Ron Eldard Biography (2)

Since his impressive debut in Nancy Savoca's True Love, Ron Eldard has created a dazzling array of characters on film, stage, and television, and defied attempts to categorize him as leading man, character actor or comic. Recently, Eldard has been on a tremendous roll. He has taken lead roles in a number of high-profile films, including Ridley Scott's acclaimed war epic Black Hawk Down and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood directed by Callie Khouri. Also forthcoming for Eldard is the action thriller Ghost Ship directed by Steve Beck.

Eldard previously made a memorable appearance as the cop who puts an end to Al Pacino's driving spree in Martin Brest's Scent of a Woman. He went on to star with Cameron Diaz and Courtney B. Vance in Stacy Title's black comedy The Last Supper; then he won a coveted role opposite Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt and Billy Crudup in Barry Levinson's Sleepers, delivering a chilling and ultimately moving portrayal of a damaged child who matures into a cold-blooded killer. Eldard followed this with a heroic role in the blockbuster, Deep Impact, then returned to comedy, starring opposite Russell Crowe as Skank, the small-town hockey team's bad boy in Mystery, Alaska.

On stage, Eldard recently gave a stand-out performance in Neil LaBute's disturbing triptych of monologues Bash, with Calista Flockhart and Paul Rudd, which played to sold out audiences in New York and Los Angeles, and also aired on Showtime in August 2000. Following Bash, Eldard went directly into the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Death of a Salesman, recreating the role of Willy Loman's (Brian Dennehy) son, the lost golden boy, Biff.

Eldard's stage work includes off-Broadway productions of Aven'U Boys and Servy'n'Bernice 4 Ever, and his one-man show, Standing Eight Count, which he performed at Naked Angels. He also played the classic role of Terry Malloy in the Broadway production of On The Waterfront.

On television, Eldard starred in a memorable arc opposite Julianna Margulies on ER, and went on to display his gift for comedy in the NBC half-hour series Men Behaving Badly. More recently, he starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh in Angelica Houston's critically acclaimed Bastard Out of Carolina, and drew raves for his performance as the lead in the HBO original movie When Trumpets Fade, directed by John Irvin.

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