Biography for
Paul Bettany More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

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Paul Bettany was born into a theatre family. His father, Thane Bettany, is still an actor. His mother Anne Kettle has retired from acting. He has an older sister who is a mother and a writer and he has a niece. His maternal grandmother, Olga Gwynne (her maiden and stage name), was a successful actress, while his maternal grandfather was a musician and promoter. He was brought up in North West London and after the age of 9 in Hertfordshire (Brookmans Park). Immediately after finishing at Drama Centre he went into the West End to join the cast of 'An Inspector Calls', though when asked to go on tour with this play he chose to stay in England.

Spouse

Trivia

Son of Thane Bettany. Has one older sister named Sarah, who lives in Cornwall (England) with her daughter Emaly.

Developed laryngitis after filming A Knight's Tale (2001) because of all the yelling he had to do as Geoffrey Chaucer.

Also plays the guitar, and used to busk on Westminster Bridge in London.

Acted for a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Has a stepson named Kai Dugan (mother is Jennifer Connelly).

August 5, 2003 - his wife, Jennifer Connelly, gave birth to their first child, a boy.

Son's name is Stellan, named after the actor Stellan Skarsgård who acted with him in Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) (2000) and Dogville (2003).

Apparently turned down the role of the Tooth Fairy in Red Dragon (2002) (most probably offered to him after his frightening appearance as psycho gangster in Gangster No. 1 (2000)) in favour of a much more poorly paid role in Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003).

Has appeared in many theatre productions, debuting in Stephen Daldry's production of "An Inspectors Calls," grabbing the American film industry's attention in Joe Penhall's "Love and Understanding." He also appeared in "One More Waster Year" and "Stranger's House."

Nominated for Best Actor for his role in Gangster No1 by London Film Critics Circle Awards.

Paul's "acting heroes" are Humphrey Bogart, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Peter O'Toole and Vincent Cassel.

When he was 16, his younger brother Matthew, who was 8, died in a fall. Consequently, he claimed to be obsessed with having lots of children.

Won Evening Standard Film Award 2001 for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale (2001).

Writer/director Brian Helgeland wrote the role of Chaucer in A Knight's Tale (2001) specifically for Paul. He "refused" to do the movie without him. The production companies did not think Bettany was known well enough, Helgeland thought that if he backed down on his choice of Bettany, he would have to back down on everything else.

Dated Laura Fraser.

Was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004.

Lists his favourite foods as cheese and broccoli; and his favourite drink is whisky.

Quit smoking in 2005.

He had to wear a wig for The Da Vinci Code because when they bleached his hair the bleach burned bleeding holes in his head.

Gave up smoking in 2005 after seeing his 2 year-old son, Stellan, imitating him with a pen.

His son's godfather is the actor Charlie Condou who starred with him in Dead Babies (2000) and Euston Road (2004).

Personal Quotes

The world is split into two kinds of people, those who would go out for a drink with John Lennon, and those who'd choose Paul McCartney ... After the Beatles came back from India, Lennon wrote 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun' and McCartney wrote 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da'. End of argument.

My plan - well, it isn't much of a plan, but it's mine and I like it - is to try to do lots of different things.

I love the way British people see ourselves. We say, 'He's like us, a bit of a loser.'

A woman, who shall remain nameless, said to me, 'You're going to love LA, Paul, because over here ambition is not a dirty word.' And I thought, 'Well, you've named one of the things that I feel quite patriotic about.' It's still a little bit embarrassing in Britain if you're seen to try.

One of my film heroes is Peter Weir, who made Fearless (1993) but also made Green Card (1990). Ang Lee makes a western, he makes a Seventies psycho movie, a costume drama and a monster movie. I wanted to be like that. I finished this in October and I haven't worked since, because my wife [the actress Jennifer Connelly] had just had the baby and I wanted to be with them. But I've just taken on a film called Firewall (2006), which is a thriller with Harrison Ford. I'm doing it because I've never done a thriller before and I just get ... I just get bored if I don't do different things.

People like Cary Grant, Will Smith and Hugh Grant do it brilliantly. They are just relentlessly charming and self-deprecating. I found that really difficult. But there may be other reasons for that.

I wouldn't want to tumble with Harrison Ford in real life. He's a tough son of a bitch. I threw that man through a window seven times and he landed on his head, got up, rebuilt the window with the crew and then got thrown through it again. I hit that man in the stomach and he said, 'Could you just land it a bit harder so I could feel it?' So I landed it a bit harder and he wanted a bit more so he could react to it. Finally, I just wound one up and let loose on him and he said, 'That's it!' It was the most humiliating day of my life.

I'm English, so I can't wear a baseball cap. I'd look like white trash, like I should have a beer and a dog called Skeeter.

Recalling once attending a photo-shoot with Connelly where she was asked to wear just a bra: And she said, 'No, no, not gonna do it,' and so they asked her to wear a man's dinner jacket. And I'm thinking, 'How many times have I seen this, you unimaginative bastards?' So she does it, and then the magazine cover gets pulled, 'cos she wouldn't wear the bra. Because that's what's men's magazines that are sort of soft porn want. They're more insidious than porn magazines.

On how Hollywood treats its female actors: In general it's so much more of an objectification. You know the drill, it's a true story. For instance, if I am being asked to have a picture taken on the cover of a magazine, maybe they're wanting me to look sexy, maybe they're wanting me to look rugged, maybe they're wanting me to look fragile. With a woman, they want you to look available, essentially, that you are in some way inviting. And that's just fucking depressing.

(On The Da Vinci Code) I'd love to make a movie that shakes the world and offends people, but I really. Didn't think it was going to be this one. I think next to The Last Temptation of Christ it's Tonka Toys. Nobody seemed to get offended by Martin Scorsese's movie, no one seemed to get offended when Francis Coppola made a movie where he suggested that the mafia and the Vatican were in cahoots. Nobody picketed that. I play a monk who murders people, but it's no more a comment on monks than it is on people who wear sandals. Or big long brown dresses.

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