Paul Giamatti
Biography
Life Story
Paul Giamatti is an American actor who has worked steadily and prominently for over twenty years, and is best known for leading roles in the films American Splendor (2003), Sideways (2004), and Barney's Version (2010) (for which he won a Golden Globe), and supporting roles in the films Cinderella Man (2005), The Illusionist (2006), and San Andreas (2015).
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti was born June 6, 1967 in New Haven, Connecticut, and is the youngest of three children. His mother, the former Toni Marilyn Smith, was an actress before marrying. His father, Bart Giamatti (Angelo Bartlett Giamatti), was a professor of Renaissance Literature at Yale University, and went on to become the university's youngest president (in 1986, Bart was appointed president of baseball's National League. He became Commissioner of Baseball on April 1, 1989 and served for five months until his untimely death on September 1, 1989. He was commissioner at the time Pete Rose was banned from the game). Paul's father also wrote six books. Paul's older brother, Marcus Giamatti, is also an actor. His sister, Elena, designs jewelry. His ancestry is Italian (from his paternal grandfather), German, English, Dutch, Scottish, and Irish.
Paul graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall prep school, majored in English at Yale, and obtained his Master's Degree in Fine Arts, with his major in drama from the Yale University School of Drama. His acting roots are in theatre, from his college days at Yale, to regional productions (Seattle, San Diego and Williamstown, Massachusetts), to Broadway.
Family
Trivia
Son of Bart Giamatti, late president of Yale University, major league baseball commissioner and nemesis of Pete Rose.
He is the younger brother of Marcus Giamatti.
In the 1998 remake of Doctor Dolittle (1998), Paul portrayed a human in charge of a talking orangutan, in the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes (2001), he portrays a talking orangutan in charge of humans.
His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent. His other ancestry is German, English, Dutch, Irish, Scottish, and French.
Voice talent for Tiger Woods headcover in a series of Nike Golf commercials.
His life ambition was to star in a crime caper with Robert Duvall and John Hurt (who died in 2017). Paul planned on contacting the two stars with his idea should Sideways (2004) have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Often plays roles based on real people - Private Parts (1997), Winchell (1998), Man on the Moon (1999), American Splendor (2003), Cinderella Man (2005), John Adams (2008) and Too Big to Fail (2011).
Graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall.
Graduated from Yale University with a degree in English.
Graduated from the Yale University School of Drama with a master's degree in drama.
In Sideways (2004) his character, Miles, looks at a picture of himself as a younger man standing with a man in sunglasses. This is a photo of Paul Giamatti with his father, A. Bartlett Giamatti (Bart Giamatti).
Has appeared in three remakes, Sabrina (1995), Doctor Dolittle (1998), and Planet of the Apes (2001).
Was listed as a potential nominee on the both the 2003 and 2007 Razzie Award nominating ballots. He was listed as a suggestion in the Worst Supporting Actor category on the 2003 ballot for his performance in the film Big Fat Liar (2002) and in the Worst (Leading) Actor category for his performance in the film Lady in the Water (2006). He failed to receive either nomination.
Personal Quotes
Am I really cool? You're telling me I'm cool? Well, that's good to hear.
I'm not a guy who has a lot of, 'I want to work with so-and-so.' I'll take whatever work I can get.
Well, you know, when people say stuff about you, it's always really flattering. But does it mean anything to me? It's not really real to me; there's no reality to it.
You start to really lose perspective on the movie when the critical response is as weirdly, regressively unanimous as it is. I'm such a natural skeptic that I start thinking, 'Maybe it actually sucks.'
It'd be disingenuous to say I don't like attention - I'm an actor for God's sake - and it's flattering and all, but attention was never my big goal. I just like to work and have a good time. This whole business feels kind of intense, like a bad fit. Round peg, square hole. But whatever, I'll take it.
You are absolutely free to describe me as a turtle or something. Seriously. When you profile someone, there has to be a narrative, and my narrative just happens to be 'Who is he?', 'Oh, he's that guy' and 'He looks like a squid!' Sideways (2004) doesn't change that. Honestly, I never wanted to be more than a good supporting actor. Really, I enjoy it.
Generally, when I get offered these roles they're twisted or odd. It's never a straight-up romance. Like, the character can't speak or they turn out to be a serial killer.
I've always managed to find stuff to do that I enjoyed. But the offers have definitely gotten more interesting since Sideways (2004).
I'd rather be in something interesting that doesn't work than something that's a sure-fire thing but it's just kind of ... whatever.
I've got to be the geekiest guy in the world in a lot of ways. I'm like a zeta male.
Acting can be a really silly thing. It's like playing dress-up.
I don't consider myself a very interesting person. I have the mentality of a supporting actor.
(On getting into acting) "I guess I really started doing it in college and I mean clearly for every actor, there's that sort of applause which is nice and all that stuff. I could never decide what to do and as an actor I get to be so many different things so I never had to decide to do one thing, but be an actor and be all these different things. I used to put a lot of philosophical weight on it, and I thought it was going to be something that was going to kind of answer great questions of life, which of course it is not, particularly not acting, I really did have this sort of pretentious attitude about it, which has definitely changed, and I don't have that anymore. I guess your relationship to it always changes as you grow older, so now it feels like much more of a job to me, which it actually nice. I like that, Instead of feeling it was some sort of a mission I had."
