Russell Ira Crowe (born April 7, 1964) is a film actor born in Wellington, New Zealand. Two cousins, Martin and Jeff Crowe are former New Zealand cricket captains.

When he was four years old, he moved to Australia. He attended the Sydney Boys High School and then moved back to New Zealand to attend the Auckland Grammar School. He then moved on to another school where he dropped out.

After initial success in Australia, he became a Hollywood actor in the mid-1990s; he won the Academy Award as Best Actor in 2001 for Gladiator, and he was also nominated for the award for The Insider and A Beautiful Mind.

On April 7, 2003 (his 39th birthday), Crowe married singer and actress Danielle Spencer. On December 21, 2003, his son Charles Spencer Crowe was born.

He is a supporter of the South_Sydney_Rabbitohs rugby league team.

Crowe has gained notoriety for his off-screen antics, particularly allegations of rowdiness and belligerence, as parodied in an episode of South Park.

Crowe was also lead singer and guitarist of an Australian pub rock band, 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts , which formed in 1992. According to Crowe's message on the band's web site, the group has "dissolved/evolved". The band had found neither critical or popular success but managed to release three albums: 1998's Gaslight, 2001's Bastard Life or Clarity and 2003's Other Ways of Speaking.

Crowe has continued with his music, collaborating with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band, Great Big Sea, in early 2005. A new single, Raewyn, was released on April 19, 2005. Former members of his previous band have taken part in the new project.

On March 9, 2005, Crowe revealed to GQ magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25, 2001 and told him that the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap him. Crowe told the magazine that it was the first time he had ever heard of al-Qaeda (the September 11 attacks took place later that year) and was quoted as saying: "You get this late-night call from the FBI when you arrive in Los Angeles, and they're, like, absolutely full-on. 'We’ve got to talk to you now before you do anything. We have to have a discussion with you, Mr. Crowe.'" Crowe recalled that "it was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers...it was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural-destabilization plan." Crowe was guarded by Secret Service agents for the next few months, both while shooting films and at award ceremonies (Scotland Yard also guarded Crowe while he was promoting Proof of Life in London in February 2001). Crowe said that he "never fully understood what the fuck was going on." The FBI confirmed Crowe's statement (which is uncharacteristic of the agency, which usually does not comment to the media).

Filmography

• The Crossing (1990)
• Proof (1991)
• Romper Stomper (1992)
• The Sum of Us (1994)
• The Quick and the Dead (1995)
• Virtuosity (1995)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Mystery, Alaska (1999)
• The Insider (1999)
• Gladiator (2000)
• Proof of Life (2000)
• A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
• Cinderella Man (2005)

External links

• Official site for My Hand, My Heart
• Maximum Russell Crowe
• Murph's Russell Crowe News
• Russell Crowe, an unofficial site
• Official Site of 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts