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Joseph Gordon Levitt extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Born	Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt February 17, 1981 (1981-02-17) (age 28) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1988–present

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt¹ (born February 17, 1981) is an American actor, known for roles both as a child and as an adult. His career has spanned more than 20 years, during which time he has worked in at least 24 feature films, as well as a number of television shows and theater productions.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and family 1.2 Career 1.3 Non-professional 2 Filmography 3 Awards and nominations 4 References 5 External links

Biography

Early life and family

Gordon-Levitt, the younger of two sons, was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Sherman Oaks. He was raised Jewish.²³ His father, Dennis Levitt, was once the news director for the Pacifica Radio station, KPFK-FM.⁴ His mother, Jane Gordon (daughter of director Michael Gordon),⁴ ran for the United States Congress in California during the 1970s for the Peace and Freedom Party. She met Dennis Levitt while she was working as the program guide editor for KPFK-FM.⁴ Gordon-Levitt has an older brother, Dan (born 1974).⁵⁶

Gordon-Levitt joined a musical theater group at the age of four and played the Scarecrow in a production of The Wizard of Oz.⁴ Subsequently, he was approached by an agent and began appearing on television and in commercials for Sunny Jim peanut butter, Cocoa Puffs, Pop-Tarts, and Kinney Shoes.⁴

Career

Gordon-Levitt began his acting career at the age of six, appearing in several late 1980s made-for-television films and two episodes of the series Family Ties. After having a lead role on the short-lived 1991 revival of the television series Dark Shadows as David Collins, he made his feature-film debut with a background role in 1992's Beethoven. Later that same year, he played a young version of Craig Sheffer's character in A River Runs Through It. At the age of twelve, Gordon-Levitt took the lead role of Gregory in the film Switching Parents, which was based on the true story of Gregory Kingsley, a boy who won the right to legally divorce his parents. In 1994, he played a Hutterite boy in the comedy Holy Matrimony and appeared in the lead role of the successful Disney film Angels in the Outfield. From 1993 to 1995 he had a recurring role on the sitcom Roseanne.

In 1996, Gordon-Levitt began playing Tommy Solomon on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, a role that put him on the map and for which he is most well-known.⁴. The San Francisco Chronicle noted the irony that Gordon-Levitt was a "Jewish kid playing an extraterrestrial pretending to be a Jewish kid".² In 1998, he was a guest star in the first season of That '70s Show, appearing in the episode "Eric's Buddy" as a gay schoolmate of Eric Forman's. During the late 1990s, he also appeared in several films, including The Juror (1996), Sweet Jane (1998) opposite Samantha Mathis, and the Shakespeare-based teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), in which he and Heath Ledger had the male leading roles. He performed the voice of the main character Jim Hawkins in the Disney animated feature Treasure Planet (2002), which he recorded in four years, from age 17 to 21.

Gordon-Levitt was attending Van Nuys High School while acting on 3rd Rock from the Sun. During the 1990s, he was frequently featured in teenage magazines, something he resented.⁴ He has also said that during this time period, he did not enjoy being recognized in public, specifying that he "hates celebrity."² As part of starring in 3rd Rock, Levitt appeared in five of NBC's public service announcements, The More You Know. His topics covered drinking while driving, peer pressure, hate crimes, staying in school, and violence prevention. He also appeared in the annual White House television special Christmas in Washington during the Bill Clinton administration in 1996, the thirteenth season of Celebrity Jeopardy! in 1996, The Daily Show on March 18, 1999, and in the Fox Family television special Dear Santa in 2002.

Gordon-Levitt left 3rd Rock from the Sun during its final season, becoming a recurring character and appearing in only half of the season's episodes. For the two years following, he quit acting⁷ and attended Columbia University (the only university he had applied to).⁴ He entered in 2000 and attended from 2001 to 2004, studying history, literature, and French poetry in General Studies.⁴ Since his study at Columbia, he has become an avid and self-confirmed Francophile, and a speaker of the French language.⁴ He has said that moving to New York City (he currently resides in Manhattan's Lower East Side) from his hometown "forced" him to grow as a person.² Gordon-Levitt dropped out of the university in 2004 to concentrate on acting again.⁴

In 2001, Gordon-Levitt made his stage acting debut in the critically-lauded off-Broadway premiere of Austin Pendleton's play, "Uncle Bob," opposite George Morfogen at the Soho Playhouse. The production was produced by Rebellion Productions, LLC.

Gordon-Levitt has said that he made a conscious decision to "be in good movies" after returning to acting.⁷ Since the early 2000s, he has appeared in what has been described by the Boston Herald as a series of "acclaimed and underseen indies"⁸ that "pegged him as a rising star on the indie film circuit."² The films include 2001's drama Manic, which was set in a mental institution, 2004's Mysterious Skin, in which he played a gay prostitute and child sexual abuse victim, and 2005's Brick, a modern-day film noir set at a high school (San Clemente High School), in which he had the lead role of Brendan Frye, a teen who becomes involved in an underground drug ring while investigating a murder. Brick received positive reviews,⁷ with The Minnesota Daily's critic commenting that Gordon-Levitt played the character "beautifully," "true to film’s style," "unfeeling but not disenchanted," and "sexy in the most ambiguous way."⁹ Another reviewer described the performance as "astounding."¹⁰

Gordon-Levitt's next role was in The Lookout. He played Chris Pratt, a janitor involved in a bank heist. The film was released on March 30, 2007. In reviewing the film, The Philadelphia Inquirer described Gordon-Levitt as a "surprisingly formidable, and formidably surprising, leading man,"¹¹ while New York magazine stated that he is a "major tabula rasa actor ... a minimalist," and that his character worked because he "doesn’t seize the space ... by what he takes away from the character."¹² The San Francisco Chronicle specified that he "embodies, more than performs, a character's inner life."² Several critics suggested that his role in The Lookout would turn Gordon-Levitt into a mainstream actor.² His 2008 films include Killshot, in which he played an assassin opposite Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke, and Stop-Loss, directed by Kimberly Peirce and revolving around American soldiers returning from the Iraq War.⁷

Gordon-Levitt has received several praises and positive reviews for his performances.¹³ His acclaimed films include the 2001 drama Manic, 2004's Mysterious Skin, 2005's Brick, and 2007's The Lookout.⁷⁹¹⁰ Observing Gordon-Levitt's current acclaim from critics and audiences alike, Showbiz notes that Gordon-Levitt has "defied the cliched fates that befall most underage actors when they grow up,"¹³ while The New York Times has described him as "one of the hottest young stars in the indie firmament."⁴ Gordon-Levitt, who regularly researches his roles by exposing himself to real-life versions of the character before shooting, does not label himself as a Method actor.¹⁴

Gordon-Levitt has been cast in the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra live-action film as Cobra Commander.¹⁵

Non-professional

Since 2004,¹⁶ Gordon-Levitt's website has hosted six videos and short films.¹⁷ In a salon.com article dated 2007-03-28, he was attributed to describing it as an "alternative outlet of where [he] get[s] to be a little less professional and just freak out a little bit." His latest film, Sparks, an adaptation of a short story by Elmore Leonard, was selected for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as part of a new program for short films.¹⁸

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1992	Beethoven	Student #1
	A River Runs Through It	Young Norman
1994	Holy Matrimony	Ezekiel
	Angels in the Outfield	Roger Bomman
1996	The Juror	Oliver Laird
1998	Halloween H20: 20 Years Later	Jimmy Howell
	Sweet Jane	Tony
1999	10 Things I Hate About You	Cameron James
2000	Forever Lulu	Martin Ellsworth	straight-to-television
	Picking Up the Pieces	Flaco
2001	Manic	Lyle Jensen	released in 2003
2002	Treasure Planet	Jim Hawkins	Voice only
2003	Havoc	Sam	straight-to-video release in 2005
	Latter Days	Elder Paul Ryder
2004	Mysterious Skin	Neil McCormick
2006	Brick	Brendan Frye
	Shadowboxer	Dr. Don
2007	The Lookout	Chris Pratt
2008	Stop-Loss	Tommy Burgess
	Miracle at St. Anna	Tim Boyle
	Uncertainty	Bobby
2009	Killshot	Richie Nix
	500 Days of Summer	Tom
	Women in Trouble	Bert Rodriguez
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Cobra Commander
2010	Elektra Luxx	Bert Rodriguez
	Inception	CEO's Assistant
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Stranger on My Land	Rounder	TV movie
	Family Ties	Dougie	Episode: Sign of the Times Episode: Father, Can You Spare a Dime?
1989	Settle the Score	Justin	TV movie
1990	Dark Shadows	David Collins	TV movie
	Murder, She Wrote	Boy #1	Episode: Shear Madness
1991	Changes	Matt Hallam	TV movie
	Hi Honey - I'm Dead	Josh Stadler	TV movie
	Plymouth	Simon	TV movie
	Dark Shadows	David/Daniel Collins	Series regular
	Quantum Leap	Kyle	Episode: Permanent Wave
	L.A. Law		Episode: Lose the Law
1992-1993	The Powers That Be	Pierce Van Horne	Series regular
1993	Partners		television movie
	Switching Parents	Gregory Kingsley	TV movie
	Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman	Zack Lawson	Episode: The Secret
1993-1995	Roseanne	George	Episode: Daughters and Other Strangers Episode: I Pray The Lord My Stove To Keep Episode: Follow the Son Episode: Single Married Female
1995	The Great Elephant Escape	Matthew	TV movie
1996-2001	3rd Rock from the Sun	Tommy Solomon	Series regular
1998	That '70s Show	Buddy Morgan	Episode: Eric's Buddy
2000	The Outer Limits	Zach	Episode: Something About Harry
2005	Numb3rs	Scott Reynolds	Episode: Sacrifice

Awards and nominations

Won

• 1993 – Young Artist Award – Best Actor Under Ten in a Motion Picture for A River Runs Through It
• 1997 – YoungStar Award – Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy TV Series for 3rd Rock from the Sun
• 1998 – YoungStar Award – Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy TV Series for 3rd Rock from the Sun
• 2005 – Golden Space Needle Award – Best Actor for Mysterious Skin

Nominated

• 1993 – Young Artist Award – Best Young Actor in a New Television Series for The Powers That Be
• 1993 – Young Artist Award – Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Television Series for Quantum Leap
• 1995 – Saturn Award – Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Angels in the Outfield
• 1997 – Young Artist Award – Best Performance in a TV Comedy – Supporting Young Actor for 3rd Rock from the Sun
• 1997 – Screen Actors Guild Awards – Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for 3rd Rock from the Sun (Shared with cast)
• 1998 – Screen Actors Guild Awards – Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for 3rd Rock from the Sun (Shared with cast)
• 1999 – Screen Actors Guild Awards – Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for 3rd Rock from the Sun (Shared with cast)
• 1999 – Teen Choice Award – Choice TV Actor for 3rd Rock from the Sun
• 1999 – YoungStar Award – Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy Film for 10 Things I Hate About You
• 2005 – Gotham Breakthrough Award for Mysterious Skin

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the Internet Movie Database
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the TCM Movie Database
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt at TV.com
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt at Allmovie
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt at Rotten Tomatoes