Christian Slater Biography
Summary
"Christian Slater" (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor.
Biography
Early life
Slater was born "Christian Michael Leonard Hawkins" in New York, New York, the son of Mary Jo Slater, a casting executive, and Michael Hawkins, an actor who was also known as Michael Gainsborough. Slater has a half-brother, Ryan Slater, who is also an actor. Slater attended the Dalton School, the Professional Children's School and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Christian is of English and Irish ancestry.
Career
Following a run on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live", he made his Broadway debut as the lisping Winthrop Paroo opposite Dick Van Dyke in the 1980 revival of "The Music Man". Additional Broadway credits include "Merlin", "Macbeth", "Side Man", and "The Glass Menagerie". He made his big screen debut in 1985 in the film "The Legend of Billie Jean". In 1986, he had a significant role in the movie "The Name of the Rose". In 2006, he appeared as the main character in "Hollow Man 2", replacing Kevin Bacon as the invisible man, the sequel to Paul Verhoeven's "Hollow Man" (2000). Slater made a cameo in the Joaquin Phoenix directed video 'Tired of Being Sorry' for Balthazar Getty's band Ringside.
In recent years, Slater has gone from being a box-office leading man, to starring in direct-to-video films and other low-budget projects. In 2004 he decided to return to the stage, and played Randle P. McMurphy in the play "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Edinburgh Fringe. He twice contracted chicken pox, delaying the show's opening. While continuing to appear in this play in London's West End, Slater was asked to play the role of John Watson aka Wonko the Sane for the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish", produced by Above the Title Productions. In 2005 and 2006 Slater returned to the stage and London to play McMurphy in "Cuckoo's Nest". Slater is the advertising voice of Panasonic on radio and television ads.
On January 20 2006, Slater was the guest host for an episode in the second series of The Friday Night Project for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. He appeared in the booth of Monday Night Football on November 6, 2006 for the Oakland Raiders at a Seattle Seahawks game.
From October 5 2007, until January 19 2008, Slater stars as Buddy Ackerman in the West End production "Swimming with Sharks" at Vaudeville Theatre,London. A remake of the 1994 film starring
Kevin Spacey, the play sees Slater star alongside Helen Baxendale.
Personal life
Slater has a well tabloid-publicized record of alcohol and drug abuse, and a series of high profile romantic relationships. He currently resides in London, England. He has two children with ex-wife Ryan Haddon: Jaden Zach Haddon-Slater (born April 6, 1999), and Eliana Sophia (born August 15, 2001). Slater divorced Haddon in November of 2006.
Slater has had several altercations with the police and other authorities. On August 11, 1997, he was arrested by police in Los Angeles and charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of battery. Slater, drunk and high on heroin, punched his then-girlfriend, fashion editor Michelle Jonas, in the face at a party and bit a man who attempted to protect her. Slater did not go quietly, but hid in a stairwell and fought with officers, reportedly shouting, 'the Germans are coming and they will kill us!' He then attacked a police officer. All the felony charges against him were eventually dropped. He was sentenced to three months in prison, serving 59 days for good behavior. In 2003, his wife, Ryan Haddon, was arrested for beating up Slater at a Hard Rock Cafe while on a trip to Las Vegas and he later received stitches.
Filmography
"Tales from the Darkside" (1984) TV, Season 1
"The Legend of Billie Jean" (1985)
"The Name of the Rose" (1986)
"Twisted" (1986)
"Tucker: The Man and His Dream" (1988)
"Heathers" (1989)
"Gleaming the Cube" (1989)
"The Wizard" (1989)
"Beyond the Stars" (1989)
"Tales from the Darkside: The Movie" (1990)
"Young Guns II" (1990)
"Pump Up the Volume" (1990)
"Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991) - the cameo role was given to "Star Trek"-fan Christian by his mother, the movie's casting director
"Robin Hood Prince of Thieves" (1991)
"Mobsters" (1991)
"FernGully: The Last Rainforest" (1992)
"Kuffs" (1992)
"True Romance" (1993)
"Untamed Heart" (1993)
"Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" (1994)
"Jimmy Hollywood" (1994)
"Murder in the First" (1995)
"Bed of Roses" (1996)
"Broken Arrow" (1996)
"Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery" (1997)
"Hard Rain" (1998)
"Very Bad Things" (1998)
"Home Team" (1999)
"The Contender" (2000)
"Cletis Tout" (2001)
"3000 Miles to Graceland" (2001)
"Windtalkers" (2002)
"Prehistoric Planet" (2002) TV narrator, Season 2
"Dinosaur Planet" (2003) TV narrator
"The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Jet Fusion, Parts 1 & 2" (2003)
"Churchill: The Hollywood Years" (2004)
"The Confessor" (2004)
"Alone in the Dark" (2005) - due to his outrage at the film, he will not return for (the sequel) and has since been replaced by Rick Yune.
"Mindhunters" (2005)
"Bobby (2006)
"Hollow Man 2 (2006)
"He Was a Quiet Man (2007)
"Slipstream (2007)
" (... more) The Ten Commandments (2007 Animated Film (Promenade Pictures))
External links
(Christian-Slater.com) - "The Official Site"
(Interpreting Tennessee Williams) - "Working in the Theatre Seminar" video at American Theatre Wing.org, April 2005
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Christian Slater.
