Background:

“We're all on a journey. The average American switches professions four times. I'm lucky to be in a business where I can change the character I am playing every couple of months.” Josh Hartnett

First coming to the attention of public as the troubled teenage son in the short lived television series “Cracker” (ABC, 19970), high-minded actor Josh Hartnett has created a reputation for himself as one of bona fide Hollywood movie stars thanks to his memorable performances in Steve Miner's “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later” (1998, earned nominations at the MTV Movie and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards),  Robert Rodriguez's “The Faculty” (1998, received a Saturn nomination), Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” (2001, earned nominations at the Phoenix Film Critics Society and Teen Choice Awards) and Michael Bay's “Pearl Harbor” (2001, netted nominations at the MTV Movie and Teen Choice Awards). He is also known for his roles in such films as “The Virgin Suicides” (1999), “Here on Earth (2000), “O” (2001), “40 Days and 40 Nights” (2002), “Hollywood Homicide” (2003), “Sin City” (2005), “Lucky Number Slevin” (2006), for which he won a Milan International Film Festival Award, “The Black Dahlia” (2006), “30 Days of Night” (2007), “I Come with the Rain” (2008), “August” (2008, also a producer) and “Bunraku” (2010). The 2002 Sho West’s Male Star of Tomorrow is set to play ames Stewart/Jay Fennel in the upcoming film “Singularity” (2012).         

The boyishly handsome Hartnett was listed one of Teen People Magazine’s “25 Hottest Stars under 25” and one of People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” (both in 2002). In the following year, he was named Bliss Magazine’s “3rd Sexiest Male” and PETA's “Sexiest Vegetarian Alive.” Later in 2011, he was named No.1 on the list of “Top 100 Most Beautiful Men in the World.” On his romance life, 6’3” inch tall Hartnett, who has a tattoo of a maze on his back near his shoulder, had an on-again, off-again relationship with his high school sweetheart Ellen Fenster. The two purchased a $2.5 million mansion together in their native Minnesota before breaking up for good in in February 2004. Hartnett next started a high profile relationship with actress Scarlett Johansson, whom he met on the set of “The Black Dahlia” in Bulgaria in 2005. They split in November 2006. He is reportedly to have dated Sophia Lie since 2011. Hartnett also has been romantically linked to a woman named Giselle, actress Izabella Miko (reportedly dated in 2001; no longer together), singer Kelly Lee Carlson (together in the late 1990s) and actress/model Monet Mazur.      

“I’ve had my heart broken, and it’s not fun. But I’d rather have my heart broken than break someone else’s heart.” Josh Hartnett

Hartnett enjoys oil painting, snowboarding, bowling and reading beat writers (especially Lawrence Ferlinghetti). He once owned a white Ford Taurus with a maroon driver side door, but now drives a blue Audi.

On April 5, 2009, the big jazz fun was released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after about a week of intensive care for a gastrointestinal problem.


Krazy Kamp

Childhood and Family:

In San Francisco, California, Joshua Daniel Hartnett, who would later be famous as Josh Hartnett, was born on July 21, 1978. After his parents divorced, he was largely raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota by his father, Daniel Hartnett, a building manager, and his step mom, Molly, an artist, while his mother moved back to San Francisco after the separation. An oldest child, Josh has three younger siblings: brothers Joe and Jack Hartnett, and sister Jessica Hartnett. He attended Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Grade School in St Paul, where he portrayed Adam Apple in an eighth grade production of “Krazy Kamp,” and then Cretin-Derham Hall High School before transferring to South High School, the same school attended by Rachael Leigh Cook and Genevieve Gorder.  After graduating in 1996, he moved to New York to study at the Conservatory of Theatre Arts & Film at SUNY Purchase. He left school after one year to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles.

As a child, Josh played various sports, including his favorite football, and did not think much about acting. However, a knee injury later prevented him to take part in the athletic playing field and he chose acting as alternative extracurricular activity. In high school, Josh auditioned for and won the role of Huckleberry Finn in a stage production of “Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn.” He went on to star in a good deal of of high school productions.


20 Years Later

Career:

San Francisco, California-born, Saint Paul, Minnesota-raised Josh Hartnett began acting in local theater companies as a child and later starred in high school productions after a knee injury forced him to leave the athletic playing field. At age 19, he decided to quit his study in New York in favor of an acting career in Los Angeles.

Once arrived in L.A., Hartnett landed his first television role, as the bothered teenage son of the so-called crime stopper,  in the critically acclaimed ABC drama series “Cracker” (1997), which was  axed after sixteen episodes. Although the series had a short life, the novice performer capably showed that he had more to give. Hartnett went on to appear in small theaters and in national TV commercials, including one for Tommy Hilfiger clothing, where he worked with director Kevin Williamson, before making his feature debut in the slasher movie “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later” (1998), where he played Jamie Lee Curtis’ son, John. Delivering a fine performance, Hartnett was nominated for a MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Male Performance and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Male Newcomer.    

The young actor gained further notice when he landed the leading role of Zeke Tyler on the science fiction/ teen thriller “The Faculty” (1998), which was scripted by Williamson. Under the direction of Robert Rodriguez, Hartnett gave a strong screen presence as the very brilliant Zeke Tyler, one of a cluster of students struggling to hinder an alien attack starting at their high school, and  received a Saturn nomination in the category of Best Performance by a Younger Actor/Actress for his efforts.

Hartnett’s mounting status was further confirmed when he joined James Woods, Kathleen Turner and Kirsten Dunst for Sofia Coppola’s feature directorial debut, “The Virgin Suicides” (1999, released theatrically in 2000), an excellent adaptation of the Jeffrey Eugenides popular cult novel of the  same name. The drama/mystery earned mostly good reviews from critics, and Hartnett, who played the school heartthrob, Trip Fontaine, made a reputation for himself as a sex symbol.

Next up for the attractive actor, he co-starred with Leelee Sobieski and Chris Kleinin the  romantic drama “Here on Earth” (2000), in which he was nominated for a Teen Choice Award in the category of Film - Choice Breakout Performance for playing Jasper,  was cast as the barber son of Alan Rickman and Natasha Richardson, Brian, in the Paddy Breathnach directed comedy/drama film “Blow Dry” (2001) and appeared with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in the comedy film “Town & Country” (2001).  

Hartnett’s career gained further major boost when renowned director Michael Bay had him star with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale in his much-anticipated epic “Pearl Harbor” (2001). Playing Danny Walker, a US Air Force pilot who falls in love with his best friend's girl, the actor netted a MTV Movie nomination for Best Male Performance and a Teen Choice nomination for Film - Choice Actor. He also was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Screen Couple, sharing with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale.

A hot commodity in Hollywood, Hartnett continued his success with the starring role of Hugo Goulding in the updated retelling of Shakespeare's “Othello” titled “O” (2001), opposite Julia Stiles, Mekhi Phifer and Andrew Keegan, and the acclaimed portrayal of the soldier SSgt. Matt Eversmann in the war drama “Black Hawk Down” (2001), for which he received a Teen Choice nomination for Film - Choice Actor, Drama/Action Adventure and a Phoenix Film Critics Society nomination for Best Acting Ensemble. Helmed by Ridley Scott, “Black Hawk Down” was well received by mainstream critics, and won two Academy Awards for Best Editing and Best Sound. It grossed a total of $172,989,651 worldwide against a budget of $92 million.

Hartnett starred as the brokenhearted Matt Sullivan in the Michael Lehmann-helmed comedy film “40 Days and 40 Nights” (2002), from which he netted Teen Choice nominations for Film - Choice Chemistry (shared with co-star Shannyn Sossamon) and Film - Choice Hissy Fit, shared the screen with Harrison Ford in the action/comedy “Hollywood Homicide” (2003), which was co-written and directed by Ron Shelton, worked with Rose Byrne, Diane Kruger and Matthew Lillard in the erotic thriller “Wicker Park” (2004) and had a small but impressive turn as the sauve, romantic and chameleon-like assassin in director Robert Rodriguez and writer-artist Frank Miller’s film adaptation of Miller’s crime noir comic book series, “Sin City” (2005). Additionally, he starred as The Neighbor in the Mark Palansky directed segment “The Same” of “Stories of Lost Souls” (2005) and played the lead of Donald Morton, opposite Radha Mitchell as Isabelle Sorenson, in the comedy/drama “Mozart and the Whale” (2005), directed by Petter Næss.

In 2006, Hartnett joined the star-studded cast of Paul McGuigan's “Lucky Number Slevin,” opposite Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. Playing Slevin Kelevra, he won the Best Actor Honor at the 2006 Milan International Film Festival. The same year, he also played a  detective, Bucky Bleichert, on Brian De Palma's adaptation of James Ellroy's novel, “The Black Dahlia,” opposite Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank. 2007-2008 saw roles in such films as Rod Lurie’s boxing flick “Resurrecting the Champ” (with Samuel L. Jackson and Kathryn Morris), David Slade's “30 Days of Night,” where he was nominated for a 2008 Teen Choice Award in the category of Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller for his performance as Eben Oleson, “Stories USA” (segment “Member”), Anh Dung Tran's thriller “I Come with the Rain” (starred as Kline) and  Austin Chick's drama “August” (starred as Tom Sterling), which also marked his producing debut. In 2008, Hartnett made his London's West End debut in a stage production of the popular film “Rain Man.”

In 2010, Hartnett starred with Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson in the action/draam film “Bunraku,” directed and written by Guy Moshe. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2010. In the following year, he supported Gil Bellows, Xander Berkeley and Alexis Bledel in Sebastian Gutierrez's drama, “Girl Walks Into a Bar,” and co-starred with Sam Rosen, and Zoe Lister Jones in the drama “Stuck Between Stations,” which was directed by Brady Kiernan and co-written by Rosen. 2011 also found the actor working with other celebrities to support USAID and Ad Council’s FWD campaign, an awareness force to combat the famine, war, and drought in the Horn of Africa. Along with Geena Davis, Uma Thurman and Chanel Iman, he starred in YouTube videos that address America to “FWD the facts” about the crisis affecting over 13 million people.

Hartnett is set to star with Neve Campbell and Claire van der Boom in the upcoming action movie “Singularity,” by filmmaker Roland Joffé. The film will be released in the US later in 2012 and    in the UK on November 1, 2013.


Awards:

Milan International Film Festival: Best Actor, “Lucky Number Slevin,” 2006
ShoWest: Male Star of Tomorrow, 2002
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