Birth name: Russell
Ira Crowe
Occupation: Actor, Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Date of Birth: April 7, 1964
Place of Birth: New Zealand
Sign: Sun in Aries, Moon in Aquarius
Relations: Mother: Jocelyn Crowe (set caterer); father: Alex
Crowe (set caterer, former hotel manager)
After
filming Gladiator,
he and some friends took a 4,000 mile motorcycle trip around Australia.
He owns a 560-acre farm in 7.5 hours North-West
from Sydney, Australia
Russell's rock group is named 30 Odd Foot of
Grunts. They played their first concert following Russell's success in Gladiator
in Austin, Texas in August 2000. The tickets for the concert was selling for
over $500 on e-bay.com.
His
role a John Nash in A
Beautiful Mind (2001), directed by Ron Howard earned him his first
Oscar.
(5 September 2000) Russell suffered a shoulder
injury, which will require surgery, while filming on the set of Jodie Foster's
FLORA PLUM. It is uncertain if the film will have to be recast.
He has starred in two films based on articles
from Vanity Fair magazine.
THE INSIDER (1999) was based on a story 
by
Marie Brenner named The Man Who Knew Too Much. PROOF
OF LIFE (2000) is based on the article Adventures in the Ransom
Trade by William Prochnau.
He turned down the role of Logan/Wolverine in
X-MEN (2000).
(16 August 2001) Crowe and his band, 30 Odd Foot
Of Grunts, performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Russell Crowe's sudden weight loss before the
Oscars nearly led to an embarrassing situation - before he found a safety pin
to hold up his trousers.
The romance between Russell Crowe and
Meg Ryan was true love, according to Crowe.
Russell
Crowe spent the night with Courtney
Love after the Golden Globes.
Co-Stars Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe in
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997) won back-to-back Best Actor honors. Spacey,
for
AMERICAN BEAUTY, Crowe for GLADIATOR.
Curtis
Hanson cast Crowe after seeing his performance in
ROMPER STOMPER (1992).
He began shooting for
GLADIATOR (2000) a few months after
THE INSIDER (1999) wrapped. He had gained upwards of 40 pounds for his
Oscar-nominated role in The Insider and yet lost it all before GLADIATOR began.
He claims he did nothing special other than normal work on his farm in Australia.
In
GLADIATOR (2000) the wounds on his face after the opening battle scene
are real, caused when his horse startled and backed him into tree branches.
The stitches in his cheek are clearly visible when he is telling Commodus he
intends to return home.
He tried a music career, playing under the name
Rus Le Roc, and titled his first single I Want to Be Like Marlon Brando.
Was
nominated Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2000 for
THE INSIDER.
In GLADIATOR (2000) Maximus' (Russell Crowe)
description of his home (specifically how the kitchen is arranged and smells
in morning and night) was ad-libbed - it's a description of Russell Crowe's
own home in Australia.
On his tuxedo at Oscars, he was wearing either
an MBE or an OBE. FYI: Decoration from The Most Excellent Order of the British
Empire. OBE - Officer of the British Empire, MBE - Member of the British Empire
Offered to play James Bond after Pierce Brosnan.
In 1991, he was nominated as best actor in Australia
for THE CROSSING.
He proudly displayed his grandfather's British
Honours medal (MBE) while making his Oscar Winner speech in 2001.
Has indicated an interest in taking out Australian
citizenship due to the amount of time and energy he spends Down Under (keeping
his New Zealand citizenship as well).
Although his surname is of Irish extraction,
he lists his background as Norwegian and Maori.
When Crowe's acceptance speach for his Best Actor
award during the British Film Awards was edited, Crowe shoved the producer of
the show, Malcolm Gerrie, against a wall and cursed at him, telling him: Who
on Earth had the ... audacity to take out the best actor's poem? I'll make sure
you never work in Hollywood. He later issued a full apology.
He was ranked #28 in Premiere's 2002 annual Power
100 List.
Russell has been filming Napoleonic sea drama
THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD in Mexico over the summer.
His new movie--the remake of THE ALAMO--has
been unceremoniously dumped by Disney after the studio balked at the star's
cash demands--as much as $19.5 million.
A cigarette smoked by him on Australian television
has sparked a legal battle. The Nine Network has launched a challenge in Sydney's
Federal Court against a ruling by Australia's broadcasting watchdog that it
had breached a law banning the advertising of cigarettes this month (July 2002).
He's been called the new Clark Gable, the new
James Dean, the new Robert Mitchum, the new Marlon Brando, the new Mickey Rourke,
and the new Nick Nolte.
He lost his front tooth playing rugby when he
was ten. He never got it fixed until, at the insistence of the director for
THE CROSSING, who paid for it out of his own pocket.
His first lead role when he was 25.
In July, he signed up to present a series of
radio shows for the Australian Children’s Music Foundation aimed at increasing
youngsters’ interest in the arts.
SALARY:
Quotes
"I like villains because there's something
so attractive about a committed person — they have a plan, an ideology,
no matter how twisted. They're motivated."
"There's nothing like sitting back and talking
to your cows."[on Missing Australia] - US Weekly. Issue 304.
"I'm not one of those fellows that is just
going to have a psuedo-middling relationship."
"Id move to Los Angeles if New Zealand and
Australia were swallowed up by a tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in
England and if the continent of Africa disappeared from some Martian attack."
About life after death: "I definitely believe
in an afterlife. I've had a couple of experiences in my life that confirm it
for me."
— Russell Crowe
