New Zealand-born actor (born 1964)
Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spending ten years of his childhood in Australia and residing there permanently by the age of 21. His work on screen has earned him various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award.
Crowe began acting in Australia and had his break-out role in "Romper Stomper" (1992). He gained international recognition in the late 1990s for his starring roles in "L.A. Confidential" (1997) and "The Insider" (1999). Crowe gained wider stardom for playing the title role of "Gladiator" (2000), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Further acclaim came for portraying real-life mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. in "A Beautiful Mind" (2001). Crowe then starred in a number of films in the 2000s, including ' (2003), "Cinderella Man" (2005), ' (2007), "American Gangster" (2007), "State of Play" (2009), and "Robin Hood" (2010).
Crowe has since appeared in the films "Les Misérables" (2012), "Man of Steel" (2013), "Noah" (2014), and "" (2022). In 2014, he made his directorial debut with the drama "The Water Diviner", in which he also starred. Aside from acting, Crowe has been the co-owner of the National Rugby League (NRL) team South Sydney Rabbitohs since 2006.
Early life.
Crowe was born in Strathmore Park, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, on 7 April 1964, the son of film set caterers Jocelyn Yvonne (née Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe. His father also managed a hotel. His maternal grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer who was appointed an MBE for filming footage of World War II as a member of the New Zealand Film Unit. Crowe is Māori, and identifies with Ngāti Porou through one of his maternal great-great-grandmothers. His paternal grandfather, John Doubleday Crowe, was a Welsh man from Wrexham, while another of his grandparents was Scottish. His other ancestry includes English, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish. He is a cousin of former New Zealand national cricket captains Martin and Jeff Crowe, and the nephew of cricketer Dave Crowe.
Through his paternal grandmother, he is a direct descendant of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, the last man to be beheaded in Britain. 
When Crowe was four years old, his family moved to Australia and settled in Sydney, where his parents pursued their career in film set catering. His mother's godfather was the producer of the Australian TV series "Spyforce", and Crowe was hired for a line of dialogue in one episode of the series at age five or six, opposite series star Jack Thompson. Later, in 1994, Thompson would play the supportive father of Crowe's gay character in "The Sum of Us". Crowe also appeared briefly in the serial "The Young Doctors". In Australia, he was educated at Vaucluse Public School and Sydney Boys High School, before his family moved back to New Zealand in 1978 when he was 14. He continued his secondary education at Auckland Grammar School, with his cousins and brother Terry, and Mount Roskill Grammar School before leaving school at the age of 16 to pursue his acting ambitions.
Acting career.
New Zealand.
Under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, Crowe began his performing career as a musician in the early 1980s performing under the stage name "Russ Le Roq". He released several New Zealand singles, including "I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando", "Pier 13", and "Shattered Glass", none of which charted. He managed an Auckland music venue called "The Venue" in 1984. When he was 18, he was featured in "A Very Special Person...", a promotional video for the theology/ministry course at Avondale University, a Seventh-day Adventist tertiary education provider in New South Wales, Australia.
Australia.
Crowe left New Zealand and returned to Australia at the age of 21, intending to apply to the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He said, "I was working in a theatre show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA. 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.'" From 1986 to 1988, he was given his first professional role by director Daniel Abineri, in a New Zealand 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, which also toured New Zealand. In 1987, Crowe spent six months busking when he could not find other work. In the 1988 Australian production of "Blood Brothers", Crowe played the role of Mickey. He was also cast again by Daniel Abineri in the role of Johnny, in the stage musical "Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom" in 1989.
After appearing in the TV series "Neighbours" and "Living with the Law," Crowe was cast by Faith Martin in his first film, "The Crossing" (1990), a small-town love triangle directed by George Ogilvie. Before production started, a film-student protégé of Ogilvie, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the 1990 film "Blood Oath" (aka "Prisoners of the Sun"), which was released a month earlier than "The Crossing", 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 followed the exploits and downfall of a racist skinhead group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne, directed by Geoffrey Wright and co-starring Jacqueline McKenzie. For the role, Crowe won an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for Best Actor, following up from his Best Supporting Actor award for "Proof" in 1991. In 2015, it was reported that Crowe had applied for Australian citizenship in 2006 and again in 2013 but was rejected because he failed to fulfill the residency requirements. However, Australia's Immigration Department said it had no record of any such application by Crowe.
North America.
After initial success in Australia, Crowe first starred in a Canadian production in 1993, "For the Moment", before concentrating on American films. In 1993 he was favoured for the role of Joshua Chamberlain in the epic film Gettysburg, but was passed over for Jeff Daniels. He co-starred with Denzel Washington in "Virtuosity" (the duo later appearing together in "American Gangster") and with Sharon Stone in "The Quick and the Dead" in 1995. He went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award as Best Actor in 2000 for "Gladiator". Crowe was awarded the (Australian) Centenary Medal in 2001 for "service to Australian society and Australian film production."
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, as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for the same performance. Although nominated for an Academy Award, he lost to Denzel Washington. All three films were also nominated for Best Picture, and both "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind" won the award. Crowe became the first actor to star as the lead in back-to-back Best Picture winners since Walter Pidgeon (who starred in "How Green Was My Valley" [1941] and "Mrs. Miniver" [1942]).
Within the six-year stretch from 1997 to 2003, Crowe also starred in two other best picture nominees, "L.A. Confidential" and '. In 2005, he re-teamed with "A Beautiful Mind" director Ron Howard for the biographical boxing drama "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). Although 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. In 2007, he starred in the Western film ', a remake of the . 
In recent years, Crowe's box office standing has declined. He starred in the 2009 political thriller "State of Play", based on the BBC drama television series of the same name. Crowe appeared in "Robin Hood", a film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and released on 14 May 2010. During the "Robin Hood" shoot, Crowe fractured both of his legs doing a scene in which he "jumped off a castle portcullis onto rock-hard uneven ground" and said he "never discussed the injury with production, never took a day off because of it, I just kept going to work". Crowe starred in the 2010 Paul Haggis film "The Next Three Days", an adaptation of the 2008 French film "Pour elle" ("Anything for Her").
After a year off from acting, Crowe played Jackknife in "The Man with the Iron Fists" (2012), opposite RZA. He took on the role of Javert in the musical film of "Les Misérables" (2012), and portrayed Superman's biological father, Jor-El, in the Christopher Nolan-produced film "Man of Steel", released in the summer of 2013. In 2014, he played a gangster in the film adaptation of Mark Helprin's 1983 novel "Winter's Tale", and the title role in the Darren Aronofsky film "Noah". Crowe had a major role in "The Mummy" (2017), starred as an angry driver in the action thriller "Unhinged" (2020), played the mythical Greek god Zeus in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "" (released 8 July 2022), and portrayed the famous exorcist Fr. Gabriele Amorth in "The Pope's Exorcist" (2023).
In June 2013, Crowe signed to make his directorial debut with an historical drama film "The Water Diviner", in which he also starred alongside Jacqueline McKenzie, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney. Set in the year 1919, the film was produced by Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Keith Rodger.
Music.
In the 1980s, Crowe, under the name of "Russ le Roq", recorded a song titled "I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando".
In the 1980s, Crowe and friend Billy Dean Cochran formed a band, Roman Antix, which later evolved into the Australian rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (abbreviated to TOFOG). Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for the band, which formed in 1992. The band released "The Photograph Kills EP" in 1995, as well as three full-length records, "Gaslight" (1998), "Bastard Life or Clarity" (2001) and "Other Ways of Speaking" (2003). In 2000, TOFOG performed shows in London, Los Angeles and in Austin, Texas. In 2001, the band toured in the U.S. with dates in Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Hollywood, Philadelphia, New York City and the last show at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
In early 2005, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts as a group had "dissolved/evolved" with Crowe feeling his future music would take a new direction. He began a collaboration with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea, and with it a new band emerged, the Ordinary Fear of God, which also involved some members of the previous TOFOG line-up. A new single, "Raewyn", was released in April 2005 and an album entitled "My Hand, My Heart" was released. The album includes a tribute song to actor Richard Harris, who became Crowe's friend during the making of "Gladiator".
Crowe and his new band the Ordinary Fear of God (keeping the TOFOG acronym) toured Australia in 2005, and then the U.S. In 2006 they returned to the US to promote their new release "My Hand, My Heart". In March 2010, the group's version of the John Williamson song "Winter Green" was included on a new compilation album "The Absolute Best of John Williamson: 40 Years True Blue", commemorating the singer-songwriter's milestone of 40 years in the Australian music industry.
On 2 August 2011, the third collaboration between Crowe and Doyle was released on iTunes as "The Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol III", featuring nine original songs followed by their acoustic demo counterparts (for a total of 18 tracks). Danielle Spencer does guest vocals on most tracks. The release coincided with a pair of live performances at the LSPU Hall in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The digital album was released as download versions only on Amazon.com, iTunes, Spotify. The album has since charted at No. 72 on