Russell Crowe

Possessing prodigious acting talent also strong screen presence to always able to present excellent, memorable performances, Russell Ira Crowe has really left other thespians of his generation far behind him to satisfyingly reach the status of a top-rank leading man in film industry. A New Zealander of Welsh, Scottish, Norwegian, and Maori ancestry, he was born as the youngest son of John Alexander and Jocelyn Crowe on April 7, 1964 in Wellington, the second-largest urban area in the country. At the age of 4, his parents took him along with his brother, Terry, to settle in Australia where they developed a film-set catering business that turned out to hold a great responsibility in generating the boy's fondness for acting. Both his father and mother apparently used to bring him while they carried out their work, so it was hard for the kid not to be fascinated with this performing thing, particularly after he came to the set of an Australian TV series entitled "Spyforce" and was invited to appear as an extra in its 1972 episode.

Though his interest in the field flourished heavily ever since thus prompted him to become a professional actor later, Russell had to wait for quite a long time to begin his journey as he unexpectedly was taken by his family to move back to New Zealand in 1978. Finally returned to Australia at age 18 without finishing his study at Auckland Grammar School, he then managed to land parts in several stage productions, namely "Grease" (1983), "The Rocky Horror Show" (1986-1988), and "Blood Brothers" (1989) in which he was spotted by director George Ogilvie who subsequently gave him the leading role in his 1990 effort of "The Crossing." Other screen roles delightfully followed afterwards, notably that in "Romper Stomper" (1992), a hugely successful movie both on the critical and commercial sides that led him to gain Best Actor title from the Australian Film Institute by the same year.