Biography
The bookish son of the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, formerly president of Yale University and commissioner of Major League Baseball, Paul Giamatti emerged as a character actor specializing in playing schmoes, schleps and cantankerous sad sacks whose talents eventually catapulted him to stardom as an off-kilter leading man.
Giamatti burst into the spotlight with his hilarious turn opposite Howard Stern, playing Kenny (a.k.a. Pig Vomit), the radio executive who tried to repress the irrepressible Stern, in "Private Parts" (1997). Prior to this breakthrough role, his highest profile work had been a 1994 bit as a bum in a sleeping bag on ABC's "NYPD Blue" and a little more screen time as a G-man in Mike Newell's "Donnie Brasco" (1997). Giamatti has since portrayed Civil War veteran Jeremiah Piper for the ABC "Wonderful World of Disney" presentation "Tourist Trap" (1998) and acted in "Safe Men", shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.
Following his breakout opposite Stern"”who the actor was never reluctant to give credit for the boost the shock jock gave his career"”Giamatti quickly became one of Hollywood's most in-demand character players, both in the indie and mainstream film world. Supporting roles in high profile films such as "The Truman Show" and "Saving Private Ryan" (both 1998) helped cement Giamatti in the public eye, and he turned in terrific, scene stealing turns opposite Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson in the hostage thriller "The Negotiator," and he was convincing as Andy Kaufman's longtime, long-suffering collaborator Bob Zmuda opposite Jim Carrey in the Milos Forman biopic "Man on the Moon" (1999). After serving as the perfect foil for Martin Lawrence in "Big Momma's House" (2000) and portraying a down-and-out karaoke aficionado in "Duets" (2000), the actor showed his diversity and dexterity in balancing roles both intensely real and fantastical with turns as a shoe salesman and aspiring documentarian who sets his first film project on a dysfunctional family in the "Non-Fiction" portion of writer-director Todd Solondz's "Storytelling" (2001), and he was appropriately convincing as the untrustworthy orangutan Limbo in Tim Burton's remake of "Planet of the Apes" (2001).
Giamatti turned in a compelling cartoonishly villainous performance as duplicitous Hollywood executive Marty Wolf, who steals a young boy's (Franke Muniz) movie idea in the family-oriented "Big Fat Liar" (2002). Following a standard supporting turn in the noirish "Confidence" (2003), Giamatti wowed audiences with his performance as the angry, embittered, embattled but ultimately fascinating indie comic book auteur Harvey Pekar in the independent biopic "American Splendor" (2003). The actor was honored for the role by the National Board of Review for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor and he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
After follow-up turns in the above-average telepic "The Pentagon Papers" (2003) and the disappointing John Woo thriller "Paycheck" (2003), Giamatti delivered a tremendous performance in Alexander Payne's wildly praised, seriocomic "Sideways" (2004) as Miles Raymond, the failing writer and wine fanatic who embarks on a revelatory wine country road trip with his soon-to-be-married college roommate (Thomas Hayden Church), discovering both the darkest and most promising elements of his nature. Giamatti's poignant and affecting performance was both heartbreaking and hysterical (often both at once) and was hailed as one of the best of the year. Although many were shocked when Giamatti was overlooked for an Oscar nomination, the actor reeled in his share of accolades, including the Best Male Actor trophy at the Independent Spirit Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and other regional critics' honors, and nominations for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards"”he shared a SAG ensemble award with his castmates.
Meanwhile, Giamatti provided the voice of Tim the Gate Guard in the well-reviewed animated feature "Robots"¯ (2005), which depicted a world similar to earth but inhabited entirely by mechanical beings. His next big screen role, lensed before the phenomenal success of "Sideways," was in director Ron Howard's uplifting "Cinderella Man" (2005), playing Joe Gould, the loyal manager of Depression era boxer and folk hero James Braddock (Russell Crowe). The role earned him the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Giamatti next got an opportunity to work with M. Night Shyamalan on "Lady in the Water"¯ (2006), a child-like fantasy that focuses on Cleveland Heep (Giamatti), an apartment superintendent who discovers a wistful water nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) living in a strange world beneath the building"™s swimming pool. The nymph is in danger of being destroyed by demonic creatures from her secret world, as Heep and his building"™s motley tenants band together to help her get back to her world.
His Broadway stage credits have included the Reverend Donald Bacon in the Lincoln Center production of David Hare's "Racing Demon", Ezra Chater in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia", also at Lincoln Center, (a "helplessly funny subsidiary role" according to The New York Times' critic Vincent Canby), and Andrei Prozorov in Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" at the Roundabout Theater Company. In October 2002 he starred in Bertolt Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in New York City.
Giamatti burst into the spotlight with his hilarious turn opposite Howard Stern, playing Kenny (a.k.a. Pig Vomit), the radio executive who tried to repress the irrepressible Stern, in "Private Parts" (1997). Prior to this breakthrough role, his highest profile work had been a 1994 bit as a bum in a sleeping bag on ABC's "NYPD Blue" and a little more screen time as a G-man in Mike Newell's "Donnie Brasco" (1997). Giamatti has since portrayed Civil War veteran Jeremiah Piper for the ABC "Wonderful World of Disney" presentation "Tourist Trap" (1998) and acted in "Safe Men", shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.
Following his breakout opposite Stern"”who the actor was never reluctant to give credit for the boost the shock jock gave his career"”Giamatti quickly became one of Hollywood's most in-demand character players, both in the indie and mainstream film world. Supporting roles in high profile films such as "The Truman Show" and "Saving Private Ryan" (both 1998) helped cement Giamatti in the public eye, and he turned in terrific, scene stealing turns opposite Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson in the hostage thriller "The Negotiator," and he was convincing as Andy Kaufman's longtime, long-suffering collaborator Bob Zmuda opposite Jim Carrey in the Milos Forman biopic "Man on the Moon" (1999). After serving as the perfect foil for Martin Lawrence in "Big Momma's House" (2000) and portraying a down-and-out karaoke aficionado in "Duets" (2000), the actor showed his diversity and dexterity in balancing roles both intensely real and fantastical with turns as a shoe salesman and aspiring documentarian who sets his first film project on a dysfunctional family in the "Non-Fiction" portion of writer-director Todd Solondz's "Storytelling" (2001), and he was appropriately convincing as the untrustworthy orangutan Limbo in Tim Burton's remake of "Planet of the Apes" (2001).
Giamatti turned in a compelling cartoonishly villainous performance as duplicitous Hollywood executive Marty Wolf, who steals a young boy's (Franke Muniz) movie idea in the family-oriented "Big Fat Liar" (2002). Following a standard supporting turn in the noirish "Confidence" (2003), Giamatti wowed audiences with his performance as the angry, embittered, embattled but ultimately fascinating indie comic book auteur Harvey Pekar in the independent biopic "American Splendor" (2003). The actor was honored for the role by the National Board of Review for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor and he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
After follow-up turns in the above-average telepic "The Pentagon Papers" (2003) and the disappointing John Woo thriller "Paycheck" (2003), Giamatti delivered a tremendous performance in Alexander Payne's wildly praised, seriocomic "Sideways" (2004) as Miles Raymond, the failing writer and wine fanatic who embarks on a revelatory wine country road trip with his soon-to-be-married college roommate (Thomas Hayden Church), discovering both the darkest and most promising elements of his nature. Giamatti's poignant and affecting performance was both heartbreaking and hysterical (often both at once) and was hailed as one of the best of the year. Although many were shocked when Giamatti was overlooked for an Oscar nomination, the actor reeled in his share of accolades, including the Best Male Actor trophy at the Independent Spirit Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and other regional critics' honors, and nominations for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards"”he shared a SAG ensemble award with his castmates.
Meanwhile, Giamatti provided the voice of Tim the Gate Guard in the well-reviewed animated feature "Robots"¯ (2005), which depicted a world similar to earth but inhabited entirely by mechanical beings. His next big screen role, lensed before the phenomenal success of "Sideways," was in director Ron Howard's uplifting "Cinderella Man" (2005), playing Joe Gould, the loyal manager of Depression era boxer and folk hero James Braddock (Russell Crowe). The role earned him the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Giamatti next got an opportunity to work with M. Night Shyamalan on "Lady in the Water"¯ (2006), a child-like fantasy that focuses on Cleveland Heep (Giamatti), an apartment superintendent who discovers a wistful water nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) living in a strange world beneath the building"™s swimming pool. The nymph is in danger of being destroyed by demonic creatures from her secret world, as Heep and his building"™s motley tenants band together to help her get back to her world.
His Broadway stage credits have included the Reverend Donald Bacon in the Lincoln Center production of David Hare's "Racing Demon", Ezra Chater in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia", also at Lincoln Center, (a "helplessly funny subsidiary role" according to The New York Times' critic Vincent Canby), and Andrei Prozorov in Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" at the Roundabout Theater Company. In October 2002 he starred in Bertolt Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts in New York City.
