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| Birth Name(s) : Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
Elizabeth Cohen (1997-) |
| Profession:
N/A |
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Full Paul Giamatti Biography
Giamatti was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, A. Bartlett Giamatti, was a Yale University professor who later became president of the university and commissioner of Major League Baseball. His mother, Toni Smith, was an English teacher who taught at Hopkins School and had also previously acted. Giamatti's mother was Irish American, while his paternal grandfather, Valentine Giamatti, was an Italian American, of parentage from Telese, and his paternal grandmother was Mary Claybaugh Walton, whose ancestors lived in New England. He has a brother, Marcus, who is also an actor.
Giamatti's first high profile role was in the film adaptation of Howard Stern's Private Parts. He played 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. That didn't happen, but Giamatti's career received a boost. 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 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. In 2006 he appeared in M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural thriller Lady in the Water, the animated film The Ant Bully, and Neil Burger's drama The Illusionist co-starring Edward Norton. He is also the voice behind the audiobook of the novel A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, released in the summer of 2006. Most recently he played Mr. Hertz in the action movie Shoot 'em Up and it was announced that he will play Santa Claus in the upcoming comedy Fred Claus (which also stars Kevin Spacey and Vince Vaughn), and will co-star alongside Bruce Campbell in Bubba Nosferatu, the prequel to Bubba Ho-tep. Giamatti will also play noted science fiction author Philip K. Dick in the semi-biopic The Owl In Daylight, which he is also producing through his production company, Touchy Feely Productions. He also played a role in the 1996 video game Ripper, where he portrayed the character of Dr. Bud Cable. He is also working on Pretty Birds which is a fictionalized retelling about the drama behind the invention of a rocketbelt.
He is most often confused in public with Rob Schneider. When he hosted a season 30 episode of Saturday Night Live (musical guest: Sum 41 with special guest Ludacris), there was a sketch reflecting this, where a limo driver (played by Finesse Mitchell) mistook him for several other actors, including former castmember Rob Schneider. Giamatti has commented on the fact that he often plays Jewish characters, but is almost never cast in Italian American roles.
Giamatti's most acclaimed performances were in lead roles in American Splendor (2003) and Sideways (2004). He was nominated for a Golden Globe for the latter (but did not win), but was not nominated for an Oscar in one of the most mystifying and well-publicized snubs in recent Oscar history, made more baffling since Sideways received nominations in several other noteworthy categories. Giamatti received his first Academy Award-nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2005 for his role in Cinderella Man (a nomination that, while deserved, was generally considered a kind of apology for the snub of the previous year). He was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won the SAG award for Best Supporting Actor for the film. However, he lost both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award to George Clooney in Syriana. (Upon winning the Golden Globe, Clooney commented in his acceptance speech that he had expected Giamatti to win the award that evening.) Giamatti has also been nominated for and won several critics' awards.
The actor has been nominated for 35 separate awards between 2001 and 2006, and has won 22 of them. All of his nominations except one were for American Splendor, Sideways, or Cinderella Man; the exception was a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Big Momma's House.
Giamatti was considered for potential nomination for a Razzie Award on two separate occasions, once in 2003 (Worst Supporting Actor, Big Fat Liar) and again in 2007 (Worst Actor, Lady In the Water). Both times, however, he was ultimately left off the final ballot.
A Brooklyn, New York resident, Giamatti has been married to Elizabeth Cohen since 1997 and they have a son, Samuel, born in 2001. Giamatti is an atheist and his wife is Jewish. |
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