Stuart Townsend: biography
Stuart Townsend is an Irish actor, remembered by the audience thanks to the role of Lestat de Lioncourt in the vampire drama Queen of the Damned, and no less mysterious Dorian Gray from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Stuart was born on December 15, 1972, in Ireland, in Howth, a Northern suburb of Dublin. The boy's father, Peter Townsend, was a professional golfer, his mother Lorna Hogan was a fashion model, quite popular in the country in the 1970s. The family later had Stuart's younger brother and sister, Dylan and Chloe.
In 1994, Lorna died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage. At the time, Dylan was only ten years old, and Chloe was 7. According to the brother of the actor, who later took up the modeling business, Stuart spent a lot of time with him and his sister. As a result, the grown-up Dylan is much closer with his brother than with his father.
When Stuart was a teenager, he dreamed of two things: not having to work in the office and get as far away from Howth as possible. The young man came to Dublin theater school Gaiety School of Acting by accident, he met a girl who attended it. Townsend decided to try himself and then realized that he had found his calling.
During this period of his biography, Stuart took part in theatrical productions and student films. His professional stage debut in 1994 was the play True Lines. It was first staged in Kilkenny, later shown at the Dublin theater festival, then at the Bush theater in London.
Movies
Stuart started to participate in shootings when he was still very young. His first works were on short films Godsuit and Summertime. The first feature film was the movie Trojan Eddie with Stephen Rea in the title role. Townsend played a cameo role, but this film marked the beginning of his serious filmography.
In 1997, Stuart received the lead role in the comedy-drama Shooting Fish, where he performed the role of "Robin Hood of the 90s", an orphan, Jez, dreaming to help people like him. After that, Townsend appeared in several British films, including the movie Simon Magus, nominated for Berlin Bear. The motion picture touched upon the problematic topic of coexistence of the Christian and Jewish communities in the XVIII century.
The American film critics noted the Irish actor after his appearance in the romantic comedy About Adam in 2000. After this role, Townsend briefly returned to the theatrical arts, playing the leading role in the production of Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams.
Then, in 2002, the actor first appeared on the American screen: he was invited to the role of the vampire Lestat in the picture Queen of the Damned based on the famous Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.
A year later, the actor appeared in the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a film adaptation of the graphic novel by Alan Moore. The movie had so little in common with the comic that Moore insisted that his name be removed from the credits. The box office was right, but the critics and the audience perceived The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen generally negatively.
When Peter Jackson began filming The Lord of the Rings, the first contender for the role of Aragorn was Stuart. During two months, the actor rehearsed and trained in preparation for the role and even managed to make friends with Orlando Bloom. However, the day before the filming began, Townsend was replaced by Viggo Mortensen without getting money for his work. The reason for this sudden change was the opinion of Jackson that Aragorn should be more mature.
Another role that Townsend could have played but didn't was the part of Fandral the Dashing, a character from Marvel comic books. This character Stuart was supposed to embody on the screen in the film Thor in 2010, but the director replaced him due to creative differences.
After The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the actor appeared mainly in small roles in TV series. He can be seen in episodes of such long-running projects as Elementary, Salem, and Betrayal. In 2005, ABC invited Townsend to the title role of Carl Kolchak in Night Stalker However; the show was canceled after six episodes due to poor ratings, critics found that the remake of the classic Night Stalker had failed.
In 2007, Stuart made his debut as a director, writer, and producer – he directed the movie Battle in Seattle. The picture told the story of the crackdown on demonstrations during a meeting of WTO members. Despite the stellar cast, the film received mixed reviews from critics and was not successful at the box office.
Personal life
From the second marriage of his father, the actor has a half-brother and sister – Hugo and Ella.
In 2001, on the set of the movie Trapped Stuart met actress Charlize Theron. The couple dated for nine years, living alternately in the US and Ireland. The actors considered themselves married, although they never made their relationship official.
Townsend himself said that they did not need official papers, the state or the Church to call themselves husband and wife. Eventually, Charlize ended the relationship. According to her, over the years of living together, from a couple, they turned into two friends.
Since 2013, Stuart has been in a relationship with Agatha Araya. According to Dylan Townsend, in 2015 the couple moved to live in Costa Rica. Stuart and Agatha have two children, sons Desmond, and Ezra. The actor doesn't reveal the details of his personal life. Almost nothing is known about his girlfriend, even though sometimes he posts photos of their kids on his Instagram account.
Stuart Townsend now
Stuart Townsend's net worth is estimated at $5 million. Now the actor still lives in Costa Rica.
Stuart's brother, Dylan, in 2016 said that Townsend was thinking of giving up acting, but in 2018 he began working on the movie The Martini Shot - an existential drama about art and death.
Filmography
- 1996 – Trojan Eddie
- 1997 – Shooting Fish
- 1997 – Under the Skin
- 1998 – Resurrection Man
- 1999 – Simon Magus
- 1999 – The Venice Project
- 2000 – About Adam
- 2001 – Trapped
- 2002 – Queen of the Damned
- 2003 – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
- 2005 – Night Stalker
- 2011 – XIII: The Series
- 2013 – Betrayal
- 2015 – Salem
- 2017 – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
