Karl Urban - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

This page uses content from the Karl Urban biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Karl-Heinz Urban (born June 7, 1972) is a New Zealand actor. He may be best known for playing Éomer in the second and third films of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, as well as the roles of Caesar, Cupid, Kor and Mael in Xena: Warrior Princess.

Biography

Early life

Urban was born in Wellington, New Zealand to German parents . He attended St Mark's Church School where he showed an early love for public performance. His first acting role was when he was eight he had a line on a television show. However, he did not act again until after high school.

He then went on to Wellington College. Upon leaving High School Karl was offered a role in the hit New Zealand TV-series Shortland Street playing homosexual paramedic Jamie Forrest. After appearing on the show for the 1993-1994 season he attended Victoria University in Wellington for one year, then left to pursue his acting career. Over the next few years, he landed several theater roles in the Wellington area. Eventually, he moved to Auckland where he was offered many guest roles in local shows. One of his first roles was that of a heroin addict in the drama Shark In the Park.

Career

Some of his earlier work included roles on New Zealand soap Shortland Street, which apparently interrupted his planned attendance of Victoria University of Wellington, and a guest role on the second season of police drama Shark in the Park. As well as appearing in films and television shows, Urban also had various roles in theatre productions and television advertisements in his native New Zealand and abroad. In February/March 1998, he was in a play called The Herbal Bed at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand (as the character Jett Lane). In August 1998, he played Mark Antony in Auckland Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in Auckland, New Zealand. In 1999, he appeared in the Auckland Theatre Company's production of Foreskin's Lament.

Urban was seen on the internationally syndicated American television shows Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in which he played both Cupid and Julius Caesar from 1996 to 2001. These shows were filmed in New Zealand. He won the New Zealand Film and TV Awards for his role in the 2000 film The Price of Milk.

Urban's Hollywood break did not come until his role in the 2002 horror film Ghost Ship. Since then, Karl has worked on many blockbusters including The The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Bourne Supremacy and The Chronicles of Riddick with Vin Diesel and Judi Dench. He has also reportedly received a $400,000 bonus for his work on The Lord of the Rings.

{{|image=LordVaako.jpg |caption=Karl Urban as Lord Vaako in The Chronicles of Riddick}} The Hollywood Reporter speculated that Urban was one of several actors being considered for the part of British secret service agent 007 in the next Bond movie, Casino Royale, to be directed by fellow New Zealander Martin Campbell. Website filmforce.com had mixed feelings over whether he would make the best Bond. "While darkly handsome, he's a bit elfish-looking for Bond. He's the right age, is recognisable, but not yet a big name and had proven himself adept at genre fare. But does Urban have the gravitas and flair needed for Bond?" The actor selected for the part was Daniel Craig.

Urban played John "Reaper" Grimm, one of the lead characters in Universal Pictures' Doom which was released on October 21, 2005. Following his role in Doom, he played the lead in the Viking film Pathfinder, which will receive a United States release on January 12, 2007. As of August 20, 2006, Urban is in talks to star in the lead role of The Weinstein Company's Outlander, a science fiction film in which he would play an alien who lands on Earth during the Viking Age. Filming is scheduled to begin on October 9, 2006 in Halifax and British Columbia.

Recently, Urban has been rumored to be attached to the role of Black Mask in The Dark Knight.

Personal life

Urban has fathered a son named Hunter (born in November 2000) with his long-term partner Natalie.

Filmography

Splinter Cell (2006) - Suhadi Sadono
Out Of The Blue (2006).... Nick Harvey
Pathfinder (2007).... Ghost
Doom (2005).... John Grimm
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) .... Kirill
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) .... Vaako
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) .... Eomer
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) .... Eomer
Ghost Ship (2002) .... Munder
The Price of Milk (2000) .... Rob
The Irrefutable Truth About Demons (2000) .... Harry Ballard
The Privateers (2000) (TV) .... Capt. Aran Dravyk
Via Satellite (1998) .... Paul
Heaven (1998) .... Sweeper
Amazon High (1997) (TV) .... Kor
Riding High (1995) TV Series .... James Westwood
White Fang (1993) TV Series...David
Shortland Street (1992) TV Series .... Paramedic Jamie Forrest
Chunuk Bair (1992) .... Wellington soldier
Homeward Bound (1992) TV Series .... Tim Johnstone

References

Footnotes

Web sites

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.