This page uses content from the Liev Schreiber 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.

Liev Schreiber (born Isaac Liev Schreiber on October 4, 1967) is a Tony Award-winning American actor.

Biography

Early life

Schreiber was born in San Francisco, California to Tell Schreiber and Heather Milgram. Schreiber is of Jewish heritage on his mother's side. When he was a one-year-old his family moved to Canada, but at age four, due to his parents' divorce, he moved to New York City, where he grew up. His mother forbade him to see color movies. As a result, his favorite actor was Charlie Chaplin. In the late seventies and early eighties Schreiber, known then as Shiva Das, lived at the Satchidananda Ashram, Yogaville East, in Pomfret, CT. Subsequently, Schreiber attended the same school, Friends Seminary, as actress Amanda Peet. When he was a senior, she was in sixth grade.

His mother claims that she named him after her favorite author, Leo Tolstoy, while his father claims that Schreiber was named after the doctor who saved his mother's life. His nickname, adopted by his mother is "Huggy".

Career

Schreiber started acting at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 1992, where he starred in Charles Evered's The Size of the World, directed by Walton Jones. He also attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He originally wanted to be a screenwriter, but was steered toward acting instead.

Schreiber had several small roles until his big break, as the accused murderer Cotton Weary in the horror film Scream. Although he had no lines in the first film, he would go on to play a bigger role in its sequels, Scream 2 and Scream 3. He portrayed the young Orson Welles in the HBO original movie RKO 281, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award, and appeared as Laertes in the 2000 movie version of the William Shakespeare play Hamlet.

He has done narration work in a number of documentaries, many of them aired as part of PBS series such as American Experience, Nova, and Secrets of the Dead. Schreiber is also the voice of the HBO Sports documentaries under the Sports of the 20th Century heading. Schreiber is also the voice behind the television commercials for Infiniti motor vehicles.

He starred in The Sum of All Fears. And the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate was another major film for the actor, stirring some controversy as it opened during a heated presidential election cycle. He also completed his first directed and screenwritten film starring Elijah Wood, called Everything Is Illuminated, released in 2005. In the spring of 2005, he co-starred as Richard Roma in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. His most recent movie role was that of Robert Thorn in the 2006 remake of the 1976 horror classic "The Omen," starring alongside Julia Stiles and child actor Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick. In June to July 2006, he is playing the title role in Macbeth opposite Jennifer Ehle at the Delacorte Theater.

Schreiber is slated to play a character that will temporarily replace Gil Grissom played by William Petersen in the hit CBS show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation during the 2006-2007 season.

Personal life

Schreiber is 6'3" and has four half brothers and a half sister. One of his brothers, Pablo, is also an actor. Schreiber owns a Jack Russell terrier named Chicken. He enjoys basketball, fencing, cycling, and has played football in the past.

Schreiber is currently engaged to Australian actress Naomi Watts.

Filmography

• The Ten (2007)
• The Painted Veil (2006)
• The Omen (2006)
• Everything is Illuminated (2005)
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
• The Sum of All Fears (2002)
• Spring Forward (2002)
• Kate & Leopold (2001)
• Do You Believe in Miracles? (2001)
• Scream 3 (2000)
• Hamlet (2000)
• The Hurricane (1999)
• A Walk on the Moon (1999)
• Jakob the Liar (1999)
• RKO 281 (1999)
• Sphere (1998)
• Phantoms (1998)
• Twilight (1998)
• Since You've Been Gone (1998)
• Scream 2 (1997)
• His and Hers (1997)
• The Sunshine Boys (1997)
• Scream (1996)
• Big Night (1996)
• Ransom (1996)
• The Daytrippers (1996)
• Walking and Talking (1996)
• Buffalo Girls (1995)
• Denise Calls Up (1995)
• Party Girl (1995)
• Mixed Nuts (1994)

References

External links

• Official Site
• Liev Schreiber Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing

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