Memento

Background:

“The natural assumption that, as an actor, you want to become Tom Cruise just doesn’t make any sense to me at all. There’s a part of me that’s very private and I really struggle with feeling self-conscious. I don’t understand why people think you want to be at the top of the A list and be mobbed every time you walk out your front door.”

English-born, Australian-raised actor Guy Pearce gained acclaim for his memorable portrayal as the short-term memory impaired Leonard in Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000). Due to his superb starring performance, Pearce nabbed a San Diego Film Critics Society award and a Las Vegas Film Critics award, as well as earned an Internet Surfers, a Hollywood Movie, a Boston Film Critics, a Chicago Film Critics, an Australian Film Critics Circle and a Phoenix Film Critics nomination. He has also amazed film critics and audiences alike with his magnificent performances in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), L.A. Confidential (1997), Woundings (1997), Ravenous (1999), A Slipping Down Life (1999) and The Proposition (2005). Before achieving worldwide fame as a movie star, Pearce was hailed as an Australian heartthrob through such primetime serials as “Neighbours” (1986-1989), as Mike Young, and “Home and Away” (1991), as David Croft.

Pearce’s admirers should not miss his promising performances in the forthcoming Mark Fergus’s First Snow (2006), Factory Girl (2006) and Death Defying Acts (2006).

Next to acting, piercing blue-eyed, light brown-haired Pearce, who was named one of E’s “Most Sexiest Men” in Entertainment (2002 and 2003), is an avid musician. In addition to singing and playing such instruments as guitar, saxophone and piano, he has written numerous songs, including several that were featured in the 1991’s movie Hunting. On a more private note, the acclaimed Momento star likes to keep his private life private. He is now the husband of actress Kate Mestitz, whom he married in 1997 in a hushed ceremony where only their close family and friends attended the party. Before the marriage, Pearce had a long-term relationship with Shaney Stone (together 1987-1993).

Mr. Junior Victoria

Childhood and Family:

In Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK, Guy Edward Pearce was born on October 5, 1967, to New Zealand-born father Stuart Pearce (test pilot who died in 1976 in an air crash) and English mother Anne Cocking (schoolteacher). When Guy was three, he immigrated with his family to Australia and settled in Geelong, Victoria. Following his father’s death, 10-year-old Guy and his older sister, Tracy Pearce, were raised by their single mother until she married deer farmer Laurie Cocking in 1983.

Developing a love for art and music at a very young age, Guy honed in on his crafts by joining regional theatrical groups when he was 11. He also had a one-year-tour throughout the country in the stage musical “Grease,” playing the lead role of Danny Zuko. From age 16-22, he was a competitive amateur bodybuilder, culminating a Mr. Junior Victoria title.

In Mach 1997, Guy tied the knot with his childhood sweetheart Kate Mestitz (actress, born in 1967) in a quiet and lovely ceremony with close family and friends. The couple currently resides in Melbourne with their cats, Dudley and Gabriel, and an African hunting dog named Zelda.

The Adventures of Priscilla

Career:

England-born Guy Pearce began his career as a child actor in Australian theater before breaking into television and later creating a steady film career. Joining local theatrical groups at age 11, young Pearce soon landed roles in such amateur productions as “The King and I,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz.” He toured Australia for a year in the stage musical “Grease,” in which he was cast in the lead role of Danny Zuko, as well as participated in “I Hate Hamlet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” His first brush toward fame arrived when 19-year-old Pearce debuted on television as hunky student-turned-teacher Mike Young in the well-liked Australian soap “Neighbours” (1986-89). This helped Pearce become a teen idol in Australia, along with costars Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue.

Pearce left the show to begin his film career. In 1990, he made his film debut in the Aussie production Heaven Tonight, where director Pino Amenta cast him in the small role of rock musician Paul Dysart, and followed it up with another supporting part, this time as a hit man in the psychological thriller Hunting (1991, opposite John Savage). He returned to the small screen in 1991 to cement his position as an Australian heartthrob with a six-week recurring role in the drama serial “Home and Away,” as David Croft. His other TV work has included playing Rob McGregor, the younger son of the founding clan, in the period Western “Snowy River: The McGregor Saga” (aired in the USA on The Family Channel, 1993-95).

Pearce’s growing popularity earned another boost in 1994 when he starred as drag artiste Felicia/Adam Whitely in Stephen Elliott’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, opposite Terence Stamp and Hugo Weaving, which won him attention outside his native land. Next up for the actor, he was cast as Tasmanian actor Errol Flynn in Flynn/My Forgotten Man (1996), portrayed an MTV-like host who exchanges bodies with his girlfriend in Dating the Enemy (1996), and starred in two television movies, Halifax f.p: Déjà Vu (1997) and The Devil Game (1997).

With five movies in his pocket, Pearce eventually made his Hollywood film debut in 1997 when director Curtis Hanson teamed him with Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe in the Oscar-nominated L.A. Confidential. As the bespectacled ‘Ed’ Exley, Pearce offered a graceful portrayal of a determined, politically judicious cop and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Cast due to his fine work in the movie. In the following year, he continued with his convincing performance of Jimmy Compton in Woundings, a drama helmed by Roberta Harley, where for his bright acting, Pearce was handed a 2001 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival award for Best Actor.

At the end of decade, Pearce had his American sophomore efforts with the Antonia Bird-helmed thriller Ravenous, costarring with Robert Carlyle. In the Sundance-premiered film, he was seen as one of a group of soldiers pursued by a cannibal. Also in 1999, he once again won over audiences and critics alike at the Sundance Film Festival for his bravura starring turn as bearded menacing musician Drumstrings Casey in A Slipping Down Life, starring alongside Lili Taylor.

Portraying marine prosecutor Major Mark Biggs, opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson, in the military drama Rules of Engagement was Pearce’s opening film in the new millennium before delivering his most tremendous role to date as Leonard Shelby, a man suffering with short-term memory loss, in the thriller Memento (2000, released in the USA in 2001). Under the direction of Christopher Nolan, Pearce’s performance garnered a wealth of critical appreciation and he was awarded the 2002 Las Vegas Film Critics award and the San Diego Film Critics Society award for Best Actor. Furthermore, his acclaimed performance brought Pearce countless nominations, including an Internet Surfers, a Hollywood Movie, a Boston Film Critics, a Chicago Film Critics, an Australian Film Critics Circle and a Phoenix Film Critics.

2002 saw the actor make four films. He first costarred with James Caviezel in the action-thriller The Count of Monte Cristo and then was cast by Simon Wells in the director’s remake of The Time Machine. Pearce also found himself acting with Helena Bonham Carter in the supernatural thriller Till Human Voices Wake Us and starring opposite Rachel Griffiths in Scott Roberts’ The Hard Word. Returning to the screen after a two-year hiatus, Pearce starred in the family adventure Two Brothers (2004), while in the following year, he was able to add the Aussie film The Proposition to his already frantic resume.

39-year-old Pearce is scheduled to play the small role of Jimmy in writer/director Mark Fergus’s First Snow (2006) and star as iconic artist Andy Warhol, opposite British babe Sienna Miller as Warhol’s muse Edie Sedgwick, in the biopic Factory Girl (2006). He will also team up with director Gillian Armstrong to play a role in his upcoming project Death Defying Acts (2006).

Awards:

• San Diego Film Critics Society: Best Actor, Memento, 2002

• Las Vegas Film Critics: Best Actor, Memento, 2002

• New York International Independent Film & Video Festival: Feature Film Award - Best Actor, Woundings, 2001