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Paul Rudd

Paul RuddAKA Paul Stephen Rudd

Born: 6-Apr-1969
Birthplace: Passaic, NJ

Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The Shape of Things

Paul Rudd is a devilishly handsome American actor. His most recognizable roles include a horny reporter in Anchorman, the young man who brought Charlize Theron in for an abortion in The Cider House Rules, and Phoebe's boyfriend Mike (aka Crap Bag) on Friends.

As a young man, Rudd cleaned hot tubs, worked as a DJ and MC at bar mitzvahs, and glazed hams at the Holiday Ham Company in Kansas City. "I used to wake up at 5:00 AM and unload dead pigs from a truck, take them out of this plastic wrapper, cut them in half, scrape off the fat, and take to it with a propane torch and big tin of sugar. That's how you glazed it!" But he wanted to be an actor.

Rudd earned a degree in drama, then was awarded a Spencer Tracy Scholarship to attend Pasadena's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He also studied at Oxford's British Drama Academy. All this training left Rudd quite qualified for roles in the 1990s sitcoms Sisters and Wild Oats. He also did a commercial for Nintendo.

In his first movie, he played Alicia Silverstone's smitten stepbrother in Clueless. His second film was the sixth Halloween slasher flick, The Curse of Michael Myers -- "just a piece of shit", was Rudd's own review.

In 1994, while living in Los Angeles, Rudd says he had a "meltdown." He was working on Wild Oats, which he considered "mindless drivel," when a close friend suddenly died, and Rudd slipped into an extended depression, painting obscenities on his walls. With a defiant "what the hell," he packed his possessions, moved to New York, and instantly landed a Broadway play, Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Rudd has lived in New York ever since, and considers it home.

Many of Rudd's films, including some of his best, have been arty and outside the mainstream or simply flops. He played the geeky young man transformed by Rachel Weisz in The Shape of Things, and he was Romeo's hunky rival in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. He was paired with Courtney Love in 200 Cigarettes, co-starred with Reese Witherspoon and Christine Taylor in the fine but shelved comedy Overnight Delivery, and he played a gay school teacher opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Object of My Affection. He was also the horny lifeguard in Wet Hot American Summer.

He is not the same Paul Rudd who appeared on the 1970s soap operas Beacon Hill, Beulah Land, and Knots Landing -- that Rudd is about 30 years older than our Rudd. Union rules, though, dictate first come first served for stage names, so our Rudd was billed as Paul Stephen Rudd until the elder Rudd, now retired, yielded the name.

Father: Michael Rudd (English, tour guide)
Mother: (English, TV executive)
Sister: Mandi Rudd (three years younger)
Girlfriend: Jennifer Aniston (actress, Friends; dated 1990s)
Wife: Julie Yaeger (film publicist at Miramax, dated since 1995, m. 23-Feb-2003)

    High School: Shawnee Mission West High School, Shawnee Mission, KS (1987)
    University: BA Theater, University of Kansas (1991)

    Endorsement of Miller Brewing Company 1991
    Endorsement of Nintendo 1991
    Endorsement of Samsung (Feb-2013)

    TELEVISION
    Celebrity Poker Showdown Contestant
    Sisters Kirby Quimby Philby (1992-94)
    Friends Mike Hannigan (2002-04, irregularly)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Avengers: Endgame (22-Apr-2019)
    Ant-Man and the Wasp (25-Jun-2018)
    Mute (23-Feb-2018)
    Captain America: Civil War (12-Apr-2016)
    Sausage Party (14-Mar-2016) [VOICE]
    The Fundamentals of Caring (29-Jan-2016)
    Ant-Man (29-Jun-2015)
    The Little Prince (22-May-2015) [VOICE]
    They Came Together (24-Jan-2014)
    Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (24-Nov-2013)
    This Is the End (3-Jun-2013)
    All Is Bright (18-Apr-2013)
    Admission (22-Mar-2013)
    Prince Avalanche (20-Jan-2013)
    This Is 40 (20-Dec-2012)
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower (8-Sep-2012)
    Mansome (21-Apr-2012) · Himself
    Wanderlust (23-Feb-2012) · George
    Our Idiot Brother (22-Jan-2011) · Ned
    How Do You Know (17-Dec-2010) · George
    Dinner for Schmucks (30-Jul-2010) · Tim
    Casino Jack and the United States of Money (Jan-2010) [VOICE]
    I Love You, Man (20-Mar-2009)
    Monsters vs Aliens (19-Mar-2009) [VOICE]
    Role Models (7-Nov-2008)
    Forgetting Sarah Marshall (10-Mar-2008)
    Over Her Dead Body (1-Feb-2008)
    I Could Never Be Your Woman (11-May-2007) · Adam
    Reno 911! Miami (23-Feb-2007)
    The Ex (8-Feb-2007)
    The Ten (19-Jan-2007) · Jeff Reigert
    Night at the Museum (21-Dec-2006)
    Knocked Up (9-Dec-2006)
    Diggers (9-Sep-2006)
    The OH in Ohio (2006)
    The 40 Year-Old Virgin (11-Aug-2005)
    The Baxter (24-Apr-2005) · Dan Abbott
    Wake Up, Ron Burgundy (28-Dec-2004)
    P.S. (3-Sep-2004) · Sammy
    Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (9-Jul-2004) · Brian Fantana
    Two Days (28-Jan-2003) · Paul Miller
    The Shape of Things (18-Jan-2003) · Adam
    The Château (27-Jan-2001) · Graham
    Wet Hot American Summer (23-Jan-2001) · Andy
    The Great Gatsby (14-Jan-2001)
    Gen-X Cops 2 (14-Dec-2000)
    The Cider House Rules (7-Sep-1999)
    200 Cigarettes (26-Feb-1999) · Kevin
    The Object of My Affection (17-Apr-1998)
    Overnight Delivery (7-Apr-1998)
    The Locusts (28-Aug-1997)
    Romeo + Juliet (1-Nov-1996) · Dave Paris
    Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (29-Sep-1995)
    Clueless (19-Jul-1995)
    Runaway Daughters (12-Aug-1994) · Jimmy


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