Best Known As: Capt. Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor (2001)
Josh Hartnett's first big screen blockbuster was the flop Pearl Harbor (2001), in which he played the flyboy sidekick to fellow heartthrob Ben Affleck. He also made a splash in The Virgin Suicides (2000), played Jamie Lee Curtis's son in Halloween H20 (1998) and co-starred in the alien horror flick The Faculty (1998, with Usher). Hartnett is especially a hit with young women, physically famous for his tousled hair and the small birthmark on his neck. His other films include Black Hawk Down (2001, directed by Ridley Scott), Hollywood Homicide (2003, opposite Harrison Ford) and Sin City (2005, directed by comics artist Frank Miller).
Career Highlights: The Virgin Suicides, Black Hawk Down, The Faculty
First Major Screen Credit: Halloween: H20 (1998)
Biography
One of the crop of obscenely attractive young stars to pop up during the late 1990s, Josh Hartnett has the kind of strong-jawed, puppy-eyed looks that make him equally suited for both movie stardom and Tommy Hilfiger ads.
Hartnett was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 21, 1978. Following his high school graduation, he attended New York's SUNY-Purchase, but his time there ended after he was offered a role on the short-lived TV series Cracker. He also did a number of TV commercials and plays, and in 1998 he got his screen break with the plum role of Jamie Lee Curtis' son in Halloween: H20. Although the film received poor reviews, it did moderately well at the box office, and that same year Hartnett's profile further increased when he starred in The Faculty. One of a number of films to exploit the current trend in teen horror movies, it featured Hartnett fighting off alien teachers alongside the likes of fellow up-and-comers Elijah Wood and Shawn Hatosy. Although the film didn't do as well as expected, thanks in part to the fact that the teen horror craze was beginning to lose steam, it in no way interfered with the increasing number of opportunities available to the young actor.
Hartnett could subsequently be seen in a number of diverse films; among his projects in 2000 alone, he played an Iago-like character in O, the teen re-telling of Othello; the son of Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in the comedy-drama Town and Country; and the paramour of the eldest of the ill-fated Lisbon sisters in Sofia Coppola's adaptation of The Virgin Suicides. His pattern of starring in films with steadily-increasing budgets reached its apex in 2001 when Hartnett appeared in director Michael Bay's World War II action drama Pearl Harbor, playing Danny, a young soldier who falls in love with his best friend's main squeeze amid the chaos of the titular conflict. Later that same year Hartnett would fight a whole new war in Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning war drama Black Hawk Down, and shortly after swearing off sex for 40 Days and 40 Nights and hitting the street beat with Harrison Ford in the coolly-received buddy cop comedy Hollywood Homicide, the handsome heartthrob would make public his desire to shift his attentions away from blockbuster territory in order to focus his talents on smaller films of increased quality - even if it did mean a leaner paycheck. Though subsequent rumors of his potential involvement with the long-in-development Superman film would seem to betray this sentiment, lower-profile roles in such independent-minded efforts as Sin City and Mozart and the Whale ultimately served to underscore the maturing actor's sincerity. Of course Hartnett wasn't averse to appearing in the occasional mainstream effort, with roles in Wicker Park and Lucky Number Sleven serving to occupy a curious cinematic middle ground between the indie and blockbuster mindsets.
By the time Hartnett took a prominent role in Brian De Palma's 2006 true crime drama The Black Dahlia, it appeared as if the actor's willingness to challenge himself onscreen had finally begun to pay off. A dark look at the Hollywood underbelly based on author James Ellroy's best-selling novel, The Black Dahlia preceded an introspective turn as an emerging sports writer who befriends a former boxing champ many had thought dead in Resurrecting the Champ, and a highly challenging role as legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker in director Bruce Beresford's The Prince of Cool.
Hartnett grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota and was raised mostly by his father, Daniel Hartnett (a building manager), and stepmother, Molly (an artist).[2] He has three younger half-siblings, named Jessica, Jake and Joe and is of Irish ancestry.[3] He was raised Roman Catholic,[4] attending Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Grade School, where he played Adam Apple in an eighth grade production of "Krazy Kamp". He later attended Cretin-Derham Hall High School before switching to South High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from which he graduated in June 1996. Hartnett played football in high school, but stopped because of a broken left knee.
Hartnett got his first job at a local video store. He had also worked at McDonald's and Burger King for a short time before getting his start in acting at Youth Performance Company in Minneapolis. He became a vegetarian at the age of 12 but temporarily returned to meat eating during the shooting of The Black Dahlia.[5]
He attended the prestigious Acting Program at SUNY Purchase in New York for a short period of time.
In April 1997, Hartnett made his screen debut playing the role of Michael Fitzgerald on the short-lived television series, Cracker. He also performed in small plays and on national television commercials, before being cast in his first feature film, playing the son of Jamie Lee Curtis' character in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, which was released on August 5, 1998 and performed well at the box office.
Hartnett has since developed a steady film career, having appeared in several Hollywood films, including The Faculty, Black Hawk Down, Lucky Number Slevin and Pearl Harbor. He was originally set to play the role of Tino in Deuces Wild, but dropped out to star in Pearl Harbor. In 2002, he starred in O, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello set in an American high school, as Hugo, the film's version of Iago.
Hartnett was chosen as one of Teen People magazine's "21 Hottest Stars Under 21" in 1999, Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars under 25", and one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People", both in 2002. He was also voted Bliss magazine's "3rd Sexiest Male".
One of Hartnett's most recent films is the drama-mystery The Black Dahlia, in which he plays a detective investigating the notorious real-life murder of actress Elizabeth Short. Hartnett was cast in the role five years before the film was produced, and remained committed to appearing in the film because he liked the subject matter.[6]
Among his 2007 roles are Resurrecting the Champ, a drama also starring Samuel L. Jackson, and the graphic novel-based 30 Days of Night, in which he plays a small-town sheriff, Hartnett describes the film as "supernatural, but kind of a western". He was going to play trumpet player, Chet Baker, in the film The Prince of Cool, but did not agree with the producer's ideas and left the project.
Hartnett has played Charlie Babbit alongside Adam Godley in the theatre adaptation of Barry Morrow's Academy Award-winning Rain Man at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End. Also in 2008 he starred the new campaign of the Emporio Armani fragrance, "Diamonds for Men", he will feature in both print and TV ads for the fragrance. This makes him the first male celebrity to represent Giorgio Armani Beauty.[7]
