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Michael Pitt
Pitt in 2003
Born	Michael Carmen Pitt April 10, 1981 ( 1981-04-10) (age 28) West Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Musician
Years active	1998–present
Official website

Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor and musician.

Biography

Personal life

Pitt was born in West Orange, New Jersey, the youngest of four children. At age ten, he announced to his parents that he wished to become an actor. Pitt was troubled growing up. He was expelled from West Orange High School following an episode where he overdosed on the tranquilizer drug Ketamine and crashed through the school's prized trophy case.^{citation needed} While continuing smoking dope and snorting Ketamine, he moved to New York City from New Jersey when he was 16 years old, where he took a job as a bike messenger. At this point Pitt found himself deep into the party scene where he would deliver his messages and look for acting jobs by day and hit the party scene hard at night. Pitt found himself popular amongst the rave scene at this time, making himself a regular at such clubs as the Limelight and the Open Sphincter in the Lower East Side.^{citation needed}

Career

In 1999, Pitt made his off-Broadway debut in the play The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at the New York Theatre Workshop. A casting agent, whom Pitt mistook as a police officer attempting to arrest him, noticed him and recommended him for a guest role on the television series Dawson's Creek (he played Henry Parker in 15 episodes between 1999 and 2000). His breakout role as the lover of a transgendered rock star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2001 led to supporting roles in Bully and in mainstream Hollywood fare such as Murder by Numbers and The Village, as well as the lead in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers. His role in The Dreamers was notable in that he had several full frontal nude scenes.

Pitt in concert in Barcelona

He next appeared in Asia Argento's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and headlined Gus Van Sant's Last Days, playing a rock star based on Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. He performed all of the songs, which closely resembled Cobain's guitar and singing styles. On set, he met Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, who had been hired by Van Sant to serve as the film's music consultant. The pair formed a close bond, with Moore writing, "[Gus] wanted me to hang out with Michael and talk about his character, and let him be in character. We ended up spending a lot of time together. My daughter Coco still relates to Michael as Blake from Last Days."¹

In 2007, he starred opposite Keira Knightley in Silk, adapted from the novel by Alessandro Baricco. He played the lead role of Hervé Joncour, a French silkworm smuggler who falls in love with a baron's concubine while in Japan. The same year, he starred in the romantic comedy Delirious as a young homeless man who befriends a celebrity photographer played by Steve Buscemi and falls in love with a pop singer (Alison Lohman). The movie appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. His more recent films include Funny Games, Michael Haneke's remake of his own 1997 film, alongside Tim Roth and Naomi Watts; and Oliver Stone's Pinkville, opposite Bruce Willis. Pitt also stars in the crime drama Pericle il Nero, to be released in 2009.²

Pitt sings and plays guitar in his band Pagoda, whose self-titled debut album has been released by Universal/Fontana/Ecstatic Peace. With the Twins of Evil, he performed "Hey Joe," which can be heard in The Dreamers.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Pitt

• Michael Pitt at the Internet Movie Database
• www.pagodaonline.com