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Peter Sarsgaard extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Peter Sarsgaard
Sarsgaard in St. Louis, Missouri, 2007
Born	John Peter Sarsgaard March 7, 1971 (1971-03-07) (age 38) Scott AFB, Illinois
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Maggie Gyllenhaal (2009–present)

John Peter Sarsgaard (born March 7, 1971) is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the independent films Another Day in Paradise (1995) and Desert Blue (1996).

In 1998, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), playing the son of John Malkovich's character. Sarsgaard later achieved critical recognition when he was cast in Boys Don't Cry (1999) as John Lotter. He landed his first leading role in the 2001 film The Center of the World. The following year, he played supporting roles in Empire, The Salton Sea, and K-19: The Widowmaker.

For his portrayal of Charles Lane in Shattered Glass, Sarsgaard won the Online Film Critics Society Award in the category for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sarsgaard has appeared in an eclectic range of films, including the 2004 comedy Garden State, the biographical film Kinsey (2004), the drama The Dying Gaul (2005) and big-budget films such as Flightplan (2005), Jarhead (2005), and Rendition (2007).

Sarsgaard has also appeared in Off-Broadway productions including Kingdom of Earth, Laura Dennis, and Burn This. In September 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin in The Seagull. Sarsgaard will appear in the off-Broadway production of Uncle Vanya in January 2009. Sarsgaard has been in a relationship with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal since 2002. In 2006, the two became engaged and Gyllenhaal gave birth to their daughter, Ramona, on October 3, 2006. On May 2, 2009 Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal were married in Italy.

Contents 1 Early and personal life 2 Career 2.1 Early work 2.2 Critical success 2.3 Worldwide recognition 2.4 Stage career 3 Filmography 4 Awards 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

Early and personal life

Sarsgaard was born at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, where his father was an Air Force engineer, where he later worked for Monsanto and IBM.¹² His family moved over twelve times during his childhood, following his father's job.³

At the age of seven, Sarsgaard originally wanted to become a soccer player, and took up ballet to help improve his coordination.³ After suffering several bad concussions while playing soccer, he gave up the sport and became interested in writing and theater.⁴

Raised a Roman Catholic,⁵ Sarsgaard was an altar boy and attended a Jesuit boys' school, Fairfield Prep in Connecticut, where he became interested in movies. ⁴ In an interview with the New York Times, when asked if he still had Catholic faith, Sarsgaard said: "I like the death-cult aspect of Catholicism. Every religion is interested in death, but Catholicism takes it to a particularly high level. [...] Seriously, in Catholicism, you're supposed to love your enemy. That really impressed me as a kid, and it has helped me as an actor ... [T]he way that I view the characters I play is part of my religious upbringing. To abandon curiosity in all personalities, good or bad, is to give up hope in humanity." ⁴

Following his graduation from Fairfield Prep, he attended Bard College, in New York, for two years before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis in 1991, where he co-founded an improvisational comedy troupe "Mama's Pot Roast".⁴ While at Washington University, Sarsgaard began performing in plays in an offshoot of New York's Actors Studio;⁴ His first role was as the servant Lawrence in Molière's Tartuffe. In 1993, he graduated with a degree in history and moved to New York.⁴⁶

Among his most-notable romantic relationships, Sarsgaard has dated burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese and model/actress Shalom Harlow.⁷⁸ Early in his film career, he dated and lived with photographer Malerie Marder, a close friend from his days at Bard, who had featured Sarsgaard in some of her early work.⁴ Sarsgaard has been in a relationship with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, and is a close friend of her brother Jake Gyllenhaal, since 2002.⁹ In April 2006 they announced their engagement.¹⁰¹¹ They have a daughter Ramona, born October 3, 2006,¹² and live in Brooklyn, New York.¹³ On May 2, 2009, they married in a small ceremony in Italy.¹⁴¹⁵

Career

Early work

Sarsgaard branched out with guest roles in television productions filmed in New York City, like Law & Order in 1995,¹⁶ and New York Undercover (1997) as well as an appearance in the 1997 HBO special Subway Stories.¹⁷ He appeared in his first feature Dead Man Walking (1995), where he was cast as a murdered victim, killed by Sean Penn's character.¹⁸¹⁹

His next film roles were in a series of independent features: Another Day in Paradise (1997), part of an ensemble cast that included James Woods, Melanie Griffith, Vincent Kartheiser, and Natasha Gregson Wagner,²⁰ and In Desert Blue (1998), where he had a supporting role in the film.²¹ He received his substantial role in the 1998 film The Man in the Iron Mask, where he was cast as Raoul, the ill-fated son of John Malkovich's dueling Musketeer, Athos.²² The film uses characters from Alexandre Dumas' d'Artagnan Romances, and is very loosely adapted from some plot elements of The Vicomte de Bragelonne.²³ The film received mixed reviews,²⁴ but was a success at the box office, earning $182 million worldwide.²⁵

Critical success

In 1999, Sarsgaard earned critical recognition in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry, where he was cast as John Lotter, a violent charismatic ex-convict. The film is based on the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transman who was raped and murdered in 1993 by Lotter and Tom Nissen after they found out he had female genitalia. Boys Don’t Cry received overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics.²⁶ Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly in his review of the film noted: "Peter Sarsgaard and Brendan Sexton III are ominously authentic as violent Midwestern sociopaths driven to annihilate what they can't control."²⁷ In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer review: "It's a marvelous performance supported ably by ... Sarsgaard as the unpredictable, sociopathic Lotter."²⁸ The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2000 Venice Film Festival.²⁹ The film was ranked as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies" by Premiere magazine.³⁰

He later appeared in the 2001 film The Center of the World, his first leading role, where he plays Richard Longman, a lonely young Internet entrepreneur, who skips out on his company's big initial public offering and pays a stripper named Florence (Molly Parker) $10,000 to fly to Las Vegas with him.³¹ Although the film was met with mixed reviews,³² A.O. Scott of the New York Times, noted the performances by both Sarsgaard and Parker, saying: "Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker ... deserve medals for bravery in the service of an unworthy cause. Their performances ... provide a rough grain of authenticity, capturing the blunted affect and aimless neediness of people in their 20's struggling to navigate a world of material abundance and impoverished emotional possibility."³¹ Scott concluded with, "Mr. Sarsgaard ... makes Richard seem like a genuinely nice guy, too innocent to grasp the sleaziness of his bargain with Florence."³¹

Sarsgaard next appeared in the drama K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), where he played a young Russian sailor lieutenant.³³ The film was critically and financially unsuccessful.³⁴³⁵ His next film was in the crime thriller film Empire (2002), where he had a supporting role.³⁶³⁷ Also in 2002, he was cast in D. J. Caruso's The Salton Sea, where he played a meth addict.³⁸

Worldwide recognition

2003 marked a significant turning point in Sarsgaard's career, when he starred in the feature film Shattered Glass. He depicted journalist Charles Lane, the lead editor of The New Republic. Shattered Glass is based on the real events of journalist Stephen Glass' career at the The New Republic during the mid-1990s and his fall when his widespread journalistic fraud is exposed. During promotion of the film, Sarsgaard noted of his portrayal of Lane, "I just wanted to get his perspective on the actual events. [...] I think that I tried to have some respect for myself and that way you're respecting the real person you're playing. I've done it a number of times. And it's always a little bit confusing. The best thing to do is just to ignore the fact, I think, that you're playing somebody who is a real life character."³⁹ Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Sarsgaard makes a devastating impression, finding the steel of principle in the starchy Lane."⁴⁰ The Chicago Tribune noted that Sarsgaard plays Lane with "great subtlety and grace".⁴¹ The newspaper concluded with, "The character doesn't seethe with personal resentment; when he does a slow burn, he conveys a much deeper sense of a man's value system being violated past the breaking point."⁴¹ Sarsgaard's performance in the film earned him the Best Supporting Actor award from the Online Film Critics Society,⁴² his first Golden Globe Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.⁴³⁴⁴

Following the success of Shattered Glass, Sarsgaard starred in several roles. In 2004 he starred in the comedy-drama Garden State, where he played Mark, the sarcastic best friend to Zach Braff's character.⁴⁵⁴⁶ In the same year, Sarsgaard portrayed Clyde Martin, in the biographical film Kinsey, a movie about the life of Alfred Kinsey, played by Liam Neeson.⁴⁷ Kinsey was Sarsgaard's first film role which featured full frontal nudity.⁴⁸ Paul Clinton of CNN reported that Sarsgaard's Clyde Martin "stands out" and "confirms that he's without doubt one of the best character actors of his generation."⁴⁷ When asked about his kissing scenes with Neeson in Kinsey, Sarsgaard said:

“

It wasn’t as hard as, say, running around with all my gear on in Jarhead. I’d rather go for an awkward moment than physical exertion any day. The only thing that I think [male actors] get freaked out about when they have to do something like kiss a guy in a movie—when to their knowledge they’re straight—is that they’re afraid they’re going to be turned on. And if you’re not afraid that you’re going to be turned on—meaning that you know what you like—then really it’s not that hard.5

”

In 2005, Sarsgaard starred in the drama The Dying Gaul, where he plays Robert Sandrich, a struggling screenwriter who has written a serious love story about a man and his terminally ill partner.⁴⁹ The film garnered favorable reviews.⁵⁰ In an interview, Sarsgaard said, he felt like he was playing a character based on Craig Lucas, the director, whom he describes as "elitist in a fun way".⁵¹ Because his character, a screenwriter, is also "elitist," when he sells his soul by compromising his artistic vision, "...the conflict seems bigger. Anyone can sell their soul. Even people with integrity. There's always that temptation to guard against. Which is why it's best to keep as much as possible hidden."⁵¹

Also in 2005, he had a supporting role in the suspense film The Skeleton Key.⁵² His next film role was in Robert Schwentke's thriller Flightplan (2005).⁵³ In the film, Sarsgaard played an air marshall, who is ordered to keep guard of Jodie Foster's character.⁵³ Flightplan was screened at a special presentation at the 30th annual Toronto International Film Festival in 2005.⁵¹ Despite the mixed reviews,⁵⁴ the film was a financial success, earning $223 million worldwide,²⁵ making it his highest grossing film to the end of 2008. Sarsgaard's next feature was in Jarhead (2005) opposite Jake Gyllenhaal.³ The movie is based on US Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 Gulf War memoir of the same name.³¹⁷

Sarsgaard hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) on January 21, 2006.⁵⁵ In his introductory monologue, he tried to point out that he was a nice guy despite his sometimes macabre roles. Video clips were then played of Sarsgaard scaring the SNL cast.⁵⁶ One sketch featured the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) global scare, which was still fresh in many minds, and one of the skits included a promotion for the Peter Sarsgaard "SARS-Guard", a reference to the mania of facemasks worn in public by those fearing infection.⁵⁶

In 2007, he starred in supporting roles in Year of the Dog and Rendition. Year of the Dog is a dark comedy about a lonely middle-aged woman, played by Molly Shannon, who finds that animals are the only beings she can truly rely on. Sarsgaard plays Newt, an androgynous dog trainer, and love interest for Shannon's character.⁵⁷ He starred alongside Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Reese Witherspoon, and Jake Gyllenhaal in Rendition, a Gavin Hood-directed political thriller about the US policy of extraordinary rendition.⁵⁸ Viewed as a sex symbol, Sarsgaard was named one of Salon.com's Sexiest Man Living in 2007.⁵⁹ The following year, he starred in the drama Elegy,⁶⁰⁶¹ based on a Phillip Roth novel, The Dying Animal.⁶² The film received favorable good reception amongst critics.⁶³

In 2009, Sarsgaard starred alongside Jon Foster and Sienna Miller in the drama The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.⁶⁴ It is an adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel of the same name.⁶⁵ In the movie, Sarsgaard plays Cleveland, the rebellious bisexual boyfriend of Miller's character. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. He also completed work in Lone Scherfig's coming of age film An Education.⁶⁶⁶⁷ The role required Sarsgaard to speak in a British accent.⁶⁶ He will also star alongside Vera Farmiga as a married couple who lose a baby and adopt a nine-year-old girl, who is not as innocent as she claims to be, in the thriller Orphan, set for a release in July 2009.⁶⁸⁶⁹

Stage career

In 1995, Sarsgaard made his theatrical debut in the Off-Broadway production of Horton Foote's Laura Dennis, which was directed by James Houghton.⁷⁰ Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Sarsgaard ... emerges as an actor to watch with a performance of breathtaking emotional conviction."⁷⁰ The following year he starred in Kingdom of Earth opposite Cynthia Nixon and directed by John Cameron Mitchell.⁷¹ His performance in the play received favorable reviews amongst critics.⁷² In October 2002, Sarsgaard returned to theater in a New York production of Lanford Wilson's Burn This, where he replaced Edward Norton.⁷³⁷⁴

In 2008, Sarsgaard made his Broadway debut at the Royal Court Theatre of Anton Chekhov's adaptation The Seagull alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook and Carey Mulligan. In the production, he plays, Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin, a tortured writer who drives a rival to suicide and a young lover to ruin.⁷⁵⁷⁶ For the role, Sarsgaard was required to speak in a British accent, in which he wanted it to be "less liked by an American audience".⁷⁵⁷⁶

Sarsgaard played Mikhail Lvovich Astrov, a country doctor and philosopher, in the Classic Stage Company's 2009 off-Broadway production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in New York City.⁷⁷⁷⁸ The cast also included Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mamie Gummer, Denis O'Hare, and George Morfogen.⁷⁷⁷⁸ The production, directed by Austin Pendleton, began previews on January 17 and ended its limited run on March 1.⁷⁷⁷⁸ Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News gave the production one out of four stars, but complimented his performance, writing that Sarsgaard does a "credible job as the doctor".⁷⁹ In the Bloomberg review of Uncle Vanya, John Simon, wrote: "Sarsgaard can't find the right tempi or emphases: shuttling between colorless rattle and silence-studded rallentandos, he fails at both infectious enthusiasm and self- effacing charm."⁸⁰

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1995	Dead Man Walking	Walter Delacroix
1997	Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground	Boy #1	TV
1998	Minor Details	Scott
	The Man in the Iron Mask	Raoul
	Desert Blue	Billy Baxter
	Another Day in Paradise	Ty
1999	Freak City	Cal Jackson	TV
	Boys Don't Cry	John Lotter
2000	The Cell	Julia Hickson's Fiancee	Uncredited
	Housebound	Tom
2001	The Center of the World	Richard Longman
	Bacon Wagon	Cowboy Zombie Victim
2002	Empire	Jack
	The Salton Sea	Jimmy the Finn
	K-19: The Widowmaker	LT Vadim Radchenko
	Unconditional Love	Window Washer
2003	Death of a Dynasty	Brendon III
	Shattered Glass	Charles 'Chuck' Lane	Golden Globe nomination
2004	Garden State	Mark
	Kinsey	Clyde Martin
2005	The Dying Gaul	Robert Sandrich
	The Skeleton Key	Luke
	Flightplan	Gene Carson
	Jarhead	Cpl. Alan Troy
	Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony	himself	guest appearance in episode 8
2007	Year of the Dog	Newt
	Rendition	Alan Smith
2008	Elegy	Kenneth Kepesh
	The Mysteries of Pittsburgh	Cleveland Arning
2009	An Education	David
	In the Electric Mist	Elrod Sykes
	Orphan	John Coleman	forthcoming film

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
2000	St. Louis International Film Festival	Emerging Actor Award		Won
2003	Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Shattered Glass	Won
	San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Toronto Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Performance - Male		Won
2004	Chlotrudis Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Supporting Male		Nominated
	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Las Palmas Film Festival	Best Actor		Won
	National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Won
	San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Golden Globes	Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture		Nominated
	Stockholm International Film Festival	Best Actor	Garden State	Won
2005	Satellite Awards	Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical		Nominated
		Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role, Drama	Jarhead	Nominated
		Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Drama	Kinsey	Nominated
	Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
	Chlotrudis Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Glitter Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Won
	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Supporting Male		Nominated
	Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Jarhead	Nominated
(Source: IMDb.com)

References

Further reading

"Celebrity Q&A – Peter Sarsgaard" by Sona Charaipotra. People magazine, November 12, 2004; accessed February 23, 2009.

"A moment with ... Peter Sarsgaard, actor" by Paula Nechak. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 27, 2005; accessed December 18, 2008.

"Peter Sarsgaard 'Dying' For Diverse Roles" by Corey Moss. MTV Movie News, November 7, 2005; accessed December 22, 2005.

"Intense performances are Peter Sarsgaard's hallmark" by Roger Moore. The Seattle Times, November 11, 2005; accessed December 18, 2008.

"Also, They All Swirled Counterclockwise" by Campbell Robertson. The New York Times, March 3, 2006; accessed December 17, 2008.

"Who's Who in Charity: New York's Most Powerful Philanthropic Boards" by Irina Aleksander. The New York Observer, April 1, 2008; accessed December 17, 2008.

"The 'Mysteries' of Peter" by Dorothy Robinson. Metro, April 10, 2009; accessed April 11, 2009.

"Out of touch is just where he likes to be" by Joanna Schneller. The Globe and Mail, April 11, 2009; accessed April 11, 2009.

External links

• Peter Sarsgaard at the Internet Movie Database
• 0, 2003 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air
• Food Bank For New York City public service announcement

Persondata
NAME	Sarsgaard, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor
DATE OF BIRTH	March 7, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH	Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, USA
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH