Billy Crudup

William Gaither "Billy" Crudup (/ˈkruːdəp/; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He became known for roles such as Eric MacLeish in Spotlight, Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and as the voice of the MasterCard "Priceless" commercials in the U.S. since 2005. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy Dedication. In 2009, he appeared as Doctor Manhattan in the film Watchmen and J. Edgar Hoover in the film Public Enemies. He also voiced Ashitaka in the English version of Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke. in 2017 Crudup is set to appear in Ridley Scott's science-fiction film Alien: Covenant.

Early life

Crudup was born in Manhasset, New York. His parents, Georgann (née Gaither) and Thomas Henry Crudup III, divorced during his childhood, and later remarried, before divorcing a second time.^[1][2][3] His maternal grandfather was William Cotter "Billy" Gaither, Jr., a well-known Florida trial lawyer, and his maternal grandmother later remarried to Episcopal bishop James Duncan.^[4][5][6][7] Crudup has two brothers: Tommy, an executive producer, and Brooks, also a producer. He left New York with his family when he was about eight years old, first living in Texas, then in Florida. He graduated from Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1986.

Crudup attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received an undergraduate degree, and he continued his passion for acting with the undergraduate acting company, LAB! Theatre. He also acted for UNC-STV's most popular show, General College. He was a member of the Beta Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He then studied at the Graduate Acting Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in 1994. A year after graduating, he made his debut on Broadway in the Lincoln Center Theater production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

Career

Crudup began acting in films such as 1996's Sleepers, 1997's Inventing the Abbotts and 1998's Without Limits, where he played the role of running legend and Olympian Steve Prefontaine. While he has appeared in many films, he regularly returns to the stage. His first role in an animated feature was in 1999's English release of Princess Mononoke, in which he starred as Ashitaka. He then played Russell Hammond, the lead guitar player of the fictional band Stillwater in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000). He has also been the voice of MasterCard "Priceless" commercials in the U.S. since 2005. In 2006's The Good Shepherd, he played British spy Arch Cummings, a stand-in for Kim Philby. The same year, he played a supporting role in Mission: Impossible III.

He also appeared as Zartan in The Ballad of G.I. Joe video on funnyordie.com.

Crudup in New York City, January 2011

Crudup received a 2002 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as the title character in The Elephant Man on Broadway, as well as a 2005 nomination for his role as Katurian in the Broadway production of The Pillowman, also starring Jeff Goldblum, which closed on September 18, 2005. From October 2006 through May 2007, he was featured in the first two parts of The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard at Lincoln Center, playing literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, for which he received a 2007 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

He also starred in The Metal Children, an off-Broadway play written and directed by Adam Rapp in 2010. Crudup completed Watchmen with director Zack Snyder in Vancouver, British Columbia. He portrays the superhero Doctor Manhattan. He portrayed former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner in a story about 2008's financial crisis, Too Big to Fail (2011).

In 2011, Crudup received a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Play for his role in the Broadway revival of Arcadia.^[8]

In February 2012, Crudup narrated a five-part television series on the first (of three) stages of the renovation of Madison Square Garden, which was televised on the Madison Square Garden Network.

He is on the Board of Directors for The Actors Center in New York City.

In August 2013, he co-starred with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in the Harold Pinter play, No Man's Land as well as in Waiting for Godot at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The shows transferred to The Cort Theatre in New York City, where they ran in repertory until March 2014.^[9]

Personal life

From 1996 to 2003, Crudup dated actress Mary-Louise Parker, with whom he has a son, William Atticus Parker (born January 7, 2004). He left Parker while she was 7 months pregnant and started a relationship with his Princess Mononoke and Stage Beauty co-star Claire Danes.^[10] They broke up four years later.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Awards

Wins

• 2007 Tony Award, for The Coast of Utopia: Part 1 - Voyage
• 2001 OFCS Award, for Almost Famous
• 2000 Paris Film Festival, for Jesus' Son
• 1999 Western Heritage Award, for The Hi-Lo Country
• 1998 NBR Award, for The Hi-Lo Country

Nominations

• 2002 Satellite Award, for Charlotte Gray
• 2001 Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Almost Famous
• Blockbuster Entertainment Award, for Almost Famous
• Independent Spirit Award, for Jesus' Son
• MTV Movie Award, for Almost Famous

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Billy Crudup.

• Billy Crudup at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Crudup at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Billy Crudup at the Internet Off-Broadway Database