Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer.
In 1996, in his debut film, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered
him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later, his
lead role as a reformed white power skinhead in American History X earned a nomination
for the Academy Award for Best Actor. His other performances are diverse in range
and include supporting roles in the biographical drama The People vs. Larry Flynt, the comedy
Everyone Says I Love You, and the comedy-dramas Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel,
starring roles in the cult hit Fight Club, 25th Hour, The Illusionist and Leaves of Grass,
a rare villain turn in The Italian Job and an unrecognizable appearance in Kingdom of
Heaven. In addition to acting, Norton has experience
writing and directing films. He made his directorial debut with the film Keeping the Faith. In
addition to this, he performed uncredited work on the scripts for The Score, Frida,
and The Incredible Hulk. He also appeared as a character in all of these films. He starred
as Jack Teller in The Score, alongside Robert De Niro, and as Dr. Bruce Banner, the alter-ego
of the Marvel Comics superhero the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk. He also had a minor role
in Frida as Nelson Rockefeller. In his private life, Norton is an environmental
and social activist. He is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise Community
Partners, a non-profit organization for developing affordable housing, founded by his grandfather,
James Rouse. Norton is president of the American branch of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation
Trust. He ran in the 2009 New York City Marathon to raise money for the Trust. He also raises
money for charity through Crowdrise, a social networking community for volunteers and a
micro-donations fundraising platform. In July 2010, Norton was designated as the United
Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. On 2
July 2014, Edward Norton was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustee to Signature Theatre,
a not-for-profit theater Company in New York. Edward has been on Signature's board since
1996, and served as the co-Chair of the Capital Campaign during the building of The Pershing
Square Signature Center.
Early life Edward Norton was born in Boston, Massachusetts,
and raised in Columbia, Maryland. His father, Edward Mower Norton, Jr., was an environmental
lawyer and conservation advocate working in Asia, as well as a former federal prosecutor
in the Carter administration. His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin", a teacher of English,
died of a brain tumor in 1997. His maternal grandfather was the developer James Rouse,
who developed the city of Columbia, Maryland, helped develop Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Norfolk's
Waterside Festival Marketplace, and Boston's Quincy Market, as well as co-founded Enterprise
Community Partners with Norton's maternal step-grandmother, Patty Rouse. Norton has
two younger siblings—Molly and Jim, with whom he has professionally collaborated. From
1981 to 1985, along with his brother, Norton attended Camp Pasquaney, on the shores of
Newfound Lake in Hebron, New Hampshire. There, he won the acting cup in 1984, and later returned
to the camp's council for two years, directing theater. He maintains close connections with
the camp. Norton was raised Episcopalian. He graduated
in 1987 from Columbia's Wilde Lake High School, where his classmates included New York City
Council member Mark Levine and best-selling author Robert Kolker. He attended Yale University,
where he was a competitive rower and acted in university productions alongside Ron Livingston
and Paul Giamatti, graduating in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in History.
Following graduation, Norton worked in Osaka, Japan, consulting for his grandfather's company,
Enterprise Community Partners. Norton speaks some Japanese. He appeared in an EFL textbook,
Only in America, used by Nova, a formerly major English language school in Japan.
Career Norton moved to New York City and began his
acting career in Off-Broadway theater, breaking through with his 1993 involvement in Edward
Albee's Fragments, at the Signature Theatre Company. His first film was 1996's Primal
Fear, which tells a story of a defense attorney, who defends Aaron Stampler, an altar boy charged
with the murder of a Roman Catholic archbishop. The movie is an adaptation of William Diehl's
1993 novel. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Norton gives a performance that's
fully the equal of Gere's – he's as slyly self-effacing as Gere is slyly ostentatious."
Alison Macor of The Austin Chronicle, in review of the film, wrote, "Norton's performance
and the well-paced tension preceding the movie's climactic sequence provide an entertaining
if slightly predictable thriller." Despite the mixed reviews, Norton won a Golden Globe
Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. That same year,
Norton appeared as lawyer Alan Isaacman in The People vs. Larry Flynt.
In 1998, he played Derek Vinyard, a reformed neo-Nazi, in the film American History X.
David Denby of The New Yorker noted that Norton gives Derek "ambiguous erotic allure; he's
almost appealing". American History X received positive reviews and grossed over $23 million
worldwide at the box office. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for
Best Actor. Also in 1998, Norton starred opposite Matt Damon in Rounders, a movie following
two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a huge debt.
In the 1999 film Fight Club, Norton played the nameless protagonist, an everyman and
an unreliable narrator who feels trapped with his white-collar position in society. The
film, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name, was directed by David Fincher.
To prepare for the role, Norton took lessons in boxing, taekwondo, and grappling. Fight
Club premiered at the 1999 Venice International Film Festival. During promotion for the film,
he said, "I feel that Fight Club really, in a way ... probed into the despair and paralysis
that people feel in the face of having inherited this value system out of advertising." The
film failed to meet expectations at the box office, and received polarized reactions from
film critics. However, it became a cult classic after its DVD release. In 2008, Fight Club
was named the 10th greatest movie of all time by Empire Magazine in its issue of The 500
Greatest Movies of All Time. In 2002, he starred in Brett Ratner's Red
Dragon as FBI profiler Will Graham and in Spike Lee's 25th Hour. While Red Dragon received
mixed reviews, it was commercially successful. 25th Hour was praised by critics, particularly
for its examination of a post-9/11 New York City, but failed to break even. In 2003 Norton
was forced by Paramount Studios, under threat of lawsuit having signed a three-film contract
when he signed up for Primal Fear, to appear in The Italian Job, for which he accordingly
refused to promote upon its release. Norton won critical acclaim for his role as Baldwin
IV, the leper king of Jerusalem, in Kingdom of Heaven. Norton portrayed Marvel Comics
character Bruce Banner / the Hulk in the Marvel Studios film The Incredible Hulk, released
in 2008. Norton's failed attempt to rewrite the film along lines of his own choosing resulted
in his refusal to promote the film. He had been expected to reprise his role as the character
in the 2012 film The Avengers, but the role was later confirmed to have been given to
Mark Ruffalo.
In 2006, Norton starred in two films: Down in the Valley, as a dangerous drifter affecting
to be a cowpoke, and in The Illusionist, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and
later became a sleeper hit when it went into general release. In 2010, Norton appeared
in two films again: in Leaves of Grass, as estranged identical twins; and in Stone, which
reunited Norton with his The Score cast-mate Robert De Niro, and in which Norton plays
a convict trying to con his parole officer into an early release. In 2008, Norton starred
in New Line Cinema's Pride and Glory, as an honest detective assigned to investigate the
precinct run by his older brother. The film was not well received by critics, not strongly
supported by the studio, and despite also starring Colin Farrell and Jon Voight, its
worldwide grosses totaled only $31.1 million, against a production budget of $30 million.
Norton played himself in a cameo role in the experimental comedy show Stella, and made
another comedic television appearance on the Emmy award-winning ABC show Modern Family
in 2010, playing a fictional member of real life '80s new wave band Spandau Ballet. In
the 2012 movie The Bourne Legacy, he is the antagonist Eric Byer.
Norton has also done uncredited script work on some of the films he has appeared in, specifically
The Score, Frida, and The Incredible Hulk. In 2000, Norton made his debut as a director
with Keeping the Faith. He will also direct the film adaptation of the novel Motherless
Brooklyn. Norton has a reputation of being a perfectionist.
He managed to receive final cut of American History X, clashed with the director while
shooting Red Dragon, and clashed with the studio during the shooting of The Incredible
Hulk. In 2013, Norton starred in The Lonely Island's
music video, Spring Break Anthem, alongside Andy Samberg, Zach Galifinakis, James Franco,
Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. The video premiered on Funny or Die's Between Two Ferns
during a segment between Galifinakis and Franco. On February 20, 2014, it was announced that
Norton would begin production of the long-gestating adaptation of Motherless Brooklyn in fall
2014, with Brett Ratner acting as producer. In June 2014, Norton's Class 5 Films and RatPac
Entertainment acquired the movie rights to the non-fiction article American Hippopotamus,
by Jon Mooallem, about the meat shortage in the U.S. in 1910 and the attempts made by
Major Frederick Russell Burnham, Captain Fritz Joubert Duquesne and Congressman Robert Broussard
to import hippopotamuses into the Louisiana bayous and to convince Americans to eat them.
The movie will highlight the Burnham - Duquesne rivalry, two famous spies who had previous
been under orders to assassinate each other. Norton, William Migliore and Brett Ratner
will produce this feature film. Personal life
After six years of dating, Norton became engaged to Canadian film producer Shauna Robertson
in 2011, and they married in 2012. They have one son, born in March 2013.
Norton is generally known for his reluctance to embrace his celebrity status, and has said,
"If I ever have to stop taking the subway, I'm gonna have a heart attack." Norton has
stated in interviews that he is a fan of the Baltimore Orioles, and was involved in many
of Cal Ripken Jr.'s retirement activities in 2001 when he was asked to be a part of
Ripken's biography for Major League Baseball. He attended Ripken's ceremony at the Hall
of Fame in July 2007. Norton has a private pilot license and discussed his flight training
when interviewed on episodes of the Late Show with David Letterman and Inside the Actor's
Studio. Norton was a strong supporter of former New
York State Governor Eliot Spitzer. Norton is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise
Community Partners, a non-profit developer of affordable housing based in his hometown.
He is also well known for his support for environmental causes and renewable energy
projects, such as Enterprise's Green Communities Initiative and BP's Solar Neighbors program.
He also put time and money toward social activist causes, including improving the quality of
living in low-income communities. Norton's work with the HBO documentary By
the People: The Election of Barack Obama led to a soundtrack, with proceeds going to Enterprise
Community Partners and United Way. Norton also participated in a 2008 Fast Company story
about Enterprise's green affordable housing. Norton is president of the American branch
of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. To raise money for the trust, Norton fielded
a team of 30 runners in the New York City Marathon on November 1, 2009. The team included
Alanis Morissette and David Blaine. Norton finished the event first among celebrities
with a time of 3 hours, 48 minutes. Norton and his team raised over $1 million for the
Trust. In May 2010, Norton launched a website called Crowdrise, which uses a social networking
platform to help raise funds for charity. In May 2012, Norton played football for an
'England vs. The Rest of the World' match the charity event Soccer Aid along with other
actors such as Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson. The event eventually raised over £4,000,000
for UNICEF UK. Filmography
Music credits References
External links Edward Norton at the Internet Movie Database
Larry Flynt interviews Ed Norton