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Eric Stoltz
Eric Cameron Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is known for playing either sensitive misfits (Mask, Kicking and Screaming, The Waterdance) or sociopathic criminals (Killing Zoe). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Mask.
Early life
Stoltz was born in Whittier, California, the son of Evelyn B. (nee Vawter), a violinist and schoolteacher who died in 1994, and Jack Stoltz, an elementary school teacher. He has two older sisters, Catherine Stoltz (1954) and Susan R. Stoltz (1957). Eric was raised in both American Samoa and Santa Barbara, California, where, as a child, he once earned money playing piano for local musical theatre productions. He attended the University of Southern California, where he dropped out in his junior year.
Career
In the 1970s Stoltz joined a repertory company that did 10 plays at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, UK. He returned to the states in 1981 where he studied with Stella Adler and Peggy Feury in New York, and soon appeared in his first film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). Originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), he was replaced after six weeks of filming, when Michael J. Fox (the director’s first choice for the role) agreed to divide time between the movie and his television sitcom, Family Ties. The director, Robert Zemeckis, has said that while Stoltz provided an admirable performance, it lacked the humorous feel that Zemeckis was looking for. Some of the original footage (shots where Stoltz doesn’t appear, but was on set) was used in the film.
In the 1980s, he garnered attention (and a Golden Globe nomination) starring as Rocky Dennis in Mask (1985), and in John Hughes’s Some Kind of Wonderful (1987).
During the 1990s, he went back and forth from stage to film to TV, building up an eclectic résumé that includes both studio films like Pulp Fiction (1994) and independent films like Sundance Festival Winner The Waterdance (1992). He was also a production assistant on Say Anything and Singles, and has produced the films Bodies, Rest & Motion in 1993, Sleep with Me in 1994, and Mr. Jealousy in 1997. He also continued to appear on the New York stage both on Broadway (Three Sisters, Two Shakespearean Actors, Arms and the Man) and off-Broadway (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie, Sly Fox and Our Town. He was nominated for a Tony Award for the latter performance.).
On television, he had a recurring role as Helen Hunt’s character’s ex-boyfriend on Mad About You (5 episodes, 1994–1998), he also spent a year on Chicago Hope (1994) and did some TV and cable movies, such as Inside (1996) (TV) (directed by Arthur Penn) and The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999) (with Helen Mirren).
During the first part of the 2000s, he starred with Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth (2000), based on the novel by Edith Wharton. From 2001 to 2002, he had a recurring role as the English teacher-poet August Dimitri in ABC’s Once and Again, where Julia Whelan ’s character (a teenager) fell in love with him. He directed an episode of the show in 2002.
In 2003, he got his first leading TV role in the show Out of Order, which was cancelled after five episodes. In 2004, he appeared in The Butterfly Effect as a child molester; the following year, he guest-starred in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace as Debra Messing’s love interest.
He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his direction of the cable movie My Horrible Year! (2001). He also directed a short film entitled The Bulls, as well as the highest rated episode of Law & Order in 2005, entitled “Tombstone.”
He appeared in the music video of The Residents’ “Give it to Someone Else,” featured on their The Commercial DVD.
He has contributed essays to the books City Secrets — New York as well as Life Interrupted by Spalding Gray, and appears on the children’s CD Philadelphia Chickens.
Beginning in 2007, Stoltz directed episodes of the 20-something drama Quarterlife, which began airing as webisodes and were then picked up to air on the NBC network in 2008.
Stoltz played a serial killer in need of medical attention in three episodes of the fifth season of Grey’s Anatomy. He has also directed two episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. The actor next appears in the films Fort McCoy and First Howl.
In early 2010, Stoltz will star as Daniel Graystone, the inventor of Cylons, in the forthcoming science fiction television series Caprica, a prequel set 58 years before the Battlestar Galactica series.
Personal life
Stoltz is a member of the Actors Studio. He lived with actress Ally Sheedy (whom he met in college) sometime before 1983, then with actress Jennifer Jason Leigh from 1985–1989 and with Bridget Fonda from 1990–1998.
Director Cameron Crowe and Stoltz became friends on the set of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Crowe promised Stoltz a role, however small, in every film he makes, although since Stoltz wasn’t able to appear in Almost Famous (his name does appear briefly on a billboard) he hasn’t appeared in Crowe’s following films.
His half brother is Glenn Richards, lead singer of Australian band Augie March, although the two have seldom met.
Actor
Film
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
The Wild Life
Surf II
Mask
The New Kids
Code Name Emerald
Some Kind of Wonderful
Sister, Sister
Lionheart
Our Town
Haunted Summer
The Fly II
Say Anything
Memphis Belle
Money
The Waterdance
Singles
Bodies, Rest & Motion
Naked in New York
Killing Zoe
Pulp Fiction
Little Women
Sleep with Me
Rob Roy
Fluke
The Prophecy
Kicking and Screaming
Don’t Look Back
Grace of My Heart
2 Days in the Valley
Jerry Maguire
Keys to Tulsa
Anaconda
Mr. Jealousy
The Rocking Horse Winner
Highball
Hi-Life
Outrage at Glen Ridge
The Passion of Ayn Rand
The Simian Line
The House of Mirth
Common Ground
It’s a Shame About Ray
Things Behind the Sun
Harvard Man
The Rules of Attraction
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
The Butterfly Effect
The Honeymooners
The Lather Effect
The Grand Design
Sparks
Fort McCoy
First Howl
Television
* St. Elsewhere, Eddie Carson (3 episodes, 1983)
* Frasier, Don (1 episode, 1993)
* Mad About You, Alan Tofsky (6 episodes, 1994–1998)
* Partners, Cameron (1 episode, 1995)
* Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Theseus (2 episodes, 1998–1999)
* Chicago Hope, Dr. Robert Yeats (22 episodes, 1998–1999)
* Once and Again, August Dimitri (7 episodes, 2001–2002)
* Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Father Michael Sweeney (1 episode, 2002)
* Out of Order, Mark Colm (5 episodes, 2003)
* The Triangle, Howard Thomas (three part TV mini-series, 2005)
* Will & Grace, Tom (2 episodes, 2005)
* Medium, Sonny Troyer (1 episode, 2007)
* Close to Home, Det. Chris Veeder (3 episodes, 2007)
* Grey’s Anatomy, (3 episodes, 2009).
* Caprica, Daniel Graystone (2009)
Director
Television
* My Horrible Year!, TV film, 2001.
* Once and Again, episode “Falling in Place” (2002).
* Law & Order, episode “Tombstone” (2005).
* Boston Legal, episodes “The Object of My Affection” and “Dumping Bella” (2007).
* Quarterlife, episodes “Anxiety” and “Home Sweet Home” (2008).
* Grey’s Anatomy, episode “Brave New World” and “These Ties That Bind”(2008).
* Private Practice, episode “Do the Right Thing” (2009).
* “Nip/Tuck”, 2009
Film
* “Once and Again”, 2003
* The Bulls, short film, 2005, 18 min.
* The Grand Design, short film, 2007, 18 min. Also actor.
* Paddyville, feature film, in production.
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Topics: Actor, Celebrities
Tags: Anaconda, Code Name Emerald, Fluke, Grace of My Heart, Harvard Man, Haunted Summer, Highball, Killing Zoe, Lionheart, Little Women, Mask, Memphis Belle, Money, Our Town, Pulp Fiction, Rob Roy, Say Anything, sparks, Surf II, The Waterdance
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