Paul Giamatti extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Paul Giamatti
Giamatti at the post-2008 Emmy Awards
Born	Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti June 6, 1967 (1967-06-06) (age 42) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Cohen (1997-present)

Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (born June 6, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several critically acclaimed projects in the 2000s including American Splendor, Sideways, Cinderella Man, John Adams, and Cold Souls.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Giamatti was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, A. Bartlett Giamatti, was a Yale University professor who later became president of the university and commissioner of Major League Baseball.¹ His mother, Toni Smith, was a homemaker and English teacher who taught at Hopkins School and had also previously acted.² Giamatti's mother was Irish American;³ his paternal grandfather, Valentine Giamatti, was an Italian American, of parentage from Telese, and his paternal grandmother, Mary Claybaugh Walton, was from a New England family.⁴

Giamatti has a brother, Marcus, who is also an actor. Giamatti was educated at The Foote School and Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. He attended Yale University, where he was active in the undergraduate theater scene and worked alongside actors Ron Livingston and Edward Norton, who were also Yale students. He graduated from Yale in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English. He went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama where he studied with Earle R. Gister. He performed in numerous theatrical productions (including Broadway) before appearing in some small television and film roles in the early 1990s. In Giamatti's junior year at Yale he was "tapped" to enter Yale's Skull and Bones secret society.⁵

Career

Giamatti's first high profile role was in the film adaptation of Howard Stern's Private Parts as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, Stern's antagonistic program director at WNBC. Stern praised Giamatti's performance often on his radio program, calling for him to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He appeared in a number of supporting roles in big-budget movies such as The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, and The Negotiator (all 1998). In 1999, he played Bob Zmuda (and Tony Clifton) in the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon. Giamatti continued to be featured in major studio releases such as Big Momma's House (2000) with Martin Lawrence, the Planet of the Apes remake (2001), and in Big Fat Liar (2002) opposite Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes.

Giamatti began to earn critical acclaim after his lead role in the 2003 film American Splendor. He gained mainstream notoriety with the 2004 independent romantic comedy Sideways. His portrayal of a depressed writer vacationing in the Santa Barbara wine country garnered him a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award. Following the commercial success of Sideways, Giamatti appeared in Cinderella Man, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture.

In 2006, he was the lead in M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, a supernatural thriller, followed by the animated film The Ant Bully, and Neil Burger's drama The Illusionist co-starring Edward Norton. He also played Mr. Hertz in the action movie Shoot 'Em Up and Santa Claus in the comedy Fred Claus.

In 2008 he received his first Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie" for his title performance in the HBO miniseries John Adams, a role that also led to a Screen Actors Guild award. That same year, he starred in the independent film Pretty Bird which is a fictionalized retelling about the drama behind the invention of a rocketbelt.⁶

Giamatti will play noted science fiction author Philip K. Dick in the semi-biopic The Owl in Daylight, which he is producing through his production company, Touchy Feely Productions.

He was nominated for 45 separate awards between 2001 and 2008, and won 26 of them, including both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for John Adams. All of his nominations except one were for American Splendor, Sideways, Cinderella Man, or John Adams; the exception was a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for Big Momma's House.⁷

The Brooklyn Academy of Music asked Giamatti, its "2007 BAM Cinema Club Chair", to pick films for an eight-movie series called "Paul Giamatti Selects" and shown at the Academy in August and September 2007. His selections indicated a taste for paranoia and "the darkest of dark comedy," according to a writer for The New York Times, and included Frenzy, Dr. Strangelove, Brewster McCloud, The Big Clock, The Seventh Victim, Dawn of the Dead (1978 version), Seconds, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 version).⁸⁹

Giamatti has commented on the fact that he often plays Jewish characters, but is almost never cast in Italian American roles.¹

Personal life

Formally a resident of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York,⁸ Giamatti has been married to Elizabeth Giamatti (née Cohen) since 1997. They have a son, Samuel(born 2001) who is raised in his mothers' Jewish religion. Giamatti is an atheist.¹⁰

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1992	Past Midnight	Larry Canipe
	Singles	Kissing Man
1994	NYPD Blue	Man In Sleeping Bag	(Episode "You Bet Your Life")
1995	Mighty Aphrodite	Extras Guild Researcher
	New York News	Dr. Wargner	(TV series) (Episode "Past Imperfect")
	Sabrina	Scott
1996	The Show	Jeffrey Roffman	(TV series) (Pilot Episode)
	Breathing Room	George
	Ripper	Doctor Bud Cable	(computer game)
1997	Arresting Gena	Detective Wilson
	Donnie Brasco	FBI Technician
	Private Parts	Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton
	My Best Friend's Wedding	Richard the Bellman
	Deconstructing Harry	Professor Abbot
	A Further Gesture	Hotel Clerk
1998	Homicide: Life on the Street	Harry Tjarks	(TV series) (Episode "Pit Bull Sessions")
	The Truman Show	Control Room Director
	Dr. Dolittle	Blaine
	Saving Private Ryan	Sergeant Hill
	The Negotiator	Rudy Timmons
	Safe Men	Veal Chop
1999	Cradle Will Rock	Carlo
	Man on the Moon	Bob Zmuda/Tony Clifton
2000	If These Walls Could Talk 2	Ted Hedley	(TV series) (Segment "1961")
	Big Momma's House	John Maxwell
	Duets	Tood Woods
2001	King of the Hill	Mr. McKay	(TV series) (Episode "It's Not Easy Being Green")
	Storytelling	Toby Oxman
	Planet of the Apes	Limbo
2002	Big Fat Liar	Marty Wolf
	Thunderpants	Johnson J. Johnson
2003	American Splendor	Harvey Pekar	Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
	Paycheck	Shorty
	Confidence	Gordo
	The Pentagon Papers	Anthony Russo	(TV series)
2004	Sideways	Miles Raymond	Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2005	Saturday Night Live	Host	(TV series) (Episode 30.10)
	Robots	Tim the Gate Guard (Voice)
	The Fan and the Flower	Narrator
	Cinderella Man	Joe Gould	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actor Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
2006	The Hawk Is Dying	George Gattling
	The Illusionist	Chief Inspector Uhl
	Lady in the Water	Cleveland Heep
	The Ant Bully	Stan Beals (Voice)
	Screw-On Head	Screw-On Head (voice)	(TV series)
2007	The Nanny Diaries	Mr. X
	Shoot 'Em Up	Karl Hertz
	Fred Claus	Nicholas "Nick" Claus
2008	John Adams	John Adams	Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Satellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
	Pretty Bird	Rick
2009	Duplicity	Richard "Dick" Garsik
	Cold Souls	Paul
	The Haunted World of El Superbeasto	Dr. Satan
	The Last Station	Vladimir Chertkov
2010	Barney's Version	Barney Panofsky
	Ironclad	King John
	The Goon	Franky (voice)

References

External links

• Paul Giamatti at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Giamatti at the Internet Broadway Database
• Paul Giamatti at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Paul Giamatti: 'I'm clearly not Brad Pitt,' The Guardian, Oliver Burkeman, 12 November 2009

v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie Kenneth Branagh (2001) · Albert Finney (2002) · William H. Macy (2003) · Al Pacino (2004) · Geoffrey Rush (2005) · Andre Braugher (2006) · Robert Duvall (2007) · Paul Giamatti (2008) · Brendan Gleeson (2009) Complete list: (1952–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Brian Dennehy (2000) · James Franco (2001) · Albert Finney (2002) · Al Pacino (2003) · Geoffrey Rush (2004) · Jonathan Rhys Meyers (2005) · Bill Nighy (2006) · Jim Broadbent (2007) · Paul Giamatti (2008) · Kevin Bacon (2009) Complete List · (1981-1999) · (2000-present)

v • d • e Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Ian McKellen (2001) · Christopher Walken (2002) · Tim Robbins (2003) · Morgan Freeman (2004) · Paul Giamatti (2005) · Eddie Murphy (2006) · Javier Bardem (2007) · Heath Ledger (2008) · Christoph Waltz (2009) Complete list · (1994-2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Raúl Juliá (1994) · Gary Sinise (1995) · Alan Rickman (1996) · Gary Sinise (1997) · Christopher Reeve (1998) · Jack Lemmon (1999) · Brian Dennehy (2000) · Ben Kingsley (2001) · William H. Macy (2002) · Al Pacino (2003) · Geoffrey Rush (2004) · Paul Newman (2005) · Jeremy Irons (2006) · Kevin Kline (2007) · Paul Giamatti (2008) · Kevin Bacon (2009)