Guy Pearce
Birth name	Guy Edward Pearce
Born	October 5, 1967(1967-10-05) (age 39) England

Guy Edward Pearce (born October 5, 1967) is an English-born Australian actor.

Biography

Born in Ely, England, his parents (his father a New Zealand pilot who died when Pearce was 9, his mother an English schoolteacher) moved to Geelong, Australia when he was 3 years old. He went to The Geelong College. Prior to his acting career, Pearce was a competitive amateur bodybuilder from age 16-22, culminating in a Mr. Natural Victoria title.

Pearce has always been interested in performing, and he excelled at mimicking accents. He starred in several plays when he was young, and graduated to television when he was cast in the Australian soap opera Neighbours in 1985, playing the role of Mike Young for several years. Pearce also found roles in other television series such as Home and Away (1988) and Snowy River: The McGregor Saga (1993).

He was championed by director/producer/writer Frank Howson as a film star and Howson cast Pearce in the actor's first 3 movies which established him as an actor with substance and helped elevate him above his possible soapy-star type-casting. Howson also paid for Pearce to go to the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 for the premiere of the Howson directed Hunting. This and the accompanying Howson-funded publicity campaign brought Pearce to the attention of the international film industry. His first major film breakthrough came shortly after with his role as a drag queen in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994. Since then, he has appeared in several US productions including L.A. Confidential, the disastrous Ravenous, Rules of Engagement, Memento, and the big budget flops The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Time Machine. However, he continues to act in Australian theatre productions as well as Australian films, such as The Hard Word (2002) and the critically lauded The Proposition (2005). Pearce recently portrayed pop artist Andy Warhol in the much derided film Factory Girl. He will portray Harry Houdini in the upcoming film Death Defying Acts.

Pearce currently lives in Middle Park, Victoria Australia.

Filmography

• Heaven Tonight (1990)
• Hunting (1991)
• The Man from Snowy River the McGregor Saga (1993)
• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
• Flynn (1996)
• Dating the Enemy (1996)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Woundings (1998)
• A Slipping-Down Life (1999)
• Ravenous (1999)
• Memento (2000)
• Rules of Engagement (2000)
• Till Human Voices Wake Us (2002)
• The Hard Word (2002)
• The Time Machine (2002)
• The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
• Two Brothers (2004)
• The Proposition (2005)
• Factory Girl (2006)
• Before I Fall to Pieces, Razorlight, music video (2006)
• Death Defying Acts (2007) (post-production)
• First Snow (2007)
• Winged Creatures (2008) (filming)

Trivia

• In both Neighbours and Memento, Pearce's character suffers a head injury that results in a change of demeanour.
• Pearce is a long-time supporter of the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League [1].
• He turned down the title role in Daredevil.
• Appeared in Australian band Silverchair's video for "Across the Night".
• Appeared in Razorlight's video for "Before I Fall to Pieces".
• Appeared in an episode of Beverly Hills 90210, as Dr. John Werck.
• Was a member of GSODA Junior Players between 1980 and 1984 in Geelong, Australia.

External links

• Guy Pearce at the Internet Movie Database