Johnny Galecki Biography
Summary
"John Mark 'Johnny' Galecki" (born April 30, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as David Healy in the sitcom "Roseanne", Rusty Griswold in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", and as Leonard Hofstadter, Ph.D, in the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory".
Biography
Early life
Galecki was born in Bree, Belgium, to American parents. His mother, Mary Lou, is a mortgage consultant, and his father, Richard Galecki, was a member of the U.S. Air Force stationed in Belgium and also worked as a rehabilitation teacher. Galecki moved to Oak Park, Illinois, with his family when he was three years old.
Career
In 1989, he played Russell 'Rusty' Griswold in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". His best known early role, though was as David Healy (first introduced as Kevin Healy) in the U.S. sitcom "Roseanne". His character was the artistically talented, curly-haired, soft-spoken boyfriend (later husband) of Darlene, the droll, tomboyish second daughter of the Conner family played by Sara Gilbert. Galecki was cast in similar roles in the 1997 summer slasher "I Know What You Did Last Summer" as a jealous loser who has an eye for Jennifer Love Hewitt and the 1998 dark comedy "The Opposite of Sex" as a gay teen who lies about being molested. In the year 2000, Galecki took a bit of a twist and reunited with the same filmmaker who cast him in "Bounce" as Seth (a gay man), an assistant to Ben Affleck's character Buddy Amaral, who also helps dodge out with his love life.
Galecki continued his film streak with other David Healy-like roles in "Suicide Kings" as a nebbishy rich kid who folds easily under pressure and brief bit parts in high-profile films such as "Bean" as a bad-boyfriend biker and a minor supporting part in "Vanilla Sky". Galecki showed that he had range as an actor with typecast-breaking roles like a young criminal delinquent in "A Family Torn Apart", a TV movie based on a true story about a serial murderer and the death of a pair of parents.
Galecki appeared in a first-season episode of "My Name Is Earl" as a golfer. Without his knowledge and to get free beer, Earl and Randy improve his golf score by making it appear that he got numerous holes-in-one. His obsession with improving his golf game without Earl and Randy's assistance destroys his lifehe loses his job and girlfriend and is forced to live out of his car.
He played a character named Trouty on TBS's sitcom "My Boys". He also played the half-brother of the main characters, sisters Hope Shanowski and Faith Fairfield, in the TV sitcom "Hope & Faith". In late 2006/early 2007, Galecki starred in the Broadway play "The Little Dog Laughed" as Alex, a male prostitute. In this role, he was required to do a full-frontal nude scene, the first of his acting career. 'At its core, the play is about what we all sacrifice to be successful, whatever our careers or goals,' he explains. Galecki originated the role earlier in 2006 at Second Stage Theatre. The widely popular comedy by Douglas Carter Beane had a successful run at Second Stage and moved to the Cort Theatre. The play closed on February 18, 2007.
Galecki currently stars as Leonard Hofstadter, Ph.D, on the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory", which debuted September 24, 2007. His "Roseanne" co-star Sara Gilbert who also played his girlfriend and later, his wife, in "Roseanne", has appeared in cameos for the show. Laurie Metcalf, who played Jackie on "Roseanne", also has had a few cameos as his co-star Sheldon Cooper's (played by Jim Parsons) mother. Galecki appeared briefly in the 2008 superhero comedy "Hancock", alongside Will Smith and Jason Bateman. He also appears in the music video of the Dave Matthews Band song 'Satellite'.
He plays the cello and has played it while in different characters.
External links
("USA Today" article from 1998)
(Playbill article about the end of "The Little Dog Laughed"s run at The Cort Theatre)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Johnny Galecki.
