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Peter Sarsgaard (born March 7, 1971) is a Golden Globe Award-nominated American film and stage actor.

Known for often playing dark and villainous characters, he performs predominantly in supporting roles in a wide variety of low-budget and major studio films, ranging from drama to horror and action thrillers.

His most critically acclaimed performance to date was as The New Republic magazine editor Charles Lane in Shattered Glass (2003) for which he won several critics' awards such as the Boston Film Critics Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Biography

Early life

Sarsgaard was born at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois (near St. Louis). Ironically, he admits to having a lifelong fear of flying and will only do so if absolutely necessary. After his high school experience at the prestigious Fairfield Prep, he attended Bard College and later graduated from Washington University in St. Louis where he was a founding member of the improvisational troupe Mama's Pot Roast.

Career

He began his film career with Dead Man Walking (1995) portraying one of two murder victims that Sean Penn's character is sentenced to death for. But he first gained critical recognition in 1999, for Boys Don't Cry, in which he plays the violent homophobic thug who murders Hilary Swank's transgender character, Brandon Teena.

Attracting notice in the 2001 Wayne Wang film The Center of the World, Sarsgaard has proven himself a critical favourite in supporting roles. Other notable roles include: John Malkovich's character's son in The Man in the Iron Mask starring Leonardo DiCaprio; a Russian sailor in K-19: The Widowmaker starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson; a bisexual university researcher in Kinsey; a bisexual screenwriter in The Dying Gaul; the very sarcastic best friend to Zach Braff's character in Garden State; an FBI air marshal in Flightplan starring Jodie Foster; and a mentally unbalanced soldier in Jarhead starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx.

Sargaard has also acted in the theater. He is a member of Douglas Carter Beane's New York City-based company, The Drama Department. He has appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Kingdom of Earth starring Cynthia Nixon and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. With the Signature Theatre Company, he has appeared in a critically acclaimed revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This opposite Elisabeth Shue and Horton Foote's Laura Dennis.

Sarsgaard hosted Saturday Night Live on January 21, 2006 (with musical guests The Strokes). In his introduction, he tried to point out that he was a nice guy despite his sometimes macabre image. He then played video clips of himself creeping out the SNL players (including one clip where Kenan Thompson walks into a room and finds Sarsgaard naked reading a newspaper).

Personal life

Sarsgaard has been in a relationship with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal since 2002; they announced their engagement in April 2006. Their daughter, Ramona Gyllenhaal Sarsgaard, was born in October of 2006.

He is close friends with her brother Jake with whom he co-starred in the film Jarhead.

Sarsgaard dated model/actress Shalom Harlow in 2001.

Sarsgaard is of the Catholic religion.

Filmography

Notes

External links

• Peter Sarsgaard Headquarters
• November 2003 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air

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