Name : Guy Edward Pearce Birthdate: October 5, 1967 Birthplace: Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK Height : 5' 11" Colour of eyes: Piercing Blue Colour of hair: Light brown Star Sign: Libra Marital Status: married to Kate Mestitz Hobbies: Write and play music Live Town: Melbourne, Australia Fave actor/actress: Robert DeNiro/Wendy Hughes Favourite Music: Kate Bush Fave Wrtiter: Johan Wolfgang von Goethe Fave Film: The Elephant Man Fact: He tries to be vegetarian Early Years Guy's father, Stuart Pearce, began his career with the New Zealander Air Force, then later moved to Britain to work with the RAF. Guy born in Cambridgeshire England, in 1967. When Guy was about three and a half, the family moved to Geelong, Australia where Stuart Pearce became the chief test pilot for the Nomad aircraft program. Five years later, on the morning of August 6th, 1976, Stuart died tragically when his plane crashed shortly after takeoff at Avalon airfield, near Geelong. After her husband's untimely death, Anne Pearce, a school teacher,chose to remain in Australia to raise her two children (Guy and older sister Tracey), rather than return to her native Britain. Getting Started Even as a youngster, Guy seemed to have a clear idea of what he would end up doing in life, shunning subjects like math and science in favor of art and music. Guy joined local theatrical groups at the age of eleven, where he appeared in amateur theater productions of The King and I, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz. Guy got into body building in his early teens as a way of dealing with his insecurities about himself and his naturally thin body. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, he won the "Mr. Junior Victoria" body building competition. In Guy's words: "I was a small, skinny guy and had a lot of insecurities about my body, so I got into weight training when I was young...If I don't go to the gym, I lose weight." First Break In 1985 Guy was completing his final year of school at prestigous Geelong College, but had no intentions of going on to university. Instead, on the advice of his drama teacher, Guy began writing away to people in the TV industry to request a screen test. Among those he contacted was the Grundy Organisation, the producer of Neighbours, who invited him to show them his talents later that year. Just two days after his final high school exam in 1985, Guy started his four year stint as hunky student turned teacher Mike Young on the popular Aussie soap Neighbours which helped turn him into a major teen idol. Guy remembers, "I found out that I had the part in October and then had to concentrate on my HSC exams all through November...which of course I didn't, but I passed. My last exam was on the 29th of November, a Friday, and I had to start work on Neighbours the following Tuesday! It all happened so quickly...at the time I got the part I also got an agent, and I did a commercial for Mars Bars [the one where everyone's paddling away furiously on the paddle-boats]." The Big Departure After Neighbours, he played David in the equally popular TV series, Home and Away. Guy Pearce, an extremely versatile actor, has starred in several other films including Flynn in which he played Errol Flynn as a young man in his native Australia; the contemporary rock drama, Heaven Tonight directed by Pino Amenta, in which Guy Pearce stared alongside John Waters as a young rock musician and in which he performed all his own music; and the psychological thriller, Hunting. He is also well known as Rob McGregor, from the 1993 television series, Snowy River: The McGregor Saga. Guy Pearce has also performed in the theatre. His credits include Grease, I Hate Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Playing the part of Felicia/Adam in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 1994 was certainly a big departure for Pearce. Hollywood picked up on Pearce when he did a career about-face as a flamboyant, lip-syncing drag queen. After Priscilla's success, Guy was signed to the mega-powerful ICM talent agency in Hollywood, and has had "brief, concentrated bursts" in Los Angeles, for casting talks. When casting director Mali Finn recommended Pearce to Curtis Hanson for LA Confidential the director had not even heard of him, but was so wowed by his screen test that he fought to cast him. Guy earned raves reviews for his portrayal of the straight-laced cop Ed Exley, also allows him to be more knowed outside Australia. Following His Own Rules After LA Confidential, he was offered another films, "but I knocked that back as it didn't feel the right thing to do...I like to just go there for a short time, I don't think I could live there. I go there for two weeks and do 20 auditions...." Hollywood is aggressively competitive, he feels, and he is not keen to join that long, slugging race. "At school I was always the sprinter, not the long distance runner. I sort of go in, hit hard and get out of there."r But for long term plans, Guy is singularly empty handed: "I always feel I should have a ready answer for that question...I think if I ever decided to stop being an actor, I'd probably concentrate on my music. I write quite a bit now, and it's so much more personal, more expressive. As an actor you're often restrained and restricted..." The reality is that Guy Pearce is not driven by ambition, he is not about to reach for superstardom, he is not moving to Los Angeles. "Look, I love to wake up in the morning and smell the fresh air, go and potter at the piano, and feel relaxed. I'm a really nervy person, so I need to feel calm and so on. Part of being an actor is to learn about as many people as I can, to take it all on board...and there is a need for me to do that. But when that need has been fulfilled I guess I won't do that ." Accoding with his way of thinking he uses to plays in Indiee films such Woundings, A slipping Down Life, and most recently Memento and Till Human Voices Wake Us. And when he accepts to work for big studios, he does it in odd films such Ravenous or in supporting roles such in Rules of Engagement. Also this year, he return to the stage after seven years of abscence for play in the social drama Face to Face. His Family His father, Stuart, was chief test pilot for the government aircraft factory in Avalon, but was killed in 1976, at the age of 39, when the prototype Nomad plane he was flying crashed near Geelong, Victoria. "It s funny´",says Pearce of his father´ s death. "It was hugely devastating but it teaches you to be a lot more spiritually connected to people, as opposed to just physically connected" His mother:Guy and his intellectually disabled sister, Tracy, "shes ace, she´s like my best friend" were raised by their mother, Anne, who remarried 17 years ago and now runs a deer farm with husband Laurie Cocking at Dean´s Marsh, near Geelong. ´"He had to grow up quickly", says Anne of her son, who is a financial partner in the farm. Wife: He married to Kate Mestitz, a former school mate, in March of 1997. She is a Naturophaty student.