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Billy Crudup
Biography:
Actor Billy Crudup does not want to be a star, he claims. He's one of those constantly hard-working actors who'll shoot the movie, and do as little publicity as he can. He lives in New York City with Mary-Louise Parker, who he met when they did a play together off Broadway. Born in Manhasset, New York on July 8, 1968, Billy was raised in Florida and Texas. His family frequently moved and always being the new kid meant Billy had to develop some way of gaining acceptance. Being the class clown wa... more
Actor Billy Crudup does not want to be a star, he claims. He's one of those constantly hard-working actors who'll shoot the movie, and do as little publicity as he can. He lives in New York City with Mary-Louise Parker, who he met when they did a play together off Broadway. Born in Manhasset, New York on July 8, 1968, Billy was raised in Florida and Texas. His family frequently moved and always being the new kid meant Billy had to develop some way of gaining acceptance. Being the class clown was his ticket in. He has 2 brothers, and his father married his mother, divorced her, and then married her again when he was in high school. A drama major at the University of North Carolina, upon graduation Crudup headed to NYC to live with his brother Tommy (who was at that time a publicist) and study at New York University, where he joined a theatre troupe called 'the lab!' and did little plays and musicals - he even played 'Schroeder' in the famed children's musical 'You're A Good Man Charlie Brown!' Just prior to his graduation in 1994, Crudup won a role in the indie flick Grind (1997). Though this was his feature debut, it ended up without a distributor for three years. At this point he was dating Laurel Holloman, whom he met when they were both acting students at NYU. In 1996 he started doing small roles in bigger films, beginning with Sleepers (1996), and then Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996), returning to his musical roots by singing a song in the back of a taxi cab. Next Crudup returned to the stage for the off-Broadway revival of Bus Stop. Although the play was not well reviewed, he won the heart of his co-star Mary-Louise Parker, and they began a relationship that continues to this day.He started getting bigger roles in 1997, with Inventing the Abbotts (1997). Though the film didn't set the box office on fire, it did give Crudup's career an added push and his first film Grind finally found a distributor. In 1998, after refusing to audition for Titanic (1997), he returned to the stage off-Broadway with Frances McDormand in 'Oedipus.' Unfortunately, it had a four-hour running time and was not well received by the critics or the public. Going back to films, Crudup won the role of Steve Prefontaine in the Tom Cruise-produced Without Limits (1998). The media attention on the Cruise-produced, Robert Towne-written and directed project ensured that attention would be on Crudup too.At this point he was starting to make some money in films, so he and his brothers bought a house in New York City. In 2000, after Brad Pitt dropped out of the role of the rock star in Almost Famous (2000), rudup took over. Although yet again the movie didn't make a lot of money, it brought the spotlight back on Crudup, who up to this point had steadfastly refused to be a part of any 'mass marketed films'.He makes a great deal of money as a 'voice over actor', doing commercials on US television for Mastercard and others. In 2002, his production of 'The Elephant Man' on Broadway closed after only 65 performances, due to low ticket sales. It received 2 favorable reviews, 4 unfavorable reviews, and 6 mixed reviews.
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