Tobey Maguire

Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor.

He began his career in the 1980s, and has since become best known for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Manin the 2002 - 2007 Spider-Man films. His other he has also appeared in films such as Pleasantville (1998), Ride with the Devil (1999), The Cider House Rules (1999), Wonder Boys (2000), Seabiscuit (2003), The Good German (2006), Tropic Thunder (2008), and Brothers (2009). He has been nominated for Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Awards and received two Saturn Awards, including one for Best Actor.

Early life
Maguire was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Wendy (née Brown), a secretary turned screenwriter and producer, and Vincent Maguire, a construction worker and cook. He has four half-brothers.[1] His parents, 18 and 20 years old, were unmarried at the time of his birth; the two married and subsequently divorced when Maguire was two.[2] Maguire spent much of his childhood moving from town to town, living with each parent and other family members.[3] During his childhood, Maguire entertained the idea of becoming a chef and to that end wanted to enroll in a home economics class as a sixth grader. His mother offered him US$100 to take a drama class instead, and Tobey agreed.[4]

The nomadic nature of his school-age years began to take a toll on Maguire emotionally, and finally, after a relocation to yet another school, Maguire dropped out of high school his freshman year and never returned so he could focus on his acting career.[5] By 2000, Maguire had obtained his GED to officially graduate from high school, noting that during his school days as a child, he'd reached a point where "I wasn't doing school. I was showing up, but...not really giving myself."[6]

Early career
Maguire's first appearance in a feature film was in 1989's The Wizard. He plays one of Lucas Barton's goons (one of three competitors at a video game competition) and had no lines. Maguire initially worked as a child actor in the early 1990s, often playing roles much younger than his chronological age; as late as 2002, Maguire was still playing teenagers while in his mid-20s. He appeared in a variety of commercials and TV and movie roles, working opposite such actors as Chuck Norris (Walker, Texas Ranger), Roseanne Barr (Roseanne), and Tracey Ullman(Tracey Takes On...). Eventually, Maguire was cast as the lead in the FOX TV series Great Scott, which was cancelled five weeks later.

During many of his auditions, Maguire found himself auditioning for roles opposite another rising actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. The pair struck up a fast friendship and made an informal pact to help each other get parts in their movies/TV shows/other projects. For example, both auditioned for the same part in the 1990 TV series based on the 1989 comedy Parenthood. DiCaprio got the part, and Maguire later got a guest role at least partially due to DiCaprio's recommendation. The same scenario played itself out during casting for the 1993 movie This Boy's Life (featuring Robert De Niro as the lead); DiCaprio got the main teen role (coincidentally, the character was named "Toby") and Maguire got a part as one of Toby's friends.

By the mid 1990s, Maguire was steadily working but becoming caught up in the hard-partying lifestyle of some of his fellow teen actors. In 1995, Maguire requested director Allan Moyle to release him from his part in the movie Empire Records. Moyle agreed, and all of Maguire's scenes were deleted from the final film.[7] Maguire then sought help for an underaged drinking problem from Alcoholics Anonymous; he has been sober ever since.[8]

As part of his recovery from alcohol and learning to deal with his self-described "addictive and compulsive nature",[8] Maguire changed his career path slightly in order to obtain roles where he and DiCaprio would not always be in competition for the same part, and the move paid off when he got the role of Paul Hood, a teenage boarding school student whose narration anchors the action in Ang Lee's 1997 film, The Ice Storm. This soon led to a variety of lead roles where he played a thoughtful boy coming of age, in films such as Pleasantville, The Cider House Rules, and Wonder Boys.

In the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas he portrayed a hitchhiker who met Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo during their drive to Las Vegas.

In Ride with the Devil (1999), Maguire performed as Jakob Roedel, opposite Jewel Kilcher. Here he played the son of a unionist German immigrant who joins his southern friends in the Missouri riders, avenging the atrocities committed against Missourians by KansasJayhawkers and redleggers.

In 2001, Maguire took a role that featured his youthful-sounding voice, a beagle puppy named Lou, in the family movie Cats & Dogs.

Spider-Man (2002-2007)
In 2002, Maguire shot to superstardom as the web-slinging superhero Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, based on the popular Marvel comic book character. He reprised his role in the sequels Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007) and has vocally reprised his role as Spider-Man in the video game adaptations of the films. Due to script complications, and failure to comply with later release dates, a proposed 4th installment was laid to rest as well as Maguire's involvement, along with director Sam Raimi. It was confirmed by Sony executives that the franchise will be rebooted for a 2012 release, and will capture the story of young Peter Parker as he is still in high school. The reboot has actor Andrew Garfield playing the character.

Maguire's performance as Spider-Man initially earned him some glowing reviews. For instance, Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune felt that "with his big, round, soulful eyes, Maguire always has been able to convey a sense of wonder, and his instinct for understatement also serves him well here".[10]

After Spider-Man
Maguire solidified his stardom in 2003 with a leading role as the jockey John M. "Red" Pollard in the acclaimed film Seabiscuit, about the famous racehorse Seabiscuit. In 2006, Maguire starred in his first villainous role as Corporal Patrick Tully opposite George Clooney and Cate Blanchett in Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, based on the Joseph Kanon novel of the same name. Maguire had also moved into producing. His production credits include 25th Hour (2002), Whatever We Do (2003), and Seabiscuit (2003), for which he served as executive producer.

As of November 2007, Warner Bros. has plans to fast-track a movie based on 1980s anime series, Robotech. Maguire is producing the film through his Maguire Entertainment banner and is eying the lead role in what the studio plans on being a tentpole sci-fi franchise. "We are very excited to bring 'Robotech' to the big screen", Maguire said. "There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film...". The decision was said to have been made due to the enormous success of the Transformers film adaptation, which grossed $690 million during the summer of 2007.[11]

Maguire is attached to produce Afterburn, a science fiction movie based on the Red 4 comic book by Paul Ens and Scott Chitwood. Neal Moritz's Original Films is also producing and Relativity is in talks to board the post-apocalyptic project, whose story is set one year after a solar flare burns half of Earth, leaving what life remains mutated from radiation and nuclear fallout. Treasure hunters then go back to the scorched portion of the planet to retrieve valuable artifacts while facing rival hunters, mutants and pirates along the way. It has been announced that Gerard Butler is in negotiations to star in the film while Antoine Fuqua in talks to direct.[12] Maguire's company is also co-producing an adaptation of a mystery novel by Isaac Adamson called Tokyo Suckerpunch with Sony Pictures. The film, scheduled to be released in 2011, will star Maguire in the role of American reporter Billy Chaka, who investigates the murder of a Japanese friend in Tokyo.

In 2008, Maguire took on a cameo role in the action comedy film Tropic Thunder as a gay 18th century[13] monk with his eye on Father O'Malley (Kirk Lazarus, the character played by Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder) in the faux trailer for Satan's Alley. Near the end of the film, it is revealed that Maguire's character has been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, which he loses. Maguire did the role as a favor to his old friend Downey in what Downey describes as "a kind of a karmic payback for he and I in Wonder Boys.[14]

In 2009, he starred in the Jim Sheridan-directed Brothers as Sam Cahill, a prisoner of war who returns from Afghanistan to discover his wife has become romantically involved with his brother. He received a Golden Globe nomination for the role. Of the nomination, Tobey Maguire said "I had no expectation about getting a nomination, but I was watching nonetheless. My wife and my son got really excited. I was sort of surprised — I was like, 'Oh, wow.' And I couldn't hear the latter part of my name."

It is reported that Maguire is attached to star as Nick Carraway in an adaption of The Great Gatsby along with Leonardo Dicaprio to be directed by Baz Luhrmann.[16]

Maguire is also a regular cast member for Anthony Marsh, Jr 's  Power Rangers LG film series, based on one of the Power Rangers' TV show's seasons- Lost Galaxy, playing the role of Red Ranger  Tony Marshall  in the 2011 film  Power Rangers LG: The Rise of Trakeena  (A Power Rangers fanfilm). It was released on June 10, 2011. Maguire's performance in the film was mostly praised than the rest of the other actors Marsh included in the film. He is also attached to play the character in the series' first ever YouTube film, Power Rangers LG: Galactic Retaliation, while actor  Jake Gyllenhaal  portrays Tony in the series' reboot film  Power Rangers LG: Galactic Underground  (which co-stars Gyllenhaal, along with  Joseph Gordon-Levitt ,  Kate Walsh ,  Christopher Masterson , etc. ).

Maguire is also the voice of Grinch in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, making this game the first non-Spider-Man [movie based] video game Maguire would lend his voice in.

Personal life


rMaguire met Jennifer Meyer in 2003 while he was shooting the movie Seabiscuit at Universal Studios, and became engaged in April 2006. Their daughter Ruby Sweetheart Maguire was born November 10, 2006.[17] Ruby's middle name comes from a childhood nickname of Meyer's given to her by her grandmother, who died a few months before Ruby's birth. The couple married on September 3, 2007, in Kona, Hawaii.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[18] Their second child, son Otis Tobias Maguire, was born on May 8, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[19]

Maguire has been a vegetarian since 1992 and in 2009 became a vegan.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-weight_19-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[20] He frequently makes changes in his diet to either gain or lose weight for movie roles; for example, he dramatically decreased his calorie intake for Seabiscuit followed by a rapid increase to regain weight for Spider-Man 2.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-weight_19-1" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[20]

In an article for Premiere magazine, Sam Raimi confirmed the long-standing rumor that Maguire and hisSpider-Man co-star Kirsten Dunst had "a thing" going on during the 2001 shooting of the first film. As Raimi explained for the article, "I'm so dumb, because I met with them for dinner one night during the shooting to talk about the next day's scenes. And I go, 'Okay, well, that's it for the meeting.' And then I ask Kirsten, 'Can I drive you home?' And they look at each other and she goes, 'No, no, I'm going to play a game of Touch 10 with Tobey.' I don't know, it was some game. I thought, 'That's weird. She's got to work tomorrow.'"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Premiere1_20-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[21]

In 2004, Maguire took up tournament poker. He has finished in the money in several events and has been tutored by poker professional Daniel Negreanu. Maguire can be seen on ESPN's coverage of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship. Moreover, professional poker player Phil Hellmuthsaid during the June 28, 2007, episode of Poker After Dark that Tobey has won $10 million by playing poker in Hollywood. Maguire played in the 2007 World Series of Poker. He survived days 1a, 2a and 3 but was eliminated in 292nd place on the fourth day, taking $39,445 in prize money. He actually ended up sitting next to Sully Erna, the singer of Godsmack.

Maguire loves playing basketball; he often plays pick-up games with friends<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Monk1_21-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[22] and organizes a weekly game on Saturdays when he is both in Los Angeles and not filming a movie that day.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ContactMusic1_22-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[23] He also enjoys watching basketball games, especially the Los Angeles Lakers and can often be seen with wife Jennifer Meyer at courtside for Laker home games. As a baby gift, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres gave Maguire a special basketball motif stroller with Lexan dome to protect Ruby from errant basketballs so that the new family could enjoy the Lakers together.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Ellen1_23-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[24]