Russell Crowe

For some time now, all he touches is gold. He has recently triumphed in the shoes of boxer Jim Braddock, distributing punches and uppercutsfor the American dream. He has also had the occasional run-in with the law, but if there is something that Crowe can’t stand it is the frivolous celebrity, the harassment of the “paparazzi” and all the nonsense that surrounds the stars. He gives an image of a normal guy (a bit cool, it’s true), in love with rock, a friend of his friends and above all with a life that seems full outside of the movies. Married since 2003 to actress and singer Danielle Spencer, with whom he is expecting his second child, he lives happily there on his beloved 225-hectare Australian ranch, northwest of Sydney. “I would move to Los Angeles if Australia and New Zealand were swallowed by a huge tidal wave, if there was a bubonic plague in Europe, and if the entire continent of Africa was wiped out by some Martian attack.”

Russell Ira Crowe was born in Wellington (New Zealand) on April 7, 1964, but when he was only four years old he went to Australia with his family. Today he feels as Australian as New Zealander and has applied several times for “Aussie” nationality. His grandmother emigrated from Wales and he claims he is of Irish, Norwegian and Maori ancestry. Since he was little, he was in contact with the world of cinema, since his parents, Jocelyn and Alex, owned a catering company for film shoots. At the age of six, the young Rusty stood in front of a television camera and later, at 14, he founded the rock group 30 Odd Foot of Grunt. He began to study acting at the National Institute for Dramatic Arts in Sydney, but had to give up when his father was left without a job and had to get the beans in small jobs.

At the age of twenty-five, he made his debut in the television series Living with the Law (1988) and two years later he entered the cinema thanks to the warlike Blood Oath . That same year she would meet, in the drama The Crossing , whom 13 years later she would become Mrs. Crowe, the actress Danielle Spencer. In addition, for that film she received the first nomination of her career from the Australian Film Institute (AFI), an award she ultimately won in 1991 and 1992, with the notables Proof and Romper Stomper . In the following two years, her work stood out in Tensa espera (1993) and in the family drama Us two .(1994). But it was thanks to his role as Hando that he entered Hollywood. It turns out that the then sex symbol Sharon Stone was charmed by him when she saw Romper Stomper and offered Crowe an important role in Quick and Deadly (1995), a western by Sam Raimi that the actress produced and starred in. And the Aussie passed the Yankee exam with flying colors. Then, after the mediocre Virtuosity and Hechizo en la ruta maya , he spaced out his work more and the great roles of this monster of interpretation began. His composition of Bud White in LA Confidential (1997) is truly colossal, as much as the one he played the long-suffering Jeffrey Wigand inThe Dilemma (1999), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He didn’t win the statuette, however, until he became the heroic Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator (2000), a type of character who hadn’t received the respect of critics and audiences for a long time. Later, after Proof of Life , he returned to show his extraordinary versatility as the mathematician John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001), with another Oscar nomination. His return to the epic took place in the fantastic naval adventure Master and Commander (2003), masterfully directed by Australian Peter Weir , and by Ron Howard in the recent Cinderella Man(2005). It is currently about to premiere A Good Year , a drama set in the French wine – growing countryside directed by Ridley Scott . For the rest, her musical career has borne fruit in three albums that, unlike her films, have not received much response from the public. But he doesn’t seem to care and continues to dedicate songs to his friends, including Jodie Foster or the late Richard Harris .. In the meantime, he continues to add pieces little by little, with very clear ideas: “There are three types of films: those that matter to you and are directed by a director with whom you want to work; the ones you do for political reasons – the actors have pedigree and there’s a great crew; and those that are huge, for which they offer you so much money that you don’t even think about it for a second. What happens is that I am not interested in the second and third categories”.