Edward Norton

2 titles

Date of Birth: 1969-08-18 (age 57)
Nationality: United States
Place of birth: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Mini Bio

Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and filmmaker. After graduating from Yale College in 1991 with a degree in history, he worked for a few months in Japan before moving to New York City to pursue an acting career. He gained recognition and critical acclaim for his debut in Primal Fear (1996), which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. His role as a redeemed neo-Nazi in American History X (1998) earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He also starred in the film Fight Club (1999), which garnered a cult following. Norton established the production company Class 5 Films in 2003, and was director or producer of the films Keeping the Faith (2000), Down in the Valley (2005), and The Painted Veil (2006). He continued to receive praise for his acting roles in films such as The Score (2001), 25th Hour (2002), The Italian Job (2003), The Illusionist (2006), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). His biggest commercial successes have been Red Dragon (2002), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Incredible Hulk (2008), and The Bourne Legacy (2012). For his roles as a haughty actor in Birdman (2014) and Pete Seeger in A Complete Unknown (2024), Norton earned further Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He has also directed and acted in the crime film Motherless Brooklyn (2019) and starred in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022). Norton is an environmental activist and social entrepreneur. He is a trustee of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization that advocates for affordable housing, and serves as president of the American branch of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. He is also the UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity.

Backstage

His character Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear (1996), which was based on a book, did not have a stutter, but when he auditioned, he gave him one.
His grandfather, James Rouse, is credited with being the inventor of the modern shopping mall, and designed the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, where Edward was raised.
He and co-star Brad Pitt took soap-making classes during the filming of Fight Club (1999).
Norton had two Oscar nominations by age 30.
Turned down the role of Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan (1998).
His father, Edward Norton Sr. was an attorney for president Jimmy Carter.
After he graduated, he worked in Osaka, Japan, consulting for his grandfather's company, Enterprise Foundation, which works to create decent, affordable housing for low-income families.
Got the role for Fight Club (1999) because director David Fincher enjoyed his performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which was the only film of the actor that he had seen.
His character, Worm, in Rounders (1998) was originally supposed to smoke but being avid non-smoker, he refused and the part rewritten as a non-smoker.
He treasures his private life and being able to live a normal life, and cannot imagine not being able to take the New York subway if he gets too famous.
When Norton met with the director for Primal Fear (1996), he told them that he, like Aaron, came from eastern Kentucky. Norton even spoke with the twang (which he prepared by watching Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)).
Specializes in characters with multiple personalities, be it as a mental defect or a disguise. He has played people with several identities in Primal Fear (1996), Fight Club (1999), The Score (2001), The Incredible Hulk (2008); and arguably in American History X (1998), in which his character turns 180° during the course of the story, and in Death to Smoochy (2002), in which he portrayed a professional actor and his character Smoochie the Rhino.
Says if he wasn't an actor he would be a pilot.
Producers of American Psycho (2000) wanted him to play Patrick Bateman.
Received a B.A. in history from Yale in 1991, but took many theater and Japanese courses as an undergraduate. He has said in interviews that he took as many theater courses as he could without majoring in theater.
Turned down the role of Bruce Banner in Hulk (2003), but took the part in The Incredible Hulk (2008).
While a precocious 8-year-old actor, he asked a surprised director of a play, "What is my objective here?" The director was startled by his interest in acting.
He played guitar with Courtney Love's band, Hole, in two gigs in Los Angeles in December 1998.
Has a son named Atlas with wife, producer Shauna Robertson, born in March 2013.
He and Rounders (1998) co-star Matt Damon competed in the World Series of Poker at Las Vegas on May 1998 with the movie studio Miramax paying the $10,000 per person entrance fee.
As a struggling young actor in New York, Edward studied with the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ruffalo, and Bobby Cannavale.
Speaks some Japanese, which helped when he briefly worked for his grandfather's company, The Enterprise Foundation. He was assigned to the Osaka, Japan branch until he quit the desk-job grind at his grandfather's suggestion and decided to try to break into acting in New York.
College buddies with Ron Livingston and Paul Giamatti at Yale University.
Married Shauna Robertson, his fiancée of 6 years, in a secret wedding ceremony in 2012.
He was one of the few celebrities invited to Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's Malibu wedding on June 29, 2000.
Holds benefit screenings of his films mostly at The Senator Theatre in Baltimore, MD to benefit some charities that includes the Living Classroooms Foundation and the St. Frances Academy Robin Norton Scholarship Fund in honor of his late mother.

Awards

He gained recognition and critical acclaim for his debut in Primal Fear (1996), which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination in the same category.His role as a redeemed neo-Nazi in American History X (1998) earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.For his roles as a haughty actor in Birdman (2014) and Pete Seeger in A Complete Unknown (2024), Norton earned further Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

Marital status / Family

Edward Norton is married to film producer Shauna Robertson. The couple married in 2012 after having been engaged since 2011, and they began dating around 2005. They have one son together, born in 2013, whose name is Atlas

Movies

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