61*

Background:

“I think that leading man status opens up a number of doors for you and allows you the opportunity to do a number of different kinds of roles, so I don’t see myself leaving behind character work just because I can headline movies. But it’s certainly more interesting to be where I’m at in my life now, to be a more integral part of the process of creating a film and taking less of a backseat and more of a front seat driver opportunity is interesting to me now.” Thomas Jane

An American actor of Irish, Italian and German descent, Thomas Jane has put a hem on everything from low-budget independent to sprawling, big-budget Hollywood action spectacles. Initially catching the attention of moviegoers with roles in the indie film The Last Time I Committed Suicide (starred as writer Neal Cassady), the high-profile Boogie Nights (nabbed a SAG nod as a cocaine addict) and the John Travolta and Nicholas Cage vehicle Face/Off (all 1997), the blonde, green-eyed performer continued to make an impact in such films as The Thin Red Line (1998), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Magnolia (1999), Under Suspicion (2000), Original Sin (2001) and The Punisher (2004). He is perhaps most-known to TV audiences as baseball legend Mickey Mantle in the highly praised HBO movie 61* (2001).

“When I played Mickey Mantle in 61* (2001) (TV). We were operating on a real high level. All the athletic training that we had to go through was something that you had to condition your body at a high level of athletic skill and we were playing baseball for three months. I was constantly getting injured, pulling muscles in my shoulder, muscles in my back, muscles in my groin, leg muscles. I was always having electric stimulation going at some point in my body. And the swings that we were taking were real. There’s just a high amount of injury when you're playing a sport at that level.” Thomas Jane

Off camera, Jane is a fan of the alternative band The White Stripes. As for his private life, 6’ actor has been married twice. He formerly tied the knot with Aysha Hauer before marrying his current wife, medium star Patricia Arquette, on June 2006. The two have a daughter, three-year-old Harlow. His love life has also been linked to actress Olivia D’Abo.


Thomas Elliott

Childhood and Family:

Son to Michael Elliott and Cynthia Elliott, Thomas Elliott, better known as Thomas Jane, was born on January 29, 1969, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland and in Virginia. At age 17, a high school senior Thomas left school to relocate to India to start a career in acting. He returned to the USA to study the craft and headed to Los Angeles a year later to become an actor.

Thomas was once married to Aysha Hauer, the daughter of actor Rutger Hauer, but the bond ended in divorce. He then engaged to actress Patricia Arquette (born on April 8, 1968) in July 2002. The couple welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Harlow Olivia Calliope, on February 20, 2003, in Los Angeles. Three years later, on June 24, 2006, Thomas finally married his actress-fiancé in Venice, Italy.


Deep Blue Sea

Career:

“In an Indian film that I did when I was 17 years old, and that’s how I got into acting. I was living in Maryland, and some Indians came to Washington DC looking for a blonde kid to appear in an Indian film. It was like a Romeo and Juliet love story between a white American and an Indian girl. They wanted me to stay in India and I did another film over there, they gave me an apartment, a car and I was an Indian movie star at 17. But then I decided to return to America, studied acting, did a lot of theatre.” Thomas Jane

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, 17-year-old Thomas Jane caught the eye of Indian producers who were looking for a light-haired young guy to star in a Romeo and Juliet inspired love story to be filmed in Madras, India. Offered the gig, he left high school and flew to India to launch a movie career with the Telugu film Padamata Sandhya Raagam (1986), helmed by late Jandhyala. Despite several attractive offers in India, Jane opted to immediately return to America after the production finished. He then took acting lessons and made the move to Los Angeles the next year.

The struggling actor had a hard time during his early days in L.A. He once was reportedly homeless for a time and ate his meals at a Salvation Army while auditioning for acting roles. Thanks to his diligence and hard work, Jane finally scored roles in local theater, and co-founded The Space Theater in Los Angeles. His breakaway year came in 1992 when Jane got small parts in films I’ll Love You Forever...Tonight, a gay-themed drama for director Edgar Michael Bravo, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a horror starring Kristy Swanson in the title role and featuring Luke Perry and Hilary Swank. After another bit part in the sci-fi film Nemesis (1993), Jane made his debut as a leading actor in At Ground Zero. Filmed in 1993, the comedy was not released until three years later.

Following a three-year break, Jane revisited the big screen with the supporting role of Nemo in the miserable Crow sequel The Crow: City of Angels (1996). But, it was not until the next year that the good-looking performer delivered his breakthrough. Jane first attracted the attention of audiences when he was cast in the starring role of real-life strike writer Neal Cassady in the Sundance-premiered The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), opposite Keanu Reeves. He then gave a notable scene-stealing performance of drug dealer Todd Parker in writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997), for which he earned an Outstanding Performance by a Cast SAG nomination. Jane solidified his reputation as a rising talent with another supporting turn, this time as a shabby prisoner named Burke Hick in the John Travolta and Nicholas Cage vehicle Face/Off (1997). The same year, he also appeared in the UPN pilot film Hollywood Confidential.

Jane further confirmed his mounting career by doing eight different projects within two years. 1998 saw him test the waters of independent movie again with Thursday (as an ex-drug dealer), play a gay man in love with a bisexual porn celebrity in the triangular romance The Velocity of Gary, appear as Sparky Stokes in the comedy Zack and Reba, and join the star-studded ensemble cast of the war drama The Thin Red Line, for director Terrence Malick. The next year, he starred as a shark wrangler in the big budget thriller Deep Blue Sea (opposite Saffron Burrows), costarred with Elisabeth Shue, Aaron Eckhart and Jill Hennessy in the romance Molly, made a cameo appearance as the young incarnation of Philip Baker Hall’s game show host in Magnolia (rejoined with director Paul Thomas Anderson) as well as shared the screen with Kevin Gage in film Junked.

Entering the new millennium, the actor tried his hand in directing with a black and white film, Jonni Nitro (2000), in which he also acted. Later that same year, he offered a fine portrayal of a quick-tempered detective assisting the cool Morgan Freeman in a murder inquiry in the movie Under Suspicion, and received strong critical reviews as Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ play “The Glass Menagerie,” along side Sheree North. Jane gained additional recognition in 2001 when writer-director Billy Crystal cast him as real-life Yankee baseball legend Mickey Mantle in the acclaimed television movie 61* (HBO, 2001).

Continuing his climb to stardom, Jane then undertook a costarring role opposite Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie in the period thriller Original Sin (2001), but his next big screen outings, the romantic comedy The Sweetest Thing (2002, with Cameron Diaz) and the Stephen King-Lawrence Kasdan collaboration Dreamcatcher (2003), put the actor under the radar because of poor box office performances. In 2004, after portraying the title role in Stander, a true story of a South African cop captain who became a bank robber, Jane picked up the mantle of action hero when he took home the starring role of Special agent Frank Castle in the eagerly anticipated comic book adaptation The Punisher. Although the film received mixed reviews, Jane’s presentation was liked by comic book fans as being amazingly accurate to the personality and appearance of the comic book character. Aside from starring in the movie, he also provided his voice to The Punisher video game.

37-year-old Jane will team up with actors Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke and Rosario Dawson and director John Madden in the action Killshot (2006) as Wayne Colson, and play a role in the action Thieves (2006). In 2007, Jane is set to reprise his role of Frank Castle in the sequel The Punisher 2, play Major Mitch Hunter in the sci-fi The Mutant Chronicles, have supporting role Buzz Hall in his brother-in-law, actor-director David Arquette’s The Tripper, as well as star in the Tab Murphy-written The Dark Country.


Awards:
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