The Tao of Steve

Background:

“With acting, you gotta wait until someone gives you a role in a play or movie. With writing, you’re not dependent on others, you don’t have to wait. You can sit down and just create.” Donal Logue

Combining low-key, average-Joe charisma with an unending aptitude for insightful comic timing, Canadian actor Donal Logue has created a reputation in the late 1990s as one of the decade’s most gripping and fruitful character actors. Initially winning attention and a loyal cult following as Jimmy, a cab driver featured on shorts that aired on MTV beginning in 1994, Logue continued to work on a series of films bad, good, and unattractive before eventually landing his first foremost leading role in the Jenniphr Goodman Sundance favorite The Tao of Steve (2000). For his bravura portrayal of the improbable lady-killer, Logue won a Special Jury Prize Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He is also memorable for playing supporting roles in such films the Wesley Snipes vehicle Blade (1998), the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere romantic comedy Runaway Bride (1999), Kevin Allen’s The Big Tease (1999), Mel Gibson’s Revolutionary War drama The Patriot (2000), the Berlin Film Festival darling The Million Dollar Hotel (2000), American Splendor (2003), Confidence (2003), and more recently the Reese Witherspoon-Mark Ruffalo romance Just Like Heaven (2005). On the small screen, the ruddy red-haired actor whose debut arrived with a role in director Mike Newell’s miniseries Common Ground” (1990) has dotted his impressive resume with roles in many films and series. He is known for portraying Sean Finnerty on the sitcom “Grounded For Life” (2001-2005). He had recurring roles on the highly praised legal drama “The Practice” (1997-1999), the hit medical series “ER” (2003-2005) and the sitcom “The Single Guy” (1996).

Recently working on Edward Burns’ The Groomsmen, the animated feature Shark Bait, Fast Track, and Citizen Duane, Logue is set to have roles in the upcoming movies Almost Heaven (2006), Burns’ Purple Violets (2006), The Good Life (2007), Ghost Rider (2007) and Zodiac (2007). He will also star as Eugene Gurkin on the television comedy show “The Knights of Prosperity” (2006).

Outside the limelight, Logue is 5 feet 11 inch tall. He is an admirer of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and good friends with actor Stephen Dorff. He is the husband of Casey Logue and has two children with her.


ASB President

Childhood and Family:

“My parents were Carmelite missionaries and so we moved constantly as I was growing up. I was born in Africa, and all four children in my family have different passports. I lived in border towns my whole life until I got a scholarship to Harvard. All that jumping around between so many worlds gave me a kind of mutability that makes it almost impossible for me to not do so many different things. It's made me a PR person's worst nightmare.” Donal Logue

The son of Irish immigrants, Donal Francis Logue was born on February 27, 1966 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His father was once a Roman Catholic pastor, but departed the priesthood and finally got married and had four children. Donal has three sisters, Eileen, an education consultant, Karina, an actress, as well as his twin sister, Deirdre. Though born in Canada, Donal spent most of his early years in El Centro, California. He attended Central Union High School and became ASB President at his school. After graduating, he went on to pursue his education at Harvard University, majoring in History. It was there that he began to realize his love for theater. This led Donal to hone his craft at the British-American Drama Academy in London, and after graduating from college, he started performing on stage.

Donal is married to Casey Logue. The two now resides in Los Angeles alongside their two children.


Just Like Heaven

Career:

Born in Canada and raised in California, Donal Logue got his start as a roadie for the rock group The Lemoneheads in the 1980s and then teamed up with a traveling theater group. He stepped into the small screen acting for a role in the CBS miniseries “Common Ground” (1990), directed by Mike Newell, and went on to take on roles in such TV films as the PBS film Darrow (1991), a biopic drama chronicling the life of attorney Clarence Darrow (played by Kevin Spacey), where he appeared as a suspected bomber, and appear in an episode of ABC’s “The Commish” (1992). Logue’s first break also arrived in 1992, when he landed a small role in the Robert Redford vehicle Sneakers, a spy thriller movie which also marked the actor’s feature acting debut.

The following year saw Logue have a more influential role in the CBS teledrama Labor of Love: The Arlette Schweitzer Story, in which he was cast as the husband of a woman (Tracey Gold) who enlists the help of her mother (Ann Jillian) as the surrogate for their child. He also was featured as an early AIDS victim in the HBO drama And the Band Played On (1993), portrayed a Federal soldier, Captain Ellis Spear, in the war/ drama movie Gettysburg (1993), as well as guest starred in episodes of the ABC sitcom “Almost Home,” as a rock idol, and Fox’s “The X-Files,” as an FBI agent (both 1993).

Logue, however, did not come to prominence until he began doing the notorious Jimmy the cab driver in a unforgettable series of MTV interstitials in 1994. Joining forces with Harvard alumnus Jesse Peretz, he crafted this often deceived but always appealing video-dissecting, pop-culture commenting personality. The same year, he also acted in several films, including Gillian Armstrong’s adaptation of Little Women and the independent thriller The Crew, making his starring feature debut with a turn opposite Viggo Mortensen.

For the next two years, Logue could be seen busily working on both the big screen and the small one. He appeared in the comedy film Miami Rhapsody (1995), the children’s installment 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up (1995), Garry Marshall’s comedy Dear God (1996), the remake Diabolique (1996) and had a more substantial parts in the indie films Baja (1995, opposite Molly Ringwald) and The Grave (1996, debuted on HBO). He also offered adroit performances in the drama Eye For an Eye (1996), playing the father of a killed child and the Kari Skogland-directed indie The Size of Watermelons (1996), as an Anglo-Hawaiian lazybones, as well as was introduced to a wide audience with the blockbuster feature Jerry Maguire (1996), in which he appeared as a junior talent agent. On TV, he starred as nervous young intern Danny Macklin in the short-lived Fox medical drama Medicine Ball (1995), played the regular role of Ken Schuler in the CBS law enforcement comedy “Public Morals” (1996, only an episode aired) and had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom “The Single Guy” (1996).

The versatile actor appeared in the action-comedy film Metro (1997), rejoined with Jimmy the Cabdriver co-creator Jesse Peretz in Peretz’s film directorial debut, First Love, Last Rites (1997), starred in and co-executive produced the Canadian film Men with Guns (1997), re-teaming with director Skogland, and guest starred in a 1997 episode of “Robert Altman’s Gun.” In 1998, Logue earned attention and praise for his work in the supernatural actioner Blade, starring Wesley Snipes. He remained active throughout the end of the 1990s with remarkable supporting turns like as a left groom turned parish priest in the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere romantic comedy Runaway Bride (1999) and wacky chauffeur Eamonn in director Kevin Allen’s light-hearted hairdressing mockumentary The Big Tease (1999). 1999 also found a recurring role as ADA Richard ‘Dickie’ Flood in the acclaimed ABC legal drama “The Practice,” a role he had since 1997.

After a series of notable supporting performance, Logue finally earned a full-blown positive reception in 2000, thanks to his title role as unlikely lady-killer Dex in the independent comedy/drama The Tao of Steve, directed by newcomer Jennipher Goodman. The film was a huge hit at the 2000 Sundance Festival, and Logue took home the festival’s Special Jury Prize for his outstanding performance. Logue’s mounting profile was further confirmed in the number of projects the actor was involved with that same year. With no less than six movies under his belt, including the summer box office The Patriot, the Berlin Film Festival hit The Million Dollar Hotel, the Sundance-screened The Opportunists (with Cyndi Lauper and Christopher Walken) and the Ben Affleck/Charlize Theron caper Reindeer Games, the actor quickly made a name for himself as one of the industry’s more promising talents.

Altering to television, Logue took on a starring role opposite Megyn Price on the sitcom “Grounded For Life,” portraying the post-modern family man Sean Finnerty, a too-young-father who struggles with responsibility. He played the role from 2001 to 2005. From 2003 to 2005, he also appeared as Chuck Martin in several episodes of the popular medical series “ER.” Logue’s wide screen career continued powerful, with turns as a stage actor playing cartoonist Harvey Pekar in the Paul Giamatti vehicle American Splendor (2003) and as a crooked policeman in the drama Confidence (2003), starring Edward Burns and Rachel Weisz. He co-wrote, directed and starred in the comedy film Tennis, Anyone...? (2005) and attracted the attention with his scene-stealing role as Mark Ruffalo’s morally challenged best friend, Jack Houriskey, in Mark Waters’ Just Like Heaven (2005), also starring Reese Witherspoon.

Recently, in 2006, Logue made a cameo appearance in Jack’s Law, reunite with actor/director/writer Edward Burns for the comedy/drama The Groomsmen, teamed up with Freddie Prinze Jr., Rob Schneider and Evan Rachel Wood for the animated feature Shark Bait, and had supporting parts in the comedies Citizen Duane and Fast Track. He will soon appear as Daryll in the forthcoming comedy/drama The Good Life (2007), starring Mark Webber. His other future projects are the drama Almost Heaven (2006, completed), Edward Burns’ Purple Violets (2006, post-production), the Nicolas Cage action Ghost Rider (2007, completed) and director David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007, completed), starring Jake Gyllenhaa. On television, Logue is schedule to play Eugene Gurkin in the ABC situation comedy “The Knights of Prosperity” (2006).


Awards:

- Sundance Film Festival: Special Jury Prize-Dramatic, Outstanding Performance, The Tao of Steve, 2000