Eric Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer.
He is known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask,
which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a
Motion Picture, and has appeared in a wide variety of films from mainstream fare like
Some Kind of Wonderful to independent films like Pulp Fiction, Killing Zoe, and Kicking
and Screaming.
He recently portrayed Daniel Graystone in the science fiction television series Caprica,
and became a regular director on the television series, Glee.
Early life Stoltz was born in Whittier, California, the
son of Evelyn B., a violinist and schoolteacher who died in 1994, and Jack Stoltz, an elementary
school teacher.
He has two sisters, mezzo soprano Catherine Stoltz and writer Susan R. Stoltz.
He was raised in both American Samoa and Santa Barbara, California, where as a child, he
once earned money playing piano for local musical theatre productions.
He attended the University of Southern California, but dropped out after his junior year.
When he moved to New York for his studies in 1981, he met Stella Adler and Peggy Feury.
Career 1978–1999
In the 1970s Stoltz joined a repertory company that performed ten plays at the Edinburgh
Festival.
He returned to the United States in 1979, when he entered USC as a drama student, but
subsequently dropped out to pursue film and TV roles.
In 1978, he was cast as Steve Benson in the TV adaptation of Erma Bombeck's The Grass
Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank.
Director Cameron Crowe and Stoltz became friends while making Stoltz's first feature film,
Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
According to Stoltz, Crowe promised Stoltz a role in all of his future films.
He appeared in each of Crowe's next four films, The Wild Life, Say Anything..., Singles, and
Jerry Maguire.
Originally cast as Marty McFly for Back to the Future in 1985, he was replaced after
five weeks of filming, when Michael J. Fox agreed to divide time between the movie and
his television sitcom, Family Ties.
The director, Robert Zemeckis, said that while Stoltz provided an admirable performance,
it lacked the precise comedic sense that Zemeckis was seeking.
Some of the original footage, where Stoltz does not appear but was on set, was used in
the film.
This was referenced in the Fringe Season Two episode "Peter" when, in a parallel universe,
a theater marquee reads "Back to the Future starring Eric Stoltz".
In 1985, Stoltz garnered attention with a Golden Globe nomination starring as Rocky
Dennis in Mask.
Among other roles in the 1980s, he appeared in the 1987 hit, John Hughes's Some Kind of
Wonderful.
During the 1990s, Stoltz went back and forth between stage, film, and television, appearing
in studio and independent films such as Pulp Fiction and The Waterdance.
He also produced the films Bodies, Rest & Motion in 1993, Sleep with Me in 1994, and Mr. Jealousy
in 1997.
He continued to appear on the New York stage both on Broadway and off-Broadway.
He was nominated for a Tony Award as Featured Actor for his performance as George Gibbs
in the 1989 Broadway revival of Thorton Wilder's Our Town.
A performance of this production was featured on Great Performances: Live From Lincoln Center,
which received a 1989 Emmy nomination.
On television, he had a recurring role as Helen Hunt's character's ex-boyfriend on Mad
About You, spent a year on Chicago Hope, and did some TV and cable movies such as Inside
and The Passion of Ayn Rand, with Helen Mirren.
Stoltz received the Indie Support Award at the 1998 Los Angeles Film Festival.
2000–present During the first part of the 2000s, he starred
with Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth, based on the novel by Edith Wharton.
From 2001 to 2002, he had a recurring role as the English teacher-poet August Dimitri
in ABC's Once and Again, where Julia Whelan's character, a teenager, fell in love with his
character.
He directed an episode of the show in 2002.
In 2003, he played his first leading TV role in Out of Order, which was canceled after
five episodes.
In 2004, he appeared in The Butterfly Effect as a child molester; the following year, he
guest-starred in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace as Debra Messing's love interest.
He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his direction of the cable movie My Horrible Year!.
He also directed a short film entitled The Bulls, as well as the highest rated episode
of Law & Order in 2005, entitled "Tombstone".
He appeared in the music video of The Residents' "Give it to Someone Else", featured on The
Commercial DVD.
He has contributed essays to the books City Secrets — New York as well as Life Interrupted
by Spalding Gray, and appears on the children's CD Philadelphia Chickens.
Beginning in 2007, Stoltz directed episodes of the drama series Quarterlife, which began
airing as webisodes and were then picked up to air on the NBC network in 2008.
Stoltz played a serial killer in need of medical attention in three episodes of the fifth season
of Grey's Anatomy.
He has also directed two episodes of Grey's Anatomy, as well as ten episodes of Glee.
Stoltz starred as Daniel Graystone, inventor of the Cylons, in the science fiction television
series Caprica, a prequel set 58 years before the Battlestar Galactica series.
As of 2009, he has become a regular director of Glee, and has directed ten episodes, including
"Nationals", in which the Glee club finally wins the championship.
In 2011 Stoltz is seen back on the silver screen with the film Fort McCoy, he earned
accolades for his leading role as a conflicted barber of German heritage forced to suppress
his American patriotism after moving his family to a post-World War II military base which
houses a German POW camp.
Filmography Actor
Films Television
Director Films
Television Producer
Films References
External links Eric Stoltz at the Internet Movie Database