Greg Kinnear Biography
Summary
"Gregory Kinnear" (born June 17, 1963) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and television personality, who rose to stardom as the first host of E!'s "Talk Soup".
Biography
Early life
Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, the son of Suzanne, a homemaker, and Edward Kinnear, a career diplomat who worked for the US State Department. He has two brothers--one named James, Vice President-Investments at Wachovia Securities in Arizona (born in 1957), and one named Steve, a business manager who works for the Billy Graham Training Center in North Carolina (born in 1959). As a child, Greg and his family moved around a lot, from places as far as Beirut, Lebanon to Athens, Greece, and was therefore part of a group sometimes referred to as Foreign Service Brats. While a student at the American Community Schools in Athens, Greece, Greg first ventured into the role of talk show host with his radio show 'School Daze With Greg Kinnear'. Returning to the States for a college education, he attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism.
Career
From Arizona, Kinnear headed out to Los Angeles, where he landed his first job as a marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment. Following this job he auditioned to be an MTV VJ, but failed and became a host and on-location reporter for the channel. When that job went under he had bit parts on such television shows as "L.A. Law" and "Life Goes On". Later, he would host a short-lived game show, "College Mad House", which was spun-off from the kids' show, "Fun House". After that, he would later become the creator, co-executive producer, and host of "Best of the Worst" which aired from 1990 to 1991. He then received his breakthrough when he became the first host of "Talk Soup" until 1995, when he left the show for the NBC late-night talk show, "Later with Greg Kinnear" (1994). Ironically while working as a reporter, he was on location at the 1989 premeire of the film "Batman", he would later star in "As Good As It Gets" with Jack Nicholson who played the Joker in "Batman"
It was also in 1994 that Kinnear had his first big screen role, as a talk show host yet again in the Damon Wayans comedy "Blankman". In 1995 he won the part of the David Larrabee in Sydney Pollack's remake of Billy Wilder's 1954 classic "Sabrina". He then received the lead role in the 1996 comedy "Dear God". In 1997, Greg was cast in James L. Brooks' blockbuster comedy-drama "As Good as It Gets", for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His next film, the romantic comedy "A Smile Like Yours", had him starring opposite Lauren Holly as part of a couple trying to have a baby. The film met with lukewarm reviews and a low box office, but his next film, "You've Got Mail", struck gold. He played Meg Ryan's significant other, a newspaper columnist wholly unlike what was to be his next character, that of Captain Amazing in the 1999 summer action film "Mystery Men". His next films were "Nurse Betty", "Loser", and "Someone Like You".
In 2002, Kinnear starred in the movie "Auto Focus" about the life and murder of actor Bob Crane. In 2006, Kinnear co-starred with Steve Carell in the Oscar-winning comedy-drama "Little Miss Sunshine", and with Mark Wahlberg in "Invincible", based on the true story of a bartender who tries out for the Philadelphia Eagles football team. He also appeared in "Fast Food Nation", playing a fast food executive who finds out some shocking secrets about his company.
Filmography
"Murder in Mississippi" (1990) (TV) .... News reporter
"Dillinger" (1991) (TV) .... Arizona Legislator
"Based on an Untrue Story" (1993) (TV) .... Orlando Chang Stein
"Blankman" (1994) .... Talk Show Host
"Sabrina" (1995) .... David Larrabee
"Dear God" (1996) .... Tom Turner
"Beavis and Butt-head Do America" (1996) (voice) (uncredited) .... ATF Agent Bork
"A Smile Like Yours" (1997) .... Danny Robertson
"As Good as It Gets" (1997) .... Simon Bishop
"You've Got Mail" (1998) .... Frank Navasky
"Mystery Men" (1999) .... Captain Amazing/Lance Hunt
"What Planet Are You From?" (2000) .... Perry Gordon
"Nurse Betty" (2000) .... Dr. David Ravell/George McCord
"Loser" (2000) .... Professor Edward Alcott
"The Gift" (2000) .... Wayne Collins
"Someone Like You..." (2001) .... Ray Brown
"Dinner with Friends" (2001) (TV) .... Tom
"We Were Soldiers" (2002) .... Maj. Bruce 'Snake' Crandall
"Auto Focus" (2002) .... Bob Crane
"Stuck On You" (2003/I) .... Walt
"Godsend" (2004) .... Paul Duncan
"Robots" (2005) (voice) .... Ratchet
"Bad News Bears" (2005) .... Roy Bullock
"The Matador" (2005) .... Danny Wright
"Fast Food Nation" (2006) .... Don Anderson
"Little Miss Sunshine" (2006) .... Richard Hoover
"Invincible" (2006) .... Dick Vermeil
"Unknown" (2006) .... Broken Nose (Richard McCain)
"Feast of Love" (2007) .... Bradley Thomas
Upcoming:
"WALL-E" (2008) (voice) .... WALL-E
"Flash of Genius" .... Bob Kearns
External links
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Greg Kinnear.
