Paul Giamatti

Guide Note:

Actor Paul Giamatti has appeared in numerous films since the 1990s, including acclaimed performances in the half-fictional/half-documentary biopic American Splendor, the wine-themed buddy comedy Sideways and Ron Howard's period boxing drama Cinderella Man. In 2008, he starred in the HBO miniseries John Adams as America's Second President.

Fast Facts:

1. Born June 6, 1967 in New Haven, Connecticut
2. Graduate of Yale University
3. Oscar Nominations: 1
4. SAG Awards: 1
5. Was a member of Skull and Bones society while at Yale
6. Father A. Bartlett Giamatti was President of Yale and former Major League Baseball commissioner
7. Doesn't actually like wine

Giamatti's first major roles was as Howard Stern's aggressive manager "Pig Vomit" in the film Private Parts and as an FBI agent in the Mafia film Donnie Brasco.

Throughout the 1990s, he performed in supporting roles in a number of significant films, including The Truman Show, in which he played a control room operator, and the Milos Forman biopic of Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon, in which Giamatti played Kaufman's friend and colleague, Bob Zmuda.

It was the role of real-life comic book writer Harvey Pekar in 2003's hit indie American Splendor that started getting Giamatti some more attention and larger roles. The next year, he starred in Alexander Payne's Sideways, followed that up with his acclaimed turn in Cinderella Man and starred in no less than 3 films in 2006: the Tom Hanks animated comedy The Ant Bully, the period mystery The Illusionist and the M. Night Shyamalan "fairy tale," Lady in the Water.