Alessandro Nivola
| Alessandro Nivola | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alessandro Antine Nivola June 28, 1972 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Other names | Sandro |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Spouse | Emily Mortimer (2003–present) |
Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Coco Before Chanel, Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.
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[edit] Personal life
Nivola was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Pietro S. Nivola, is a professor of political science who wrote the book Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America, and his mother is an artist.[1] Nivola's paternal grandfather was the Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola and his paternal grandmother, Ruth Guggenheim,[2] was a Jewish refugee from Germany.[3] He has a brother, Adrian, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and earned a degree in English from Yale.[citation needed] Nivola married British actress Emily Mortimer in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire in January 2003; the couple have a son, Samuel John, born in Westminster, London,[4] on September 23, 2003. They also have a daughter, May, born on January 15, 2010. They used to live in Los Angeles California in Echo Park. They are currently living in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn, New York. He had fellow actor Heath Ledger as a neighbor.
[edit] Career
Nivola began his acting career while still an undergraduate at Yale, landing the leading role in a Seattle production of Athol Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys. After college, Nivola debuted on Broadway in 1995 as the young lover of Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country. The next year he appeared in the 1996 NBC miniseries Danielle Steel's The Ring and landed his first film role as Joanna Going's preppy husband in Inventing the Abbotts before being cast as Nicolas Cage's paranoid schizophrenic brother in John Woo's Face/Off (both in 1997).
Nivola adopted an English accent to play a mystery man from former girlfriend Rachel Weisz's past in I Want You (1998), directed by Michael Winterbottom. He then appeared in the thriller Best Laid Plans and again as an Englishman in Patricia Rozema's screen version of the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park, both in 1999. He played a rock singer involved with his record producer, played by Frances McDormand, in the film Laurel Canyon. Nivola was one of the faces for the GAP's 2002 Ads campaign "For Every Generation".
Nivola trained hard for the filming of the Goal! trilogy, and has picked up a lot of skill and pace and was commended for his sudden burst of talent by the directors of Goal! 2.[5] In the film Coco avant Chanel, Nivola again played an Englishman and learned to speak French for the role.[6]
In 2010, Nivola appeared in the Off-Broadway play A Lie of the Mind, directed by Ethan Hawke at the Theatre Row in New York City.[7]
[edit] Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
| 1997 | Inventing the Abbotts | Peter Vanlaningham | |
| Face/Off | Pollux Troy | ||
| 1998 | I Want You | Martin | |
| Reach the Rock | Robin | ||
| 1999 | Best Laid Plans | Nick | |
| Mansfield Park | Henry Crawford | ||
| 2000 | Love's Labour's Lost | King Ferdinand of Navarre | |
| Timecode | Joey Z | ||
| 2001 | Jurassic Park III | Billy Brennan | |
| 2002 | Imprint | Matt | Short film |
| Laurel Canyon | Ian McKnight | ||
| 2003 | Carolina | Albert Morris | |
| 2004 | The Clearing | Tim Hayes | |
| 2005 | Junebug | George Johnsten | |
| The Sisters | Andrew Prior | ||
| Turning Green | Bill the Bookie | ||
| Goal! | Gavin Harris | ||
| 2006 | The Darwin Awards | Ad Exec | |
| 2007 | Grace Is Gone | John Phillips | |
| Goal! 2: Living the Dream | Gavin Harris | ||
| The Girl in the Park | Chris | ||
| 2008 | The Eye | Dr. Paul Faulkner | |
| Five Dollars a Day | Ritchie Flynn Parker | ||
| Who Do You Love? | Leonard Chess | ||
| 2009 | Coco Before Chanel | Arthur 'Boy' Capel | |
| 2010 | Howl | Luther Nichols | |
| Janie Jones | Ethan Brand | ||
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Remember WENN | Paul Rice | Episode: Valentino Speaks! |
| The Ring | Noel | TV-Movie | |
| 1998 | The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery | Doug | TV-Movie |
| 2007 | The Company | Leo Kritzky | Miniseries |
[edit] Awards and nominations
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
- 1998: Nominated, "Favorite Supporting Actor in an Action/Adventure Film" - Face/Off
- 2004: Nominated, "Best Supporting Male" - Laurel Canyon
[edit] References
- ^ Alessandro Nivola Biography (1972?-)
- ^ "Costantino Nivola: public and private: a selection of Nivola's sculptures, soon to leave the U.S. for a permanent home in a museum devoted to the artist in Sardinia, provided a rare overview of his work at the Parrish Museum". http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_5_92/ai_n6036832.[dead link]
- ^ "WGNTV.com". Timeliness: Will it help 'Goal' score?. http://wgntv.trb.com/entertainment/movies/cl-wk-movies11may11,0,5580084.story?coll=wgntv-movies-5. Retrieved June 17, 2006.[dead link]
- ^ Marriages and Births England and Wales 1984-2006
- ^ Director's commentary from the DVD extras of Goal! 2
- ^ Leisa Barnett. "Vogue.com". Capel in. http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/080815-alessandro-nivola-in-chanel-biopic.aspx. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ PATRICK HEALY (2010-01-31). "New Search for the Truth in ‘A Lie’". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/theater/31roundtable.html. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
[edit] External links
- 1972 births
- Living people
- American film actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- American people of German descent
- American people of Italian descent
- American people of Jewish descent
- Actors from Boston, Massachusetts
- Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
- Shakespearean actors
- Yale University alumni
- People from Echo Park, Los Angeles
