Billy Crudup
{{short description|American actor (born 1968)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Billy Crudup
| image = Billy Crudup 2015 1b.jpg
| caption = Crudup in 2015
| birth_name = William Gaither Crudup
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1968|7|8}}
| birth_place = Manhasset, New York, U.S.
| education = University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA)
New York University (MFA)
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1989–present
| partner = Mary-Louise Parker
(1996–2003)
Claire Danes
(2003–2006)
| spouse = {{marriage|Naomi Watts|2023}}
| children = 1
}}
William Gaither Crudup ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|r|uː|d|ə|p}}; born July 8, 1968){{cite news |author= |date=July 8, 2022 |title=Birthdays |work=The Modesto Bee |page=2A |agency=Associated Press |quote=Actor Billy Crudup is 54.}} is an American actor. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance in Jesus' Son (1999). He went on to star in numerous high-profile films, including Almost Famous (2000), Big Fish (2003), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Watchmen (2009), Public Enemies (2009), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), Jackie (2016), and Alien: Covenant (2017), in both lead and supporting roles.
Crudup is a four-time Tony Award nominee, winning once for his performance in Tom Stoppard's play The Coast of Utopia in 2007. He has also starred in the streaming television series Gypsy (2017), and The Morning Show (2019–present), which earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Critics' Choice Television Awards,{{Cite news |last=De Guzman |first=Chad |date=January 14, 2024 |title=Oppenheimer and Barbie Take Top Prizes at Critics Choice Awards: See All the Winners |url=https://time.com/6555424/critics-choice-awards-2024-winners-nominees-oppenheimer-barbie/ |access-date=January 14, 2024 |work=Time magazine}} and Hello Tomorrow! (2023). In June 2023, he married British actress Naomi Watts.{{Cite web |date=June 10, 2023 |title=Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup Are Married: 'Hitched' |url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/naomi-watts-marries-billy-crudup-214031265.html |access-date=June 10, 2023 |website=Yahoo! Entertainment |language=en-US}}
Early life
Crudup was born in Manhasset, New York. His parents, Georgann (née Gaither) and Thomas Henry Crudup III divorced during his childhood, and later remarried, before divorcing a second time.{{cite news | title=Billy Crudup Biography | url=https://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800019546&cf=biog&intl=us | work=Yahoo! Movies | access-date=May 21, 2008}}{{cite news |last=Evertz |first=Mary |date=October 26, 2001 |title=Crudup family keeps busy in New York |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2001/10/26/crudup-family-keeps-busy-in-new-york/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times}}{{Cite news |last=McHale |first=Joan Nielsen |date=1966-07-17 |title=Our Town's Gaither-Crudup Storybook Nuptial |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-news-our-towns-gaither-crudup/172402916/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=The Miami News |page=4B |via=Newspapers.com}} Crudup has spoken of his father, who died in 2005, as an "incessant gambler and hustler salesman" who continuously sought "to hit the jackpot" throughout his life.{{cite web |author=Ferme |first=Antoinio |date=16 Feb 2023 |title=Billy Crudup on How His Father's 'Flawed Sense of Psychology' Inspired His 'Hello Tomorrow!' Character |url=https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/billy-crudup-hello-tomorrow-father-inspired-character-1235525342/#! |access-date=22 Feb 2023 |website=Variety}}
On his father's side, he is a descendant of Congressman Josiah Crudup of North Carolina.{{Cite web |url=http://www.hendersondispatch.com/news/group-works-to-save-historic-crudup-home-site-in-kittrell/article_a0b850e2-b03e-5a87-8c24-767893534487.html |title=Group works to save historic Crudup home site in Kittrell |access-date=July 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170718022714/http://www.hendersondispatch.com/news/group-works-to-save-historic-crudup-home-site-in-kittrell/article_a0b850e2-b03e-5a87-8c24-767893534487.html |archive-date=July 18, 2017 |url-status=dead }} His maternal grandfather was William Cotter "Billy" Gaither, Jr., a well-known Florida trial lawyer, and his maternal grandmother later remarried to Episcopal bishop James Duncan.{{cite news | author=Jesse Green| title=Billy Crudup: Almost Infamous | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/movies/10gree.html | work=The New York Times | date=October 10, 2004 | access-date=May 21, 2008}}{{Cite news |date=1997-04-03 |title=From class clown to Hollywood heartthrob |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald-from-class-clown-to-hol/172402490/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=The Miami Herald |page=F1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VzESAAAAYAAJ&q=Elaine+Beisler+Gaither |title=Who's who in the South and Southwest – Marquis Who's Who|year=1959 |via=Google Books|access-date=February 11, 2012}}
The middle-born of three brothers, Crudup's brothers, Tommy and Brooks, are both producers. He left New York with his family when he was about eight years old, first living in Texas, then in Florida. He graduated from Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1986.
Crudup attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received an undergraduate degree, and he continued his passion for acting with the undergraduate acting company, LAB! Theatre. He also acted for UNC-STV's most popular show, General College. He was a member of the Beta chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He then studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts graduate acting program, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1994.
Career
=Film and television=
Crudup began acting in films such as 1996's Sleepers, 1997's Inventing the Abbotts, and 1998's Without Limits, where he played the role of running legend and Olympian Steve Prefontaine. His first role in an animated feature was in 1999's English release of Princess Mononoke, in which he starred as Ashitaka. He then played lead guitarist Russell Hammond from Stillwater, the fictional band at the center of Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000). In 2006's The Good Shepherd, he played British spy Arch Cummings, a stand-in for Kim Philby. The same year, he played a supporting role in Mission: Impossible III. In 2007, he played the leading role of Henry Roth in the film Dedication.
Crudup completed filming Watchmen with director Zack Snyder in Vancouver, British Columbia. He portrayed the superhero Doctor Manhattan. He portrayed former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner in a TV film about 2008's financial crisis, Too Big to Fail (2011). Crudup stars in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2020 and 2024 and a Critics' Choice Television Award in 2020 and 2023.
=Stage=
A year after graduating from Tisch, Crudup made his debut on Broadway in the Lincoln Center Theater production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}}
Crudup received a 2002 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as the title character in The Elephant Man on Broadway, as well as a 2005 nomination for his role as Katurian in the Broadway production of The Pillowman, also starring Jeff Goldblum, which closed on September 18, 2005. From October 2006 through May 2007, he was featured in the first two parts of The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard at Lincoln Center, playing literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, for which he received a 2007 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.{{Cite news |last=Kahn |first=Robert |date=June 11, 2007 |title=It's 'Utopia' at the Tony Awards |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-nassau-edition-its-utopia-a/172402554/ |access-date=June 17, 2021 |work=Newsday |page=A10 |via=Newspapers.com}}
He starred in The Metal Children, an off-Broadway play written and directed by Adam Rapp in 2010.{{Cite news |last=Dziemianowicz |first=Joe |date=May 21, 2010 |title=New play tries to prove its 'Metal' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-new-play-tries-to-prove-its/172402666/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=Daily News |page=36 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In 2011, Crudup received a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Play for his role in the Broadway revival of Arcadia.{{cite web|url=http://broadwayworld.com/article/2011-Tony-Nominations-Announced-THE-BOOK-OF-MORMON-Leads-With-14-20110503 |title=2011 Tony Nominations Announced! THE BOOK OF MORMON Leads With 14! |publisher=Broadway World |access-date=February 11, 2012}}
In August 2013, he co-starred with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in the Harold Pinter play No Man's Land as well as in Waiting for Godot at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The shows transferred to The Cort Theatre in New York City, where they ran in repertory until March 2014.{{cite web|url=http://www.twoplaysinrep.com/|title=カードローンの借り入れ条件の年収は重要?|website=twoplaysinrep.com}}
In November 2017, he starred in the world premiere of David Cale's one-man play Harry Clarke at Vineyard Theatre. It moved to the Minetta Lane Theatre the following spring.{{Cite news |last=Windman |first=Matt |date=October 15, 2018 |title='Sakina's' Feels Reheated |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-sakinas-feels-reheated/172402739/ |access-date=June 17, 2021 |work=Newsday |page=A10 |via=Newspapers.com}}
=Other work=
From 1998 to 2005, Crudup was the narrator for the U.S. television ad campaign "Priceless" for Mastercard. In the ads, the narrator (Crudup) lists the prices of two goods or services, then lists some third, intangible benefit gained from those purchases and concludes, "priceless". He said in 2005 that appearing in the ads "changed my life", in that they gave him the financial freedom to pursue the acting work that he wanted to do.{{cite web |title=Free Billy |url=https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/theater/12048/index1.html |first=Logan |last=Hill |work=New York |date=May 30, 2005}}
He appeared as Zartan in the 2009 parody video The Ballad of G.I. Joe on the website Funny or Die.
Personal life
From 1996 to November 2003, Crudup was in a relationship with actress Mary-Louise Parker. She was seven months pregnant with their son, William Atticus Parker, born in January 2004, when Crudup ended their relationship and began dating actress Claire Danes.{{Cite magazine|last=Susman|first=Gary|date=January 14, 2004|title=Mary-Louise Parker names son after Billy Crudup|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|url=https://ew.com/article/2004/01/14/mary-louise-parker-names-son-after-billy-crudup/}} Crudup and Danes separated in 2006.{{Cite news|last=Miller|first=Julie|date=October 5, 2015|title=Claire Danes Opens Up About Billy Crudup/Mary-Louise Parker Scandal|work=Vanity Fair|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/10/claire-danes-billy-crudup-mary-louise-parker}}{{Cite news|last=Lee|first=Esther|date=November 10, 2015|title=Mary-Louise Parker Addresses Billy Crudup Leaving Her for Claire Danes|work=Us Weekly|url=https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/mary-louise-parker-addresses-billy-crudup-leaving-her-for-claire-danes-20151011/}} In 2017, Crudup began dating British actress Naomi Watts, after the two met on the set of the Netflix drama series Gypsy.{{cite magazine |last=McKay |first=Rhys |title=What Was Naomi Watts' Relationship Like With Liev Schreiber? |url=https://www.who.com.au/naomi-watts-husband-liev-schreiber |magazine=Who |date=February 17, 2020 |access-date=February 7, 2023}} The couple married in New York City in June 2023.Reslin, Eileen; Ryan, Tamantha (11 June 2023). [https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/hook-ups-break-ups/naomi-watts-and-billy-crudup-tie-the-knot-in-new-york-city/news-story/571afe81d6297869d0d2025cac933765?amp "Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup Tie the Knot in New York City."] News.com.au. Retrieved 11 June 2023. In June 2024, Watts and Crudup celebrated their nuptials in a second ceremony surrounded by their family in Mexico.{{cite web |title=Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup Have Second Wedding in Mexico |url=https://www.eonline.com/news/1403358/naomi-watts-and-billy-crudup-have-second-wedding-in-mexico |website=E! Online |access-date=12 June 2024 |date=10 June 2024}}
Acting credits
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
!Title !Role !class=unsortable|Notes |
|---|
| rowspan=2|1996
|Tommy | |
| Everyone Says I Love You
|Ken | |
| rowspan=2|1997
|Jacey Holt | |
| Grind
|Eddie / Terry's brother | |
| rowspan=3|1998
|Teddy Timmons | |
| Without Limits
| |
| The Hi-Lo Country
|Pete Calder | |
| rowspan=2|1999
|Ashitaka (voice) |English dub |
| Jesus' Son
|FH | |
| rowspan=2|2000
|Fielding Pierce | |
| Almost Famous
|Russell Hammond | |
| rowspan=2|2001
|Cal | |
| Charlotte Gray
|Julien Levade | |
| rowspan=2|2003
|Will Bloom | |
| Stage Beauty
| |
| 2005
|Tobey | |
| rowspan=2|2006
|Musgrave | |
| The Good Shepherd
|Arch Cummings | |
| 2007
|Henry Roth | |
| 2008
|Curtis Prentiss | |
| rowspan=3|2009
| |
| Public Enemies
| |
| The Ballad of G.I. Joe
|Short |
| 2010
|Stephen | |
| 2011
|Randy | |
| 2012
|Paul | |
| 2013
|Frank | |
| rowspan=3|2014
|Sam | |
| The Longest Week
|Dylan Tate | |
| Glass Chin
|J.J. Cook | |
| rowspan=2|2015
|The Stanford Prison Experiment |Dr. Philip Zimbardo | |
| Spotlight
| |
| rowspan=3|2016
|Brian | |
| Jackie
|The Journalist | |
| 20th Century Women
|William | |
| rowspan="4"|2017
|Alien: Covenant - Prologue: Last Supper{{cite web |date=February 22, 2017 |title=Alien: Covenant – Prologue: Last Supper – 20th Century FOX |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXgRlRao5I/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/EkXgRlRao5I |archive-date=October 30, 2021 |website=20th Century Fox |via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}} |Christopher Oram |Short |
| 1 Mile to You
|Coach K | |
| Alien: Covenant
|Oram | |
| Justice League
| |
| rowspan=2|2019
|Oscar Carlson | |
| Where'd You Go, Bernadette
|Elgie | |
| rowspan="2"|2021
|Narrator | |
| Donnybrook
|Victor Roberts |Short |
| 2025
| | Post-production |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
!Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |
|---|
| 2011
|Television film |
| 2017
|Michael Holloway |Main role, 10 episodes |
| 2019
|Dr. Raddish |Episode: "Halloween"{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/tv/2019/04/01/billy-crudup-at-home-with-amy-sedaris-clip/|title=Billy Crudup is a dreamy, delusional 'doctor' in At Home With Amy Sedaris sneak peek|date=April 1, 2019|access-date=November 8, 2020|first=Joey|last= Nolfi|magazine=Entertainment Weekly}} |
| 2019–present
|Cory Ellison |Main role, 30 episodes |
| 2022
|James Goldstone (voice) |Docuseries |
| 2023
|Jack Billings |Main role |
=Stage=
| class=wikitable sortable |
| Year
!Play !Role !Production !Notes |
|---|
| 1994
|America Dreaming |Robert | |
| 1995
|Septimus Hodge | |
| 1996
|Bo Decker | |
| 1997
|Staff Captain Solyony | |
| 1998
|Blue Light Theatre Company | |
| 2001 |
| rowspan=2|2002
|The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui |Flake / Defense Counsel | |
| The Elephant Man
| |
| 2004
|The 24 Hour Plays |Bobby |{{n/a}} |Staged reading |
| 2005
|Katurian | |
| rowspan=2|2006–07
|The Coast of Utopia: Part 1 – Voyage | rowspan="2" |Vissarion Belinsky | rowspan="2" |Lincoln Center Theatre | |
| The Coast of Utopia: Part 2 – Shipwreck
| |
| 2009
|The 24 Hour Plays |Billy |{{n/a}} |Staged reading |
| 2010
|The Metal Children |Tobin Falmouth |Vineyard Theatre | |
| 2011
|Bernard Nightingale | |
| rowspan=4|2013
|rowspan=2|No Man's Land |rowspan=2|Foster | |
| Cort Theatre
| |
| rowspan=2|Waiting for Godot
|rowspan=2|Lucky |Berkeley Repertory Theatre | |
| Cort Theatre
| |
| 2017
|rowspan=3|Harry Clarke |rowspan=3|Various |Vineyard Theatre | |
| 2018
| |
| 2024
| |
Accolades
The following is a list of accolades Crudup has received or been nominated for throughout his film, television and theatre career:
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Billy Crudup}}
- {{IMDb name|1082}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{iobdb name|6648}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Billy Crudup
|list =
{{Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Drama Supporting Actor}}
{{DramaDesk One-PersonShow}}
{{EmmyAward DramaSupportingActor}}
{{National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance}}
{{TonyAward PlayFeaturedActor 2001-2025}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crudup, Billy}}
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:Male actors from New York (state)
Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Category:People from Manhasset, New York
Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners