Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling, actor (b at London, Ont 12 Nov 1980). Ryan Gosling was raised in Cornwall, Ont, until the age of 12, when he answered an open casting call for children and moved to Orlando, Florida, to join the televised version of The Mickey Mouse Club. The show was cancelled in 1994 and Gosling returned to Canada, where he attended Lester B. Pearson High School in Burlington, Ont, while appearing in Canadian television fare such as Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Psi Factor, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, Goosebumps, Road to Avonlea (he was nominated for a GEMINI Award) and the made-for-television movie Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy. In 1997 he won a recurring role in the teen sitcom Breaker High, which led to the lead in Young Hercules, a series filmed in New Zealand.

A young Ryan Gosling appears in Road to Avonlea. From YouTube.

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Ryan Gosling's feature film debut was a small role in the football melodrama Remember the Titans (2000), starring Denzel Washington. In 2001 Gosling was nominated for best male lead at the Independent Spirit Awards for his striking performance as a neo-Nazi thug in The Believer. Because of the film's controversial subject matter (a self-loathing Jew who beat up Jewish students and trashed synagogues), it received limited theatrical release, but his performance earned him critical notice. In Murder by Numbers (2002) with Sandra Bullock, Gosling in the role of a teenaged murderer also impressed the critics.

He earned more solid reviews in 2004 for his part as a young lover, opposite fellow Canadian Rachel MCADAMS in The Notebook, his biggest box-office hit to date, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Half Nelson (2006) for his portrayal of a dedicated but drug-addicted inner-city schoolteacher. In the crime drama Fracture (2007), Gosling played a smart, hotshot district attorney matching wits with a powerful man, played by Anthony Hopkins, who has killed his wife. Gosling had a hit with Lars and the Real Girl (2007), a gentle, naughty comic melodrama about love found and lost with a life-sized plastic doll. He won the prize for best male lead at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2007 for Half Nelson and was nominated at the 2008 Golden Globes, and by the Screen Actors Guild, for his work in Lars and the Real Girl.

In Blue Valentine (2010; Golden Globe nominee for best actor) Gosling plays opposite Oscar-nominated Michelle Williams as a husband struggling to navigate the changes that have occurred in their marriage. All Good Things (2010) is based on an unsolved mystery surrounding the wealthy Robert Durst, and stars Gosling alongside Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella. In 2011 he had 3 major films in release: the action-thriller Drive (2011), his first film as a sole star; the ensemble romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid Love with Steve Carrell and Julianne Moore, his biggest box-office hit to date; and the political thriller Ides of March, where he shared top billing with George Clooney. His 3 next films are The Place Beyond the Pines with Eva Mendes, Gangster Squad with Sean Penn and Only God Forgives with Kristin Scott Thomas.

Despite having no formal acting training, Ryan Gosling's gallery of intense young men matches the best early work of Robert DeNiro and Gary Oldman. He has shown himself capable of playing characters who are utterly creepy yet somehow magnetic and attractive. Ryan Gosling has become an A-list Hollywood star, a long way from Breaker High.

Author PAUL TOWNEND

Links to Other Sites
All Good Things
Watch the trailer and featurette for the movie "All Good Things," starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, and Frank Langella. From magpictures.com.

Crazy Stupid Love - Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for "Crazy Stupid Love", a feature film starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Julianne Moore. From YouTube.

Ryan Gosling
An overview of Ryan Gosling's movie career from the guardian.co.uk.