Best Known As: Michael Scofield on the TV series Prison Break
Name at birth: Wentworth Earl Miller III
Wentworth Miller is the lean, hunky star of TV's Prison Break, a television series about fugitive brothers and government conspiracies that ran from 2005 to 2009. Miller is a 1995 graduate of Princeton University, where he studied English literature and sang baritone for the campus group The Tigertones. After college Miller moved to Los Angeles and worked as a production assistant before landing acting jobs. His early television credits include a 1998 guest appearance on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar) and a leading role in the mini-series Dinotopia (2002). His film roles include Underworld (2003, with Kate Beckinsale) and The Human Stain (2003, with Nicole Kidman; Miller plays the young version of Anthony Hopkins's character).
Career Highlights: The Human Stain, Prison Break: Season 02, Prison Break: Season 01
First Major Screen Credit: The Human Stain (2003)
Biography
The strikingly handsome and refined British actor Wentworth Miller gained his greatest notoriety as Michael Scofield on the Fox network's serial drama Prison Break. Born June 2, 1972, in Chipping Norton, England, as the son of a Rhodes Scholar, Miller moved to Brooklyn with his parents as a boy; his family relocated to Pennsylvania's Quaker country during Miller's adolescence. After high school, Miller attended Princeton University and studied English, but -- despite a love of acting that he had harbored since boyhood -- he reportedly gravitated away from drama in the pro-business atmosphere of the university. Following graduation, Miller moved to Los Angeles and held down jobs as an assistant at a film production company and a bookstore clerk while he gradually realized his own desire to act and started attending auditions. He debuted before the cameras in a one-episode role, as Gage Petronzi on the hit syndicated series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and landed another one-time stint as Mike Palmieri on ER. But he was poised to break through to more prominent roles with his turn in the 2003 Robert Benton-directed, Nicholas Meyer-scripted drama The Human Stain. That picture casts Anthony Hopkins as Coleman Silk, a Negro who has spent all his life passing as a Jew; Miller plays the young Silk, and delivers some of the most effective scenes in the film. (One memorable bit has him climbing into the boxing ring and beating a black opponent senseless, out of self hatred). Unfortunately, despite outstanding craftsmanship and winning performances all around, the public mysteriously rejected The Human Stain, and thus inadvertently held Miller back from A-list stardom. (The critics were particularly vicious about Miller's inclusion in the film -- The New York Times' A.O. Scott unfairly complained that Miller looked nothing like Hopkins, and cynically remarked that his juxtaposition alongside coal-black parents reminded one of Steve Martin in The Jerk).
Miller's determination doubled, however, and he became notoriously selective, even turning down less esteemed roles to hold out for more respected films and parts. The gamble paid off: after a solid turn as Dr. Adam Lockwood in the sci-fi action thriller Underworld (2003) and a best-forgotten contribution to the embarrassing action thriller Stealth (2005) -- as the voice of the computer EDI -- the thesp landed second billing on Prison Break. His Michael Scofield is a structural engineer whose brother Lincoln sits on death row in a local penitentiary, for a crime he did not commit. Armed with a full blueprint of the prison and an outrageously complex escape plan, Michael commits a crime to have himself incarcerated and assist his brother with a breakout. The program premiered in late 2005 to solid ratings; Variety observed of the program: "Thus far, easily the most compelling element is Miller, who with his steely intensity conveys a guy capable of outwitting, outlasting, and outplaying whatever the prison and its gruff warden (Stacy Keach, billed as a guest star) can throw at him." ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, Miller is the son of Joy Marie Palm, a special education teacher, and Wentworth Earl Miller II, a lawyer and teacher.[1] Miller's father, a Rhodes Scholar, was studying at Oxford at the time of Miller's birth. Miller is of multiracial origins; his father is of African American, Jamaican, English, German and Jewish descent (his paternal grandmother is Jewish [[1]]), and his mother is of Russian, French, Dutch, Syrian, Lebanese ancestry.[2][3][4]
Despite his family's decision to move to Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, when he was a year old, Miller retains dual citizenship.[5] He has two sisters, Leigh and Gillian. Miller attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a member of SING!, an annual musical production that was started by Midwood. His family moved to a town outside of Pittsburgh PA. Where he graduated from Quaker Valley High School, in Leetsdale, PA in 1990. He graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in English Literature. While at Princeton, he performed with the a cappella group the Princeton Tigertones and was a member of the Quadrangle Club.[6]
In 1995, he went to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.[7] He has stated about his rocky road to stardom that "it was a long time in the coming and there were a lot of upsets and a lot of failures and roadblocks, but I couldn’t walk away from it. I needed it like I needed air, it was just something I had to do."[8]
Miller's first starring role was as the sensitive and introverted David in ABC'smini-seriesDinotopia. After appearing in a few minor television roles, he moved on to co-star in the 2003 film The Human Stain, playing the younger version of the Anthony Hopkins character, Coleman Silk. He identified strongly with the core dilemma of the movie, being that of a man struggling with his heritage. “My father is black and my mother is white. Therefore, I could answer to either which kind of makes me a racial Lone Ranger, at times, caught between two communities.”[9] Miller worked extensively on the role, not only in researching Anthony Hopkins, but by embarking on a 4 month regime to accurately portray Silk as a boxer. All in all, Miller has extremely fond memories of the experience, quoting from Toni Morrison’s novel 'Beloved' - “Definitions belonged to the definers - not the defined.”[9]
In 2005, Miller was cast as Michael Scofield in Fox Network'stelevision drama Prison Break. He played the role of a caring brother who created an elaborate scheme to help his brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) escape death row after being found guilty of a crime he did not commit. His character had a full upper body (front and back) tattoo. Covering both the front of his torso and his back, along with both arms from shoulders to wrists, the special effects for the tattoo took over four hours to apply. His performance in the show earned him a 2005 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series.[10]
Miller appeared in two Mariah Careymusic videos, "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together" as a party guest. Director Brett Ratner, who directed the pilot episode of Prison Break, was signed on to also direct the two Carey videos. Ratner brought up the idea to Carey about using Miller in the videos. After showing her Miller's picture, she agreed to use him. Since both the videos and the pilot episode of Prison Break were being filmed at the same time, a special set was constructed on the set of the videos, so that Miller would be able to work simultaneously on both projects. He says, "Mariah's an international icon. The two days I spent working on her video did more for my career, gave me more exposure, than anything I had done before Prison Break. I'm grateful for the opportunity."[11]
Was on Entertainment Weekly's 2003 "It List" as the IT Hot-Rodder.
Was named one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in the world (2007).
Miller has obtained a surprising level of fame in Korea, where he is affectionately known as “Suh-ko-peel” (서코필) after the surname of his Prison Break character, Michael Scofield. Miller has recently been named the frontman for Bean Pole International, a popular men’s high-fashion line in South Korea.
