its "2007 BAM Cinema Club Chair", to pick films for an eight-movie series called "Paul Giamatti Selects" and shown at the academy in August and September 2007. His selections indicated a taste for paranoia and "the darkest of dark comedy", according to a writer for The New York Times. Giamatti chose: Frenzy, Dr. Strangelove, Brewster McCloud, The Big Clock, The Seventh Victim, Dawn of the Dead (1978 version), Seconds (film), and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version).[5][6]

Awards

File:Madsengiamatti.jpg
Giamatti and Virginia Madsen in Sideways, 2004

Giamatti's most acclaimed performances were in lead roles in American Splendor (2003) and Sideways (2004). He was nominated for a Golden Globe for the latter (but did not win), but was not nominated for an Oscar in one of the most mystifying and well-publicized snubs in recent Oscar history[citation needed], made more baffling since Sideways received nominations in several other noteworthy categories. Giamatti received his first Academy Award-nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2005 for his role in Cinderella Man (a nomination that was generally considered a kind of apology for the snub of the previous year). He was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won the SAG award for Best Supporting Actor for the film. However, he lost both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award to George Clooney in Syriana. (Upon winning the Golden Globe, Clooney commented in his acceptance speech that he had expected Giamatti to win the award that evening.) Giamatti has also been nominated for and won several critics' awards.

The actor has been nominated for 35 separate awards between 2001 and 2006, and has won 22 of them. All of his nominations except one were for American Splendor, Sideways, or Cinderella Man; the exception was a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Big Momma's House.[7]

Giamatti was considered for potential nomination for a Razzie Award on two separate occasions, once in 2003 (Worst Supporting Actor, Big Fat Liar) and again in 2007 (Worst Actor, Lady In the Water). Both times, however, he was ultimately left off the final ballot.

Personal life

A Brooklyn, New York resident,[6] Giamatti has been married to Elizabeth Cohen since 1997 and they have a son, Samuel, born in 2001. Giamatti is an atheist and his wife is Jewish.[8][9][10]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ a b Gross, Terry (2004-02-13). "Actor Paul Giamatti". NPR. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Interview previously available at http://www.sundayherald.com/57083
  3. ^ Reston, James (1997). Collision at Home Plate: The Lives of Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti. Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN0803289642. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors= and |month= (help)
  4. ^ Paul Giamatti's Good Times
  5. ^ "The Week Ahead" feature, "Film" item by Mike Hale, "Arts & Leisure" section (Section 2), The New York Times, July 29, 2007, p 4
  6. ^ a b [1]Web page titled "Paul Giamatti Selects" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Web site, accessed July 28, 2007
  7. ^ According to the Internet Movie Database
  8. ^ "PAUL GIAMATTI SKIPS THE HO, HO, HO". Parade.com. 2007-11-06. Retrieved 2007-11-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ Wloszczyna, Susan (2007-11-06). "Reality snowballs for jolly old St. Nick in 'Fred Claus'". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-11-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ ""I never saw Russell lose it on set..." Cinderella Man star Paul Giamatti on epics, fatherhood and going toe-to-toe with Russell Crowe". Total Film. 2006-02-08. Retrieved 2007-05-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

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