Paul Rudd Biography
Summary
"Paul Stephen Rudd" (born April 6, 1969) is an American film, television, and stage actor.
Biography
Personal life
Paul Rudd was born in Passaic, New Jersey, the son of Jewish immigrants from England. His father, Michael Rudd, a tour guide, formerly worked for an airline; his mother managed a television station. He was raised in Overland Park, Kansas. He attended high school at Shawnee Mission West, and college at the University of Kansas for one year, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. In the movie Clueless, Paul wears a KU hat.
Rudd's name is spray painted on his high school's (Shawnee Mission West in Overland Park, KS) auditorium backstage wall. Rudd did this while visiting in the winter of 2004.
Career
Rudd's breakout performance was in the 1995 film "Clueless".
Additional credits include "Wet Hot American Summer", "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers", "The Cider House Rules", "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy", "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet", "Friends" (in the recurring role of Mike Hannigan, who married Phoebe Buffay in 2004), "The Object of My Affection" with Jennifer Aniston, and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin". While he played the original Josh in "Clueless", he returned to play the character of Sonny when the movie was adapted into a television show in 1996. In 2006 he appeared in several episodes of "Reno 911!" as coach of a birthing class, and he plays a drug lord in the film "Reno 911!: Miami". He has also appeared in a 90s commercial for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
In 2007, Rudd will be seen in "I Could Never Be Your Woman" opposite Michelle Pfeiffer (reuniting him with "Clueless" director Amy Heckerling), "How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiancée" opposite Eva Longoria, "Knocked Up" (his third collaboration with Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen), "My Achilles Heart", and "The Ten" (which reunites him with frequent collaborators David Wain and Michael Showalter). Rudd's Broadway credits include "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" (1997), "Twelfth Night" (1998), and "Three Days of Rain" (2006).
Rudd was beaten by Nicole Sullivan on "Celebrity Poker Showdown" by the luck of the draw. While he held 3 of a kind, Sullivan (believing Rudd to bluff) met his all in bet with nothing of her own. However, she won the hand by chance when the dealer dealt her a straight. Recently, Rudd has been a part of a running gag on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" where instead of a clip from whatever movie he's promoting, Rudd plays the same clip from the 1980s movie "Mac and Me", where the main character is seen rolling off a cliff in a wheelchair.
He recently guest-starred as a has-been 1990s rock star, Desmond Fellows, on the television series, "Veronica Mars", in an episode titled 'Debasement Tapes'. He has also appeared in the audiobook recording of John Hodgman's book "The Areas of My Expertise".
Rudd provided his voice for narration of the HBO/NFL Films series "Hard Knocks: Training Camp With The Kansas City Chiefs" in 2007.
External links
(Interview with Paul Rudd about "Knocked Up")
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Paul Rudd.
