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Background:
New York-born actor Jason Patric acquired recognition for his outstanding,
scene-stealing performance as misogynistic bachelor Cary in Neil LaBute’s Your
Friends & Neighbors, in which he was garnered a Las Vegas Film Critics Society
award, and playing an officer guiding Wes Studi’s Geronimo to a meeting in
Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), where he won a Western Heritage award. The
intense actor is also well-remembered as a heroin-addicted narcotics cop in Rush
(1991), an ex-boxer in James Foley’s After Dark, My Sweet (1990) and Michael
Emerson in The Lost Boys (1987).
His more recent and forthcoming film credits include The Devil and Daniel
Webster (2001), 3 Days of Rain (2002), Narc (also in 2002), The Alamo (2004),
Walker (2005), The Good Shepherd (2006) and Expired (2006).
Off screen, the good looking actor, who has a 90 pound Vietnamese potbellied pig
named Fergus, was arrested and spent five hours in an Austin, Texas, jail for
supposedly being drunk in public in March 2004, but the charge was dropped two
months later. In January 2005, Patric filed a suit against an Austin police
officer for incorrectly imprisoning him.
“I knew dating (Roberts) would be trouble. I just didn’t know how much of an
impact it would have on my privacy. Because I’m such a private person, what
happened was the ultimate nightmare. I had worked for the first six years of my
career to be as anonymous as possible and in the space of a few weeks I was one
of the most public people in the world just because I was dating a famous person
who liked to be in the press and who courted the press.” Jason Patric on dating
Julia Roberts
As for his private life, Patric was once known as Julia Roberts’ companion
(dated in 1991-92). He was found escaping to Europe with Julia after Julia’s
engagement with his best friend Kiefer Sutherland ended. He was also linked to
Robin Wright (together in 1989-90), Sherilyn Fenn (dated in 1990-91) and
supermodel Christy Turlington (together since the mid-1990s, relationship ended
in 1999).
Production Assistant
Childhood and Family:
Born Jason Patric Miller Jr., on June 17, 1966, in New York, New York, Jason
Patric is the son of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Jason
Miller (born in 1916, died on 1987) and actress Linda Miller (born in 1942). His
maternal grandfather is renowned actor Jackie Gleason, and he is a half sibling
to actor Joshua Miller. Jason’s parents separated when he was 6 and he, along
with his older brother Jordan Miller (born in 1968) and his younger sister
Jennifer Miller (born in 1964), was raised in Queens, New York, and Bergen
County, New Jersey, after the divorce. Ten years later, he relocated to Santa
Monica, California, in which he took a job as a production assistant on The
Championship Season, a wide screen version of his father’s award-winning play.
Jason was educated in prominent, all-boys Roman Catholic School in New Jersey.
Geronimo: An American Legend
Career:
Growing up in a showbiz family, Jason Patric decided to follow in his parents’
footsteps to pursue a career in acting after receiving exposure as a production
assistant for a movie version of his father’s award-wining play, That
Championship Season, when he was 16. Shying away from the idea of favoritism due
to his family name, he dropped the name Miller and made his entrance in the
business at age 19 with a remarkable role as Gary Charters in the ABC drama
Toughlove, for director Glenn Jordan. He soon moved on to the big screen when
director Alan Johnson had the newcomer play roller-skating hunk Jason in the
disappointing sci-fi movie Solarbabies (1986), starring Richard Jordan. It was
the thriller The Lost Boys (1987), where he starred as Michael Emerson, an
alienated teenager involved with a group of rock ‘n’ roll vampires, that won
Patric his first notice.
His escalating star was further established in the following years. In 1988, he
was seen playing the bizarre costarring role of an antiwar Russian soldier in
Afghanistan in the undervalue The Beast of War, as the title character in a
25-minute TV movie titled Teach 109 (1990), starred opposite Robin Wright Penn
in the drama film Denial (1990), and played the supporting role of Lord George
Gordon Byron in the John Hurt and Raul Julia vehicle Frankenstein Unbound
(1990).
This dark-haired, gloomy, apparently humorless performer offered a notable
performance as former boxer Kevin ‘Kid’ Collins in James Foley’s After Dark, My
Sweet (1990), for which he earned positive reviews. He gave another strong
performance in the following year when he was cast as a drug-addicted cop in the
gritty thriller Rush, opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh. The powerful actor added to
his success a 1994 Western Heritage award for his brilliant starring turn as 1st
Lt. Charles B. Gatewood, an officer who ushers the title character (Wes Studi)
to a meeting with a US General, in the history film Geronimo: An American Legend
(1993), opposite Hollywood A-list actors Gene Hackman and Matt Damon.
After a one-episode hosting gig for “Saturday Night Live” (1994), Patric
undertook the title role in director John Duigan’s film adaptation of John Ehle
novel,The Journey of August King (1995), opposite Thandie Newton and Larry
Drake. He then teamed up with filmmaker Barry Levinson to play the authorial
stand-in Lorenzo ‘Shakes’ Carcaterra in Sleepers (1996). The biopic film also
starred Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Minnie Driver and Dustin Hoffman. Patric
was then cast opposite Sandra Bullock in the second sequel Speed 2: Cruise
Control (1997) and was on top billing with actors Irčne Jacob and Thomas Lockyer
in the crime-thriller Incognito (1997), helmed by John Badham.
In 1998, Patric’s acting ability was once again showcased when he portrayed
misogynistic spinster Cary in a black comedy by Neil LaBute, Your Friends &
Neighbors. Due to his outstanding performance, he was handed a Las Vegas Film
Critics Society award for Best Supporting Actor. Aside from acting, the film
also marked Patric’s first venture into producing (Patric formed a production
company named Fleece Productions).
Patric returned to filmmaking in 2001 with a small role in the fantasy film The
Devil and Daniel Webster, starring Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and I Know What
You Did Last Summer star Jennifer Love Hewitt, and followed that up with a
feature role in the drama 3 Days of Rain (2002). He was then seen costarring
with Dan Leis in the thriller Narc (2002). In 2003, he spent his time working on
stage alongside Ashley Judd, Ned Beatty and Margo Martindale in a Broadway
production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Patric was later cast
opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid in the war movie The Alamo (2004)
and played a role in Matt Williams’ Walker (2005).
40-year-old Patric will soon appear as Ned Scott in the all-star cast The Good
Shepherd (2006), helmed by actor/director Robert De Niro. Among his costars are
Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin and Billy Crudup. Furthermore, he is
set to play Jay in the upcoming comedy/romance Expired (2006), for
director-writer Cecilia Miniucchi.
Awards:
- Las Vegas Film Critics Society: Sierra Award, Best Supporting Actor,
Your Friends and Neighbors, 1998
- Western Heritage: Bronze Wrangler, Theatrical Motion Picture, Geronimo:
An American Legend, 1994
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