Russell Crowe (b. 1964), actor and musician, was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He moved at the age of 4 to Australia, where his parents worked as caterers on TV and movie sets. His big-screen debut came in The Crossing (1990), in which he co-starred with future wife Danielle Spencer. He won AFI awards for his acting in Proof (1991) and Romper Stomper (1992), and in 1994 played Jack Thompson's gay son in The Sum of Us (1994). He moved to Hollywood to make The Quick and the Dead (1995) with Sharon Stone, but it was as the brooding Bud White in L.A. Confidential (1997) that he drew his first rave reviews. The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000), and A Beautiful Mind (2001) earned him 3 consecutive best actor Oscar nominations: he won for Gladiator (taking out the Golden Globe for A Beautiful Mind). Most recently, he has appeared in scintillating form in the Peter Weir film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
© Karin Catt
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
1 October 2014
This month I turn fifty, soI am just now looking rather more closely than usual at Fiona Foley, Steven Heathcote, Brenda Croft, Russell Crowe, Jeff Fenech, Akira Isogawa, Lee Kernaghan, My Le Thi, Shona Wilson and Mark Taylor AO, mindful that they too were 1964 arrivals.
Australian photographer Karin Catt has shot across the spectrum of celebrity, her subjects including rock stars, world leaders and actors.
