Aside from Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, Russel Crow been one of the top 3 hollywood actors I admire most!...
Born: 7 April 1964
Birthplace: New Zealand
Best Known As: The Oscar-winning star of Gladiator
Russell Crowe won an Oscar as best actor for playing the title role in the 2000 film Gladiator. Crowe began acting in his adopted home country of Australia, winning acclaim in films like The Crossing (1990) and Romper Stomper (1992). In the mid-1990s he became more prominent in America in films like Sharon Stone's The Quick and the Dead (1995, also starring Leonardo DiCaprio). He broke through as a heroic cop in the retro crime thriller L.A. Confidential (1997, with Kim Basinger) and won an Oscar nomination for his work as tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand in 1999's The Insider. The next year he made a huge splash playing the wronged Roman hero Maximus in Gladiator (directed by Ridley Scott). The film won the Academy Award for best picture of 2000, and Crowe himself was given the Oscar as best actor.
Rugged yet sensitive onscreen, Crowe has developed an offscreen reputation as a cheerfully unruly Aussie who on occasion enjoys a pint and a scuffle. His other roles include a kidnapper-chasing security consultant in Proof of Life (2000, with Meg Ryan), the mathematician John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001, with Jennifer Connelly), the dashing sea captain Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander (2003), real-life boxer Jim Braddock in Cinderella Man (2005, with Renee Zellweger), and as a cornered outlaw in 3:10 to Yuma (2007, with Christian Bale.
Crowe performed with his own rock band, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts (also known as TOFOG), until the group disbanded in 2004... He had a much-publicized affair with Meg Ryan while both were filming the 2000 movie Proof of Life.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Russel Crowe
National Heroes Day
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Heroes' Day or National Heroes' Day may refer to a number of commemorations of national heroes in different countries. It is often held on the birthday of a national hero or heroine, or the anniversary of their great deeds that made them heroes.
National Heroes' Day (Araw ng mga Bayani) is a public holiday in the Philippines on the last Sunday of August, which is August 26 in 2007.
The Philippines, on this day, commemorates the "Cry of Pugad Lawin" by Filipino revolutionaries called the Katipunan led by its leader (Supremo) Andres Bonifacio.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today said that National Heroes Day, August 25, 2008, is a regular holiday.
Hugh Jackman
Jackman was born in Pymble, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, the youngest of five children of English-born Anglican parents Chris Jackman and Grace Watson. His mother left the family and went back to England when he was eight years old, and he remained behind with his father (an accountant with a degree from Cambridge), and his siblings. Jackman attended Pymble Public School and Knox Grammar School, an all-boys school in Wahroonga, where he was School Captain in 1986, and graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with a BA in Communications, having majored in journalism. Jackman's introduction to acting was by accident, as he had to take an acting class as part of the requirements for a college diploma. He became interested in the craft and used some money inherited from a relative to attend the WAAPA of Edith Cowan University in Perth, from which he graduated in 1994.
Jackman married actress Deborra-Lee Furness in April 1996. They met on the set of his first TV acting job in Correlli, an Australian television program. Jackman played an angry prisoner who fell in love with his counsellor, played by Furness. The couple suffered through two miscarriages, after which they adopted two children, son Oscar Maximillian (b. May 15, 2000) and daughter Ava Eliot (b. July 10, 2005) They currently live in Melbourne.
Jackman personally designed an engagement ring for Furness, and their wedding rings bore the Sanskrit inscription "Om paramar mainamar," translated by Furness as "we dedicate our union to a greater source."
In 2005, Jackman joined with longtime assistant John Palermo to form a production company, Seed Productions, whose first project will be Wolverine in 2008. Furness is also involved in the company, and Palermo had three rings made with an inscription meaning "unity" for himself, Furness, and Jackman. About the trio's collaboration Jackman reports "I'm very lucky in the partners I work with in my life, Deb and John Palermo. It really works. We all have different strengths. I love it. It's very exciting."
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the X Men
According to NNDB, "Jackman has very poor vision, and is unable to even read a menu when he is not wearing his contact lenses. He is left-handed, loves windsurfing, plays the piano, guitar, and violin, and sushi is his favorite comfort food." He also knows how to juggle 5 balls in the air at the same time. He does not smoke in real life, and hates having to do so in films. In real life he is described as a very polite and friendly man, unlike the belligerent, anti-social Wolverine.
He sang the Australian National Anthem in front of 100,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket ground before the 1998 Bledisloe Cup. Also sang the National Anthem at the 1999 NRL Grand Final in front of 108,000 people at Stadium Australia.
On April 1, 2007, Jackman was awarded an honorary fellowship at WAAPA of Edith Cowan University in Perth.
