Russell Crowe

Academy Award® winner RUSSELL CROWE is considered one of the finest actors of his generation. Originally from New Zealand, he started making waves in the Australian film industry with his performance in the controversial film Romper Stomper — for which he became critically acclaimed around the world. He has received three consecutive Academy Award® Best Actor nominations for his performances in The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001)— taking home the Oscar® for his performance in Gladiator.

In addition to winning the Best Actor Oscar® for his performance as Maximus, the Roman general-turned-gladiator, in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, Crowe earned Best Actor honors from several critics' organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and he received Best Actor nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA.

In Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, Crowe's masterful portrayal of Nobel Prize winning John Forbes Nash, Jr., earned him his third Academy Award® nomination and garnered him Best Actor awards from the Golden Globes, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and other critics groups.

Crowe received his first Academy Award® nomination for his work in Michael Mann's nonfiction drama The Insider, as tobacco company whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand. He also earned Best Actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Broadcast Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, and nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Crowe appeared in Universal Pictures' Robin Hood, with Cate Blanchett; in Paul Haggis' The Next Three Days, with Elizabeth Banks; in Universal's State of Play, along with Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck; in Ridley Scott's drama Body of Lies, for Warner Bros., which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio; in Lionsgate's 3:10 to Yuma, opposite Christian Bale; and in Universal's American Gangster, with Denzel Washington, reteaming with director Ridley Scott.

Before his award-winning acclaim, Crowe made his mark on Hollywood in Curtis Hanson's crime drama L.A. Confidential, as vice cop Bud White. His other film credits include Ron Howard's Cinderella Man, in which he starred as Jim Braddock; A Good Year, directed by Ridley Scott and based on the book by Peter Mayle; Jay Roach's Mystery, Alaska; Taylor Hackford's Proof of Life; and Virtuosity, with Denzel Washington.

He made his American film debut in the Western The Quick and the Dead, with Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone. His additional film credits include Heaven's Burning, Breaking Up, Rough Magic, The Sum of Us, For the Moment, Love in Limbo, The Silver Brumby, based on the classic Australian children's novel, The Efficiency Expert and Prisoners of the Sun.

Born in New Zealand, Crowe was raised in Australia where he has also been honored for his work on the screen. He was recognized for three consecutive years by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), beginning in 1990, when he was nominated for Best Actor for The Crossing. The following year, he won the Best Supporting Actor award for Proof. In 1992, he received Best Actor awards from the AFI and the Australian Film Critics for his performance in Romper Stomper. In 1993, the Seattle International Film Festival named him Best Actor for his work in both Romper Stomper and Hammers Over the Anvil.

© 2012 Univeral Pictures