Lee Pace

Lee Pace

Actor
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Life Story

In 2003, Lee Grinner Pace starred in the Sundance hit, Soldier's Girl (2003), an extraordinary telefilm created for Showtime. The film was based on the true story of a transgender nightclub performer in love with a soldier who is brutally murdered for their relationship. His breakthrough performance garnered him nominations for both the Golden Globes and the Independent Spirit Award, and he won a Gotham Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance.

Lee was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, to Charlotte (Kloeckler), a schoolteacher, and James Roy Pace, an engineer. He is of German, as well as English, Scottish, and Welsh, descent. Lee spent his early years living in the Middle East. His family eventually moved back to the States, first to New Orleans and later, Houston, Texas.

Lee attended high school in Houston, where he first began acting. He got so involved with his craft that he actually dropped out of high school to perform at the local Alley Theatre. Once he completed his final high school courses, Lee was accepted to The Juilliard School's Drama Division in 1997.

During his time at Juilliard, Lee honed his acting skills in such classic roles as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet", the title role in "King Richard II" and Cassius in "Julius Caesar", among others.

Family

No info available

 

Trivia

Graduated from Klein High School outside of Houston, Texas. Other KHS alumni include singer Lyle Lovett, actresses Sherry Stringfield and Lynn Collins, actor Matt Bomer writer Tom Vaughan and Olympic Gold Medalist Laura Wilkinson.
Was ranked #14 on Entertainment Weekly's '30 Under 30' the actors list. (2008).
Has a Pointer dog, named Carl.
Spent the better part of his childhood living on an American compound in Saudi Arabia with his family.
Lost 25 pounds for his role in Soldier's Girl (2003).
Loves to travel.
His oilman dad moved the family 10 times, including to the Middle East, Texas and Louisiana.
Became good friends with actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, after working on the film Possession (2008).
Raised in the Houston suburb of Spring, TX where the parents of his Pushing Daisies (2007) co-star, Kristin Chenoweth, now reside.
Good friends with Matt Bomer. Both have circled parts in 'The Normal Heart' written by 'Larry Kramer'. Pace was directed by Joel Grey in his debut on Broadway on 2011, while Bomer was directed by Ryan Murphy in The Normal Heart (2014). However, they did not portray the same character.
Portrays a paraplegic in The Fall (2006), but director Tarsem Singh decided to keep almost the entire cast and crew under the impression that Pace also suffered from it in real life. A makeup artist walked into a room to find Pace standing and almost passed out from shock.

Personal Quotes 

(On Soldier's Girl (2003)) That was an extremely hard shoot and a really difficult part to play. And I just remember walking out of that one thinking, 'It's not always going to be easy, and that's okay.'
(On the difference between TV and film acting) The day is different. The way the day runs if totally different. With TV, you have so much to get done during the day that you don't really have a lot of time to feel your way through it. I know before I walk on the set exactly what I'm going to do. With film you can kind of find your way in it a little more, play with it some.
(On if he was ever a struggling actor) No, I was very fortunate. A month before graduation I got an off-Broadway job. Then I did some commercials, including one for MCI. You can only see half of me, but it paid well. Thank God for commercials.
(On Pushing Daisies (2007)) I've got three movies ready to come out and had no interest in a TV series. When they called my agent, he told them that, but then I read the script, and I knew it was going to be great. I was worried at first about the plot, but they pulled it off, all that psychic phenomenon stuff.
I tried surfing once in Brazil, but I'm kind of clumsy.
[on Lincoln (2012)] That was a real pinnacle of what I've done as an actor - to be on that set with Steven Spielberg and working with Tommy Lee Jones was just awesome. It was very different than theater. We didn't rehearse at all. We'd literally just come to the set and Steven was like, "OK, are you ready to shoot his?" I had this big, long speech my first day on the set, and there were hundreds of people in the room, and he was like, "Well, why don't we just shoot one take? I've got the camera back there." And I was just like, "Alright!"

Filmography

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