Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an actor whose repertoire has included a wide range of characters from comic foils to repressed loners to heroic historical figures to the preverbal everyman. He seems to get into the head of the character he plays and what emerges is a three dimensional figure that audiences can relate to.
He began his career by playing characters who seemed to be constantly on the verge of exploding with rage. Giamatti first grabbed the public's attention with his vitriolic performance as Kenny - a.k.a. Pig Vomit - Howard Stern's nemesis in Private Parts (1997), before quickly developing into the go-to guy for a director looking for a regular guy-type actor who could convincingly project simmering intensity. His sour yet endearing performance as bitter comic book writer Harvey Pekar in the offbeat biopic, American Splendor (2003) did much to put him on the mainstream moviegoer's radar. But it was with his highly-lauded performance in the offbeat hit Sideways (2004), that Giamatti vaulted to the A-list as a kind of unlikely leading man, a leap that may have made the comfortable character actor a bit unsettled.
Giamatti's paternal grandfather's family were Italian emigrants from Talese Terme; the family surname was originally spelled "Giammattei") before immigrating to the United States.
With his performances in John Adams HBO, 2008 and Barney's Version (2010), Giamatti became one of those rare actors capable of excelling in both leading and supporting roles. This allowed him the freedom to move back and forth between big budget fare and small indie films. At the same time, he developing a reputation as one of the screen's most mesmerizing performers. He won the Emmy and Golden Globe for John Adams and the Golden Globe again for Barney's Version.
Giamatti holds a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Yale where he studied at the university's School of Drama.
No comments:
Post a Comment