Paul Giamatti
☼ Born on 6 December 1967, in New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Biography
Paul Giamatti is an American actor who has worked steadily and prominently for over thirty years, and is best known for leading roles in the films American Splendor (2003), Sideways (2004), and Barney's Version (2010) (for which he won a Golden Globe), and supporting roles in the films Cinderella Man (2005), The Illusionist (2006), and San Andreas (2015).
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti was born June 6, 1967 in New Haven, Connecticut, and is the youngest of three children. His mother, the former Toni Marilyn Smith, was an actress before marrying. His father, Bart Giamatti (Angelo Bartlett Giamatti), was a professor of Renaissance Literature at Yale University, and went on to become the university's youngest president (in 1986, Bart was appointed president of baseball's National League. He became Commissioner of Baseball on April 1, 1989 and served for five months until his untimely death on September 1, 1989. He was commissioner at the time Pete Rose was banned from the game). Paul's father also wrote six books. Paul's older brother, Marcus Giamatti, is also an actor. His sister, Elena, designs jewelry. His ancestry is Italian (from his paternal grandfather), German, English, Dutch, Scottish, and Irish.
Paul graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall prep school, majored in English at Yale, and obtained his Master's Degree in Fine Arts, with his major in drama from the Yale University School of Drama. His acting roots are in theatre, from his college days at Yale, to regional producti
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ons (Seattle, San Diego and Williamstown, Massachusetts), to Broadway.
In the role of actor
The Holdovers – TIFF 2023 (02/11/2023)
A cantankerous professor at a boarding school is left to watch those left behind during the Christmas holidays in The Holdovers. Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is one of the longest-tenured professors at the Barton Boarding School. As punishment for his strict methods, Paul must stay behind during the 1971 Christmas holidays to look after the […]
San Andreas (01/06/2015)
The west coast of the United States is decimated by a large magnitude earthquake in San Andreas. Ray (Dwayne Johnson) is a rescue-chopper pilot, who is in the middle of a divorce with his wife Emma (Carla Gugino) and tries to maintain a close relationship with his daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario), who is about to head […]
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (07/05/2014)
The cinematic reboot of everyone’s favourite wisecracking webslinger continues with The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) continues to search for the answer about his parents, while his dangerous crime-fighting life as Spider-Man makes him concerned about the safety of his girlfriend Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone). Meanwhile, Peter’s childhood best friend Harry Osborn (Dane […]
Second Look: John Dies at the End (28/03/2013)
I don’t often watch films multiple times in the cinema. In fact, I can probably still count the number of times I’ve done so on one hand. However, there are some films that I feel obliged to give another go around. One such film is John Dies at the End, which I “saw” when it […]
John Dies at the End (16/09/2012)
To say that John Dies at the End is a weird film would be a bit of an understatement. The film focuses on a man named David Wong (Chase Williamson), who sits in a restaurant and tells his story to a journalist named Arnie (Paul Giamatti). It’s a hard movie to describe, but in essence, Dave and […]
Cosmopolis (13/06/2012)
Outside of a New York City building (that looks remarkably like Toronto’s Union Station), 28-year-old billionaire Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) decides that he wants to get a haircut on the other side of town. His bodyguard Torval (Kevin Durand, doing his best Christopher Walken impression) advises against this, because the visiting U.S. President will make traffic […]
The Ides of March (13/10/2011)
There isn’t really too much to the story of The Ides of March, which is very by-the-book political drama. Essentially the film follows an idealist staff member (Ryan Gosling) of a potential presidential candidate (George Clooney), who is slowly corrupted by all the backroom backstabbing that happens in the political world. The cast of the […]
The Hangover Part II (28/05/2011)
One thing that can be said about The Hangover Part II is that the plot structure is nearly 100% the same as the original. This isn’t the first sequel to follow the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” route, but it still does make the film a little more predictable than the first. However, I […]