Actor Profile: Paul Giamatti

Thirty-nine year old Paul Giamatti is not your typical Hollywood actor. Avoiding the spotlight, he chooses to live in Brooklyn, with his wife and young son, instead of in Hollywood. Despite his distance from the movie capitol of the world, Giamatti is one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood today. Giamatti has spent much of his career settling comfortably into supporting roles. The balding Giamatti looks more like a middle-aged father, or a character actor, than a Hollywood leading man. Even so, his acting chops are beginning to command leading roles on the big screen.

Paul Giamatti's father was the late Bart Giamatti. Bart Giamatti was a professor at Yale University before briefly serving as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball. Paul's father, Bart, was the Commissioner when Pete Rose was banned from baseball for life. Paul Giamatti followed his father to Yale, where he earned a Bachelors Degree in English and a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. After his education at Yale, Giamatti started his career in theater, appearing in numerous plays both on and off Broadway.

After leaving the theater, Giamatti landed small supporting roles on both TV and the big screen. Despite these appearances, he went largely unnoticed by the American public. Giamatti first gained national attention acting alongside Howard Stern, in the movie Private Parts. Playing "pig vomit", the program director for Stern's radio show in New York, he appeared in many memorable scenes, which earned him some well-deserved attention. Giamatti also earned the respect of Stern, who praised him for his exceptional performance. After Private Parts, Giamatti's acting opportunities started to increase. Over the next several years, he appeared in Saving Private Ryan, The Truman Show, Doctor Dolittle, Man on the Moon, My Best Friend's Wedding, Paycheck, Big Momma's House, The Negotiator, and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes.

Paul Giamatti landed his first leading role in the movie American Splendor. Playing the real life eccentric cartoonist Harvey Pekar, Giamatti impressed both audiences and film critics. Despite the glowing reviews for his performance in American Splendor, he was not nominated for an Academy Award. Although this was Giamatti's first Oscar snub, it would not be his last. Paul Giamatti next starred as a struggling writer and wine connoisseur in the hit movie Sideways. Once again, Giamatti wowed both critics and audiences, but did not receive an Oscar nomination. His acting in Sideways was so brilliant that it masked the fact that he knows little about wine in real life. This Oscar snub was even more brutal because the movie received several nominations, but Giamatti did not.

The spotlight grew even brighter as Paul Giamatti played an unforgettable boxing manager in the big budget movie Cinderella Man. Based on the true story of boxing champion James Braddock, Giamatti shines as the intensely passionate corner man named Joe Gould. Finally, Giamatti's performance was simply too good to ignore, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In yet another slight from the Academy, the award went to George Clooney instead of Paul Giamatti. In my opinion, although Clooney's performance was noteworthy, Giamatti's performance was more deserving of an Academy Award. As a consolation, Giamatti did receive the Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Cinderella Man.

Although he has been snubbed repeatedly by the Academy, Paul Giamatti's performances have been noticed by both directors and producers. Giamatti is scheduled to appear in a string of high profile movies over the course of the next year. He is currently starring as the manager of an apartment complex in Lady in the Water, which is in theaters now. Next, Giamatti will star alongside Edward Norton in the movie the Illusionist, scheduled for an August release. Several other movies will follow shortly after. It appears the best is yet to come for Paul Giamatti. The unlikely leading man is well deserving of future success.