Russell Ira Crowe born April 7, is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spending ten years of his childhood in Australia and residing there permanently by the age of Crowe began acting in Australia and had his break-out role in Romper Stomper He gained international recognition in the late s for his starring roles in L. Confidential and The Insider Crowe gained wider stardom for playing the title role of Gladiator , which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Further acclaim came for portraying real-life mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr.
In , he made his directorial debut with the drama The Water Diviner , in which he also starred. When Crowe was four years old, his family moved to Australia and settled in Sydney , where his parents pursued their career in film set catering. He continued his secondary education at Auckland Grammar School , with his cousins and brother Terry, and Mount Roskill Grammar School before leaving school at the age of 16 to pursue his acting ambitions. Under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, Crowe began his performing career as a musician in the early s performing under the stage name "Russ Le Roq".
He said, "I was working in a theatre show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA. I asked him what he thought about me spending three years at NIDA.
He told me it'd be a waste of time. He said, 'You already do the things you go there to learn, and you've been doing it for most of your life, so there's nothing to teach you but bad habits. In , Crowe starred in the first episode of the second series of Police Rescue. Also in , Crowe starred in Romper Stomper , an Australian film which followed the exploits and downfall of a racist skinhead group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne, directed by Geoffrey Wright and co-starring Jacqueline McKenzie.
After initial success in Australia, Crowe first starred in a Canadian production in , For the Moment , before concentrating on American films. In he was favoured for the role of Joshua Chamberlain in the epic film Gettysburg , but was passed over for Jeff Daniels. Although nominated for an Academy Award, he lost to Denzel Washington. Miniver []. Within the six-year stretch from to , Crowe also starred in two other best picture nominees, L.
