Guy Edward Pearce is an Australian actor and singer. Starting his career in the Australian entertainment industry, Pearce has emerged as one of the most successful expatriates to Hollywood alongside Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and Chris Hemsworth. Born in England, he relocated to Australia with his family when he was three years old. He developed a passion for performing at a young age and started appearing in theatre productions while he was still in school. In 1986, Pearce made his screen debut in Network Ten’s soap opera ‘Neighbours’, playing the role of Mike Young. He debuted on the big screen four years later in the musical drama ‘Heaven Tonight’. In the next few years, Pearce established himself in the Australian entertainment industry before being cast in his first Hollywood project, Curtis Hanson’s neo-noir crime film, ‘L.A. Confidential’. He subsequently appeared in films, such as ‘Memento’, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, ‘The King's Speech’, ‘Prometheus’, and ‘Iron Man 3’. He has been nominated for Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and AACTA Awards and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for his portrayal of Monty Beragon in HBO’s miniseries ‘Mildred Pierce’.
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Childhood & Early Life
Born on October 5, 1967, in Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK, Guy Pearce is one of the two children born to Anne and Stuart Pearce. His mother came from County Durham, England and worked as a schoolteacher specialising in needlework and home economics. His father, a native of New Zealand, became an RAF Squadron leader and a Hawker Siddeley Harrier test pilot. Pearce’s older sister, Tracy, suffers from Cornelia de Lange syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that hinders intellectual and physical development.
Three years after his birth, Guy’s father was hired as the Chief Test pilot for the Australian Government Aircraft Factories, which required the family to move to Geelong, Victoria, Australia. When the family finally got there, his mother found work at Matthew Flinders Girls High school.
Guy lost his father when he was eight years old. While Stuart was attempting to take off in an extended-range version of the GAF Nomad, an accident occurred and he perished.
Guy subsequently enrolled at Geelong College, a private institution in Newtown. A deep love for the performing arts was already taking shape in him. He became a member of the Geelong Society of Dramatic Arts (GSODA) Junior Players.
By the time he turned 16, Pearce was extremely active at his school. He participated in, and won, several amateur bodybuilding competitions, including the Junior Mr. Victoria, and took fencing classes. He was also regularly getting roles in various theatre productions.
Pearce was still a teenager when he landed the role of Mike Young in the popular Australian soap opera ‘Neighbours’. Since leaving the show in 1989, he has stated that working in the series was an amazing experience for him.
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Film Career
In 1990, Guy Pearce made his cinematic debut in writer-producer Frank Howson’s ‘Heaven Tonight’, playing the role of Paul Dysart. He would collaborate with Hawson in his next two films as well: ‘Hunting’ (1991) and ‘Flynn’ (1997). The former was a film that Hawson himself had directed and he paid for Pearce’s trip to the 1991 Cannes Film Festival where the movie premiered.
His collaboration with Howson helped Pearce garner international exposure and eventually led to his casting in the critically and commercially successful comedy-drama, ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ (1994).
He appeared as the male lead in the romantic-comedy ‘Dating the Enemy’ (1996). Pearce made his Hollywood debut in ‘L.A. Confidential’, in which he shared screen space with fellow Aussie Russell Crowe. For his performance, he was nominated for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
In 2001, he received the New York International Independent Film Award for Best Actor for ‘Woundings’ / ‘Brand New World’ (1998).
In 2000, he worked with Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones in William Friedkin’s war film ‘Rules of Engagement’. That year, he also got to work with the up-and-coming filmmaker Christopher Nolan in ‘Memento’. He returned to Australia in 2001 to do a film titled ‘The Hard Wood’ (2002) with Rachel Griffiths.
He played the male protagonist Alexander Hartdegen in ‘The Time Machine’, a loose adaptation H. G. Wells’ classic of the same name, and the antagonist Fernand Mondego in ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, which was based on Alexandre Dumas’ novel of the same name.
Pearce portrayed a temple looter and big-game hunter in the critically acclaimed family drama, ‘Two Brothers’ in 2004. In 2005, he starred in the bushranger western film ‘The Proposition’, for which he was nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Over the course of his career, Pearce has portrayed several real-world personalities. Besides appearing as actor Errol Flynn in the 1997 film ‘Flynn’, he played Andy Warhol in ‘Factory Girl’ (2006) and Harry Houdini in ‘Death Defying Acts’ (2008).
He also played King Edward VIII in the 2010 biopic ‘The King’s Speech’. In 2016, he appeared in John Logan’s film ‘Genius’ as F. Scott Fitzgerald and in 2018, in Ben Lewin’s movie ‘The Catcher Was a Spy’ as American intelligence officer Robert Furman.
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He played the elderly CEO of a multi-national company in the 2012 science fiction film ‘Prometheus’. It took about five hours on an average to apply makeup and prosthetics to make Pearce appear old and frail and one hour to take it off. Pearce prepared for the role by observing the movements of elderly individuals. In 2017, he reprised the role in the sequel, ‘Alien: Covenant’.
He was cast as the Special Deputy Charley Rakes in the 2012 crime-drama ‘Lawless’. In 2013, Pearce joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Aldrich Killian in ‘Iron Man 3’. He worked with his real-life partner Carice van Houten in the 2016 western thriller ‘Brimstone’.
He starred in the comedy drama ‘Swinging Safari’ and the suspense thriller ‘Spinning Man’ in 2018. Some of his upcoming projects are the crime thriller ‘Domino’ and the historical drama ‘Mary Queen of Scots’.
Television Career
Besides ‘Neighbours’, Guy Pearce also appeared in several episodes of the soap opera ‘Home and Away’ (1991). From 1994 to 1996, he appeared in 65 episodes of the adventure drama ‘Snowy River: The McGregor Saga’. Pearce starred as the eponymous character in the Jack Irish telefilm series.
In 2016, he appeared on SBS’ three-part television series, ‘The Wizard of Aus’. He portrayed AIDS and LGBT rights activist Cleve Jones in the 2017 miniseries, ‘When We Rise’. He is set to appear in the Netflix series ‘The Innocents’.
Career in Theatre
Throughout the years, despite the accolades and fame he has garnered as a film and TV actor, Guy Pearce has not forgotten his theatrical roots. He was part of a production of ‘Cinderella’ in the UK in 1989 and 1991. Between 1991 and 1992, he worked in a production of ‘Grease’. He was a cast member of Melbourne Theatre Company’s productions of ‘I Hate Hamlet’ in 1992 and ‘Poor Boy’ in 2009.
Music Career
In addition to being an actor, Pearce is also an accomplished singer-songwriter. He released his first studio album, ‘Broken Bones’, in November 2014. His second album, ‘The Nomad’, is set for a 2018 release.
Major Works
In Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’ (2000), Guy Pearce starred as Leonard Shelby, who, due to a past trauma, suffers from anterograde amnesia, which affects his ability to form new memories, and experiences short-time memory loss in every five minutes. Pearce won the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Shelby.
Pearce co-starred with Kate Winslet in the 2011 HBO miniseries ‘Mildred Pierce’, a very faithful adaptation of James M. Cain's 1941 novel of the same name. He received critical acclaim for his performance and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. He received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie.
Personal Life
Guy Pearce met his first wife, the future psychologist Kate Mestitz, when they were still children. They married on March 15, 1997. In October 2015, Pearce made the news of his and Mestitz’s separation public.
Sometime in 2015, Pearce began dating Dutch actress and singer Carice van Houten. In March 2016, van Houten revealed that she was expecting a child with Pearce. They announced the birth of their son, Monte, on August 29, 2016.
