| Caption | Stoltz promoting Caprica, April 2009 |
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| Birth name | Eric Hamilton Stoltz |
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| Birth date | September 30, 1961 |
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| Birth place | Whittier, California, U.S. |
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| Occupation | Actor, director |
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| Years active | 1982–present |
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Eric Hamilton Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor and director. He is known for playing sensitive misfits (Mask, Kicking and Screaming, The Waterdance, Killing Zoe). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Mask. He recently starred in the science fiction television series Caprica.
Early life
Stoltz was born in
Whittier, California, the son of Evelyn B. (
née Vawter), a
violinist and schoolteacher who died in 1994, and Jack Stoltz, an elementary school teacher. He has two sisters, mezzo soprano
Catherine Stoltz and writer
Susan R. Stoltz Eric was raised in both
American Samoa and
Santa Barbara, California, where as a child, he once earned money playing piano for local musical theatre productions. He attended the
University of Southern California but dropped out after his junior year.
Career
In the 1970s Stoltz joined a repertory company that performed ten plays at the
Edinburgh Festival. He returned to the United States in 1979, when he entered USC as a drama student, but subsequently dropped out to pursue film and TV roles. In the late 1970s he was cast as
Carol Burnett and
Charles Grodin's son in the TV adaptation of
Erma Bombeck's "The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank". In 1981 he studied with
Stella Adler and
Peggy Feury in New York.
Director Cameron Crowe and Stoltz became friends while making Stoltz's first feature film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). According to Stoltz, Crowe promised Stoltz a role in all of his future films, but that did not happen. Some of the original footage, where Stoltz does not appear but was on set, was used in the film. This was referenced in a 2010 episode of Fringe where, in an alternate universe, a theater marquee reads "Back to the Future starring Eric Stoltz".
In 1985, Stoltz garnered attention with a Golden Globe nomination starring as Rocky Dennis in Mask. Among other roles in the 1980s, he appeared in the 1987 hit, John Hughes's Some Kind of Wonderful.
During the 1990s, Stoltz went back and forth between stage, film, and television, appearing in studio and independent films such as Independent Spirit Award Winner Pulp Fiction (1994) and Sundance Festival Winner The Waterdance (1992). He was also a production assistant on Say Anything and Singles, and produced the films Bodies, Rest & Motion in 1993, Sleep with Me in 1994, and Mr. Jealousy in 1997. He continued to appear on the New York stage both on Broadway (Three Sisters, Two Shakespearean Actors, Arms and the Man) and off-Broadway (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie, Sly Fox and Our Town). He was nominated for a Tony Award as Featured Actor for his performance as George Gibbs in the 1989 Broadway revival of Thorton Wilder's Our Town. A performance of this production was featured on Great Performances: Live From Lincoln Center, which received a 1989 Emmy nomination.
On television, he had a recurring role as Helen Hunt's character's ex-boyfriend on Mad About You (5 episodes, 1994–1998), spent a year on Chicago Hope (1994), and did some TV and cable movies such as Inside (1996) (TV) (directed by Arthur Penn) and The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999) (with Helen Mirren).
Stoltz received the Indie Support Award at the 1998 Los Angeles Film Festival.
During the first part of the 2000s, he starred with Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth (2000), based on the novel by Edith Wharton. From 2001 to 2002, he had a recurring role as the English teacher-poet August Dimitri in ABC's Once and Again, where Julia Whelan's character, a teenager, fell in love with him. He directed an episode of the show in 2002.
In 2003, he played his first leading TV role in Out of Order, which was canceled after five episodes. In 2004, he appeared in The Butterfly Effect as a child molester; the following year, he guest-starred in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace as Debra Messing's love interest.
He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his direction of the cable movie My Horrible Year! (2001). He also directed a short film entitled The Bulls, as well as the highest rated episode of Law & Order in 2005, entitled "Tombstone."
He appeared in the music video of The Residents' "Give it to Someone Else," featured on The Commercial DVD.
He has contributed essays to the books City Secrets — New York as well as Life Interrupted by Spalding Gray, and appears on the children's CD Philadelphia Chickens.
Beginning in 2007, Stoltz directed episodes of the 20-something drama Quarterlife, which began airing as webisodes and were then picked up to air on the NBC network in 2008.
Stoltz played a serial killer in need of medical attention in three episodes of the fifth season of Grey's Anatomy. He has also directed two episodes of Grey's Anatomy. The actor is currently shooting the film Fort McCoy.
Stoltz recently starred as Daniel Graystone, the inventor of Cylons, in the canceled science fiction television series Caprica, a prequel set 58 years before the Battlestar Galactica series.
Personal life
Stoltz has been a vegetarian for 25 years.
Credits
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Film acting credits
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1982
|
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
| Stoner Bud
|
|-
| 1984
|
| Bill Conrad
|
|-
| 1984
|
Surf II
| Chuck
|
|-
| 1985
|
Mask
|
Rocky Dennis
| Nominated—
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
|-
| 1985
|
| Mark
|
|-
| 1985
|
| Lt. Andy Wheeler
|
|-
| 1987
|
Some Kind of Wonderful
| Keith Nelson
|
|-
| 1987
|
Sister, Sister
| Matt Rutledge
|
|-
| 1987
|
Lionheart
| Robert Nerra
|
|-
| 1988
|
Our Town
| George Gibbs
|
|-
| 1988
| ''Haunted Summer
| Percy Shelley
|
|-
| 1989
|
|
Martin Brundle
|
|-
| 1989
|
Say Anything
| Vahlere
|
|-
| 1990
|
Memphis Belle
| Sgt Danny 'Danny Boy' Daly
|
|-
| 1991
|
Money
| Franck Cimballi
|
|-
| 1992
|
| Joel Garcia
| Also producer
|-
| 1992
|
Singles
| The Mime
|
|-
| 1993
|
Bodies, Rest & Motion
| Sid
|
|-
| 1993
|
Naked in New York
| Jake Briggs
|
|-
| 1994
|
Killing Zoe
| Zed
|
|-
| 1994
|
Pulp Fiction
| Lance
| Nominated—
Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
|-
| 1994
|
Little Women
| John Brooke
|
|-
| 1994
|
Sleep with Me
| Joseph
| Also producer
|-
| 1995
|
Rob Roy
| Alan MacDonald
|
|-
| 1995
|
Fluke
| Jeff Newman
|
|-
| 1995
|
| Simon
|
|-
| 1995
|
Kicking and Screaming
| Chet
|
|-
| 1996
|
Don't Look Back
| Jesse Parish
|
|-
| 1996
|
Grace of My Heart
| Howard Cazsatt
|
|-
| 1996
|
2 Days in the Valley
| Wes Taylor
|
|-
| 1996
|
Jerry Maguire
| Ethan Valhere
|
|-
| 1997
|
Keys to Tulsa
| Richter Boudreau
|
|-
| 1997
|
Anaconda
| Dr. Steven Cale
|
|-
| 1997
|
Mr. Jealousy
| Lester Grimm, aka Vince
| Also producer
|-
| 1997
|
| The Man
|
|-
| 1997
|
Highball
| Darien
|
|-
| 1998
|
Hi-Life
| Jimmy
|
|-
| 1998
|
| Thurman Parks III
|
|-
| 1998
|
Blackout Effect
| John Dantley
|
|-
| 1999
|
Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge
|
|
|-
| 1999
|
|
Nathaniel Branden
|
|-
| 2000
|
| Sam Donovan
|
|-
| 2000
|
| Lawrence Selden
|
|-
| 2000
|
Common Ground
| Johnny Burroughs
|
|-
| 2000
|
It's a Shame About Ray
| Mr. Stoltz
| Short film
|-
| 2001
|
Things Behind the Sun
| Dan
|
|-
| 2001
|
Harvard Man
| Teddy Carter
|
|-
| 2002
|
| Mr. Lawson
|
|-
| 2003
|
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
| Otto
|
|-
| 2004
|
| George Miller
|
|-
| 2005
|
| William Davis
|
|-
| 2006
|
| Mickey
|
|-
| 2007
|
| Josh
|
|-
| 2009
|
Sparks
| Joseph
| Short film
|-
| 2009
|
Fort McCoy
| Frank Stirn
|
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Television acting credits
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1983
| St. Elsewhere
| Eddie Carson
| 3 episodes
|-
| 1993
| Frasier
| Don
| 1 episode
|-
| 1994–1998
| Mad About You
| Alan Tofsky
| 6 episodes
|-
| 1995
| Partners
| Cameron
| 1 episode
|-
| 1998–1999
|
| Theseus
| 2 episodes
|-
| 1998–1999
| Chicago Hope
| Dr. Robert Yeats
| 22 episodes
|-
| 2001–2002
| Once and Again
| August Dimitri
| 7 episodes
|-
| 2002
|
| Father Michael Sweeney
| 1 episode
|-
| 2003
| Out of Order
| Mark Colm
| 5 episodes
|-
| 2005
|
| Howard Thomas
| three part TV mini-series
|-
| 2005
| Will & Grace
| Tom
| 2 episodes
|-
| 2007
| Medium
| Sonny Troyer
| 1 episode
|-
| 2007
| Close to Home
| Det. Chris Veeder
| 3 episodes
|-
| 2009
| Grey's Anatomy
|
| 3 episodes
|-
| 2010
| Caprica
| Daniel Graystone
| 18 episodes
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Film directing credits
|-
! Year
! Title
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 2003
| Once and Again
|
|-
| 2005
| The Bulls
| short film, 18 min.
|-
| 2007
| Grand Design
| short film, 18 min., also actor
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Television directing credits
|-
! Year
! Title
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 2001
| My Horrible Year!
| TV film
|-
| 2002
| Once and Again
| Episode: "Falling in Place"
|-
| 2005
| Law & Order
| Episode: "Tombstone"
|-
| 2007
| Boston Legal
| Episodes: "The Object of My Affection", "Dumping Bella"
|-
| 2008
| Quarterlife
| Episodes: "Anxiety", "Home Sweet Home"
|-
| 2008
| Grey's Anatomy
| Episodes: "Brave New World", "These Ties That Bind"
|-
| 2009
| Nip/Tuck
|
|-
| 2009–2011
| Private Practice
| Episodes: "Do the Right Thing" (2009), "Eyes Wide Open" and "War" (2010), "If You Don't Know Me by Now" (2011)
|-
| 2010
| Huge
| Episode: "Talent Night"
|-
| 2010–2011
| Glee
| Episodes: "Duets" (2010), "Blame It on the Alcohol" and "Prom Queen" (2011)
|-
| 2010
| Caprica
| Episode: "Unvanquished"
|-
|}
References
External links
Eric Stoltz interview at www.sci-fi-online.com
Eric Stoltz interview
Category:American film actors
Category:American film directors
Category:American television actors
Category:American television directors
Category:American vegetarians
Category:Actors from California
Category:People from Whittier, California
Category:People from Santa Barbara, California
Category:University of Southern California alumni
Category:1961 births
Category:Living people
