Biography for
Peter Sarsgaard More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

7 March 1971, Belleville, Illinois, USA

Birth Name

John Peter Sarsgaard

Height

5' 11" (1.80 m)

Mini Biography

Coming on the scene fairly recently, Illinois-born actor Peter Sarsgaard has already demonstrated an amazing flair for harsh, disturbing, dark-edged characters despite his boyish countenance. A graduate of St. Louis' Washington University where he majored in history and literature, he was a co-founder of the comedy improvisational group Mama's Pot Roast and trained initially with the Actors' Studio in New York. Such off-Broadway productions included Horton Foote's "Laura Dennis" and John Cameron Mitchell's "Kingdom of Earth."

He made his screen debut in Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking (1995) and was given more sizable roles in Desert Blue (1998) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998/I), as the ill-fated son of the Musketeer Athos, played by John Malkovich. Peter then started gracing the art-house circuit, making a violent, searing impression as a homophobic killer in Boys Don't Cry (1999) starring two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank as a trans-gendered teen.

Other impressionable offbeat roles for Peter that have thrilled critics from coast to coast include Shattered Glass (2003), which earned him a slew of awards including the prestigious National Society of Film Critics Award. Prior to that, he showed off his versatility with portrayals ranging from a Russian nuclear reactor officer in K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) to a drug addict in The Salton Sea (2002). Other heralded performances in Garden State (2004) and Kinsey (2004) only prove that, at this rate, it is only a matter of time before the Oscar comes rapping on this man's door.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Maggie Gyllenhaal

(2 May 2009 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark

Often takes supporting roles instead of headlining a picture, whereby his character is friend to the main character in the film (Kinsey (2004), Shattered Glass (2003), Garden State (2004), Jarhead (2005)).

Trivia

He attended Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he co-founded a comedy improvisation group called Mama's Pot Roast.

His baby face; his soft, strangely ominous voice; and often bizarre, unstable characters have led to him being compared to John Malkovich, who played his father in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998/I).

In Garden State (2004), Peter's character collects Desert Storm trading cards. In Jarhead (2005), Peter's character fights in Desert Storm.

He studied with legendary acting coach Terry Schreiber at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City, like Edward Norton, Jeanine Louise DeName and Broadway actress Kimilee Bryant.

Childhood hero was Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett.

Engaged to Maggie Gyllenhaal [April 2006]

Peter and his fiancée, Maggie Gyllenhaal, became the parents of a girl, named Ramona, on October 3, 2006 in New York City.

He attended the Actors' Studio Program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Admits to having a lifelong fear of flying.

Son-in-law of Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Foner.

Brother-in-law of Jake Gyllenhaal.

Peter and Maggie Gyllenhaal are expecting their second child [November 28, 2011].

Peter and wife Maggie Gyllenhaal welcomed their 2nd daughter Gloria Ray on May 15, 2012.

Personal Quotes

"I just pick the best roles that are left over, and they usually aren't the heterosexual, leading-man, non-drug-addict parts. And once you get into doing them, people know you do them." - On his wide range of offbeat parts.

If you go in and audition for roles rather than just be offered them, then you kind of get a chance to kind of discover that you can do something that you didn't think you could do.

When you don't have power, which I still don't in the grand Hollywood scheme of things, you get offered things that you wouldn't ordinarily be offered. Frequently, other people know what I can do more than I do.

On his role as a marine in Jarhead (2005): There's a quality my character has about not caving in to the physical or mental demands of your job. I really took that to heart. A lot of my relatives have served, and I have respect for what it means to be a soldier. These guys are carrying a very heavy burden. We joke about marines being strict and severe, but would you want a bunch of hippies running around with guns?.

When people say, 'The movie sucked, but you didn't'; that means you didn't swing hard enough. You bunted. If the movie goes down, I want to go down with it.

Seriously, in Catholicism, you're supposed to love your enemy. That really impressed me as a kid, and it has helped me as an actor. I don't believe there are bad people. Just people who do bad things. The way that I view the characters I play is part of my religious upbringing. To abandon curiosity in all personalities, good or bad, is to give up hope in humanity. Like somebody who is mumbling on the street - I'm always curious if his words make any sense. I'm interested in lost souls. They possess another sort of secret. (Explaining how his religious upbringing influences his choices as an actor, 2005.)

Salary

Flightplan (2005)

$750,000

Where Are They Now

(2003) Co-starring with Elisabeth Shue in the off-Broadway revival of "Burn This" by Lanford Wilson.

(October 2008) Appearing on Broadway as Trigorin in "The Seagull."