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| Birth Name(s) : John Peter Sarsgaard |
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Full Peter Sarsgaard Biography
Peter Sarsgaard (born March 7, 1971) is a Golden Globe Award-nominated American film and stage actor. Known for often playing dark and villainous characters, he has so far predominantly appeared in supporting roles in a wide variety of both low-budget and major studio films, ranging from drama to horror and action thrillers. His most critically praised performance to date was as The New Republic magazine editor, Charles Lane, in Shattered Glass (2003) for which he won several critics' awards such as the Boston Film Critics Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Sarsgaard was born at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, where his father was an Air Force engineer. His family moved over twelve times during his childhood, following his father's job. Raised Roman Catholic, he served as an altar boy and attended Jesuit boys' school Fairfield Prep in Connecticut. After graduation, he attended Bard College for two years before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis in 1991. He graduated with a degree in history, and while there he co-founded an improvisational comedy troupe "Mama's Pot Roast".
Sarsgaard originally wanted to become a football player, and took up ballet to help improve his coordination. After several concussions, he gave up football and became interested in writing and theatre. It was at Washington University where he first discovered acting. His first role was as the servant Lawrence in Molière's Tartuffe.
Sarsgaard's first role was a guest spot on Law & Order in 1995. He began his film career later that year with Dead Man Walking, playing one of Sean Penn's murder victims. Sarsgaard followed this with parts in low-budget indie films, such as Another Day in Paradise, Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground, Minor Details, Desert Blue, and Freak City, as well as the ensemble period thriller The Man in the Iron Mask.
Sarsgaard first gained critical recognition in 1999, for Boys Don't Cry, in which he plays a violent, homophobic thug who murders Hilary Swank's transgender character, Brandon Teena.
Attracting further notice in the 2001 Wayne Wang film The Center of the World, Sarsgaard has since proven himself a critical favourite in supporting roles. Other notable roles include a Russian sailor in K-19: The Widowmaker, the meth addict Jimmy the Finn in The Salton Sea (2002), a bisexual university researcher in Kinsey, a bisexual screenwriter in The Dying Gaul, the sarcastic best friend to Zach Braff's character in Garden State, and an air marshal in Flightplan starring Jodie Foster.
During the production of Jarhead, in which he played a "gung-ho marine scout", Sarsgaard injured his knee and ribs.
Sarsgaard has also acted in the theater. He is a member of Douglas Carter Beane's New York City-based company, The Drama Department. He has appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Kingdom of Earth starring Cynthia Nixon and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. With the Signature Theatre Company, he has appeared in a critically acclaimed revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This opposite Elisabeth Shue and Horton Foote's Laura Dennis.
Sarsgaard hosted Saturday Night Live on January 21, 2006. In his introductory monologue, he tried to point out that he was a nice guy despite his sometimes macabre roles. Video clips were then played of Sarsgaard scaring the SNL regulars, including one clip in which Kenan Thompson walks into a room to find Sarsgaard naked, reading a newspaper in the dark. The SARS global scare was still fresh in many minds, and one of the skits included a promotion for the Peter Sarsgaard "SARS-Guard", a reference to the mania of facemasks worn in public by those fearing infection.
Sarsgaard has dated burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese and model/actress Shalom Harlow. He met Maggie Gyllenhaal at a dinner in 2001, and has been in a relationship with her since 2002. He is also close friends with her brother Jake, with whom he co-starred in the films Jarhead and Rendition. Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal announced their engagement in April 2006. Their daughter, Ramona Sarsgaard, was born on October 3, 2006. |
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