Paul Giamatti
| Paul Giamatti | |
|---|---|
 Giamatti at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival |
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| Born | Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti June 6, 1967 New Haven, Connecticut |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Notable work(s) | American Splendor Sideways Cinderella Man The Illusionist John Adams Cold Souls Barney's Version Win Win |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Cohen (m.1997) |
| Parents | Angelo Bartlett Giamatti Toni Marilyn Giamatti |
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (pronounced /dʒiəˈmɑːti/; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor. An acclaimed character actor, Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon before earning lead roles in several projects in the 2000s including American Splendor, Sideways, Cinderella Man, The Illusionist, John Adams, Cold Souls, Barney's Version, and Win Win.
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[edit] Early life
Giamatti, the youngest of three children, was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Angelo Bartlett Giamatti, was a Yale University professor who later became president of the university and commissioner of Major League Baseball.[1] His mother, Toni Marilyn (née Smith), was a homemaker and English teacher who taught at Hopkins School and had also previously acted.[2][3] Giamatti is of Italian, Irish, and English descent.[4] Giamatti's paternal grandmother was from a family with deep roots in New England, and his paternal grandfather was the son of Italian immigrants from Telese.[5] His brother, Marcus, is also an actor, and his sister, Elena, is a jewelry designer. Giamatti was educated at The Foote School and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1985. He attended Yale University, where he was elected to the Skull and Bones secret society.[6] Giamatti was active in the undergraduate theater scene, working alongside actors Ron Livingston and Edward Norton, who were also Yale students. He graduated from Yale in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English. He went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama where he studied with Earle R. Gister. He performed in numerous theatrical productions (including Broadway) before appearing in some small television and film roles in the early 1990s.
[edit] Career
Giamatti's first high-profile role was in the film adaptation of Howard Stern's Private Parts (1997) as 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. 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 be 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.
Giamatti began to earn critical acclaim after his lead role in the 2003 film American Splendor. He gained mainstream recognition and fame with the 2004 independent romantic comedy Sideways. His portrayal of a depressed writer vacationing in the Santa Barbara wine country garnered him a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award. Following the commercial success of Sideways, Giamatti appeared in Cinderella Man, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture.
In 2006, he was the lead in M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, a supernatural thriller, followed by the animated film The Ant Bully, and Neil Burger's drama The Illusionist co-starring Edward Norton. He also played Mr. Hertz in the action movie Shoot 'Em Up and Santa Claus in the comedy Fred Claus. In 2008, he received his first Emmy Award[7] for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie" for his title performance in the HBO miniseries John Adams, a role that also led to a Screen Actors Guild award. That same year, he starred in the independent film Pretty Bird which is a fictionalized retelling about the drama behind the invention of a rocketbelt.[8]
He was nominated for 45 separate awards between 2001 and 2008, and won 26 of them, including both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for John Adams. All of his nominations except one were for American Splendor, Sideways, Cinderella Man, or John Adams; the exception was a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for Big Momma's House.[9] In 2011, he won a second Golden Globe, for his portrayal of the titular character in the Canadian film Barney's Version. 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, and included Frenzy, Dr. Strangelove, Brewster McCloud, The Big Clock, The Seventh Victim, Dawn of the Dead (1978 version), Seconds, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version).[1][10][11]
Giamatti was set to play the lead role, Colonel Tom Parker, in Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires,[12] which was to co-star Ron Perlman, who replaced Bruce Campbell.[1]
[edit] Personal life
A resident of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York,[10] Giamatti has been married to Elizabeth Giamatti (née Cohen) since 1997. They have a son, Samuel Paul, known as Sam, (born 2001), who is raised in Elizabeth's Jewish religion. Giamatti himself is an atheist.[13]
[edit] In culture
Comedian James Adomian performs an impression of Giamatti on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast. The AV Club describes Adomian's caricature of Giamatti as "a fantastically broken-down sad-sack."[14]
[edit] Credits
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Gross, Terry (February 13, 2004). "Actor Paul Giamatti". NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1674650. Retrieved May 31, 2007.
- ^ Pringle, Gill (November 27, 2007). "Paul Giamatti: Mr Potato face". The Independent (UK). http://arts.independent.co.uk/film/features/article3199367.ece. Retrieved November 27, 2007.
- ^ "–Ai. Bartlett Giamatti Marries Ton! Smith". The New York Times. June 19, 1960. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00B15F738551A7A93CBA8178DD85F448685F9. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
- ^ Interview previously available at http://www.sundayherald.com/57083
- ^ Reston, James (1997). Collision at Home Plate: The Lives of Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti. Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0803289642. http://books.google.ca/books?visbn=0803289642&id=znjlwbfZOTcC&pg=RA1-PA16&lpg=RA1-PA16&ots=_8zqp4MZuD&dq=%22Bartlett+Giamatti%22+ITALIAN&sig=iGZHVZTGXmCp8qRjBnZbD5GjzyE.
- ^ Burkeman, Oliver (November 12, 2009). "G2: 'I'm clearly not Brad Pitt': Paul Giamatti tends to play moody defeatists and rageful misanthropes. Which is just the way he likes it.". The Guardian.
- ^ Paul Giamatti Emmy Award Winner
- ^ Paul Giamatti's Good Times
- ^ According to the Internet Movie Database
- ^ a b Hale, Mike. "Film", The New York Times. July 29, 2007. Accessed November 29, 2007.
- ^ Web page titled "Paul Giamatti Selects" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Web site, accessed July 28, 2007
- ^ "Paul Giamatti Will Break Spine For Bubba Nosferatu! Now THAT'S Dedication!". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/38374/paul-giamatti-will-break-spine-for-bubba-nosferatu-now-thats-dedication.
- ^ http://www.totalfilm.com/features/i-never-saw-russell-lose-it-on-set
- ^ "AV Club Podmass: The Best" (Week of February 17 – 23) The Onion
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Giamatti |
- Paul Giamatti at the Internet Movie Database
- Paul Giamatti at the Internet Broadway Database
- Paul Giamatti at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Paul Giamatti: 'I'm clearly not Brad Pitt,' The Guardian, Oliver Burkeman, 12 November 2009
- Paul Giamatti at Emmys.com
- 1967 births
- Actors from Connecticut
- American people of English descent
- American atheists
- American film actors
- American people of Irish descent
- American people of Italian descent
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners
- Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Choate Rosemary Hall alumni
- Emmy Award winners
- Genie Award winners for Best Actor
- Independent Spirit Award winners
- Living people
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from Brooklyn
- People from New Haven, Connecticut
- Yale School of Drama alumni
- Yale University alumni
