Biography
Date of Birth
12 December 1980, London, Ontario, Canada
Birth Name
Ryan Thomas Gosling
Height
6' 0½" (1.84 m)
Mini Biography
Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, Scottish, and Irish. The Gosling family moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where Ryan grew up and was home-schooled by his mother. He also attended Gladstone Public School, Cornwall Collegiate, and Vocational High School in Cornwall, where he excelled in Drama and Fine Arts. The family then relocated to Burlington, Ontario, where Ryan attended Lester B. Pearson High School.
Ryan first performed as a singer at talent contests with Mandi. He attended an open audition in Montreal for the TV series "The Mickey Mouse Club" (The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989)) in January 1993 and beat out 17,000 other aspiring actors for a a spot on the show. While appearing on "MMC" for two years, he lived with co-star Justin Timberlake's family.
Though he received no formal acting training, after "MMC," Gosling segued into an acting career, appearing on the TV series Young Hercules (1998) and Breaker High (1997), as well as the films The Slaughter Rule (2002), Murder by Numbers (2002), and Remember the Titans (2000). He first attracted serious critical attention with his performance as the Jewish neo-Nazi in the controversial film The Believer (2001), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. He was cast in the part by writer-director Henry Bean, who believed that Gosling's strict upbringing gave him the insight to understand the character Danny, whose obsessiveness with the Judaism he was born into turns to hatred. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Male Lead in 2002 for the role and won the Golden Aries award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics.
After appearing in the sleeper The Notebook (2004) in 2004, Gosling won the dubious honor of being named one of the 50 Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine. More significantly, he was named the Male Star of Tomorrow at the 2004 Show West convention of movie exhibitors.
Gosling reached a summit of his profession with his performance in Half Nelson (2006), which garnered him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. In a short time, he has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. Throughout the subsequent decade, he has become all three of an internet fixation, a box office star, and a critical darling, having headlined Blue Valentine (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), Drive (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), The Nice Guys (2016), and La La Land (2016). In 2017, he starred in the long-awaited science fiction sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), with Harrison Ford.
Ryan has two children with his partner, actress Eva Mendes.
Trivia
Is an accomplished jazz guitarist and a fan of Chet Baker; started a band with his friend Zach Shields called Dead Man's Bones.
Has an older sister named Mandi Gosling.
Was taken out of elementary school as a child and taught at home by his mother because of constant abuse from other students.
Had a dog named George.
Was in a relationship with Sandra Bullock, having met on the set of Murder by Numbers (2002) (May 2002-July 2003).
Built the kitchen table featured in The Notebook (2004) in preparation for his role as Noah.
Purchased the Jeep Cherokee driven by Ben Chaplin in Murder by Numbers (2002) from the set of the movie.
Favorite movie is East of Eden (1955)
Keeps in touch with his Breaker High (1997) co-star Scott Vickaryous.
Beat out 17,000 people for a place in The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989) in January 1993.
Born in the same hospital as his The Notebook (2004) co-star Rachel McAdams -- St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario -- though he's younger.
Has released a song titled "Put Me in the Car", which can be found on his website.
With two of his friends, he has opened a Moroccan restaurant called Tagine in Beverly Hills, California.
Was in a relationship with Rachel McAdams twice, having met on the set of The Notebook (2004). They were originally together from June 2005 to July 2007 before reconciling in August 2008, only to separate a second time in November 2008.
In school, his nickname was Trouble.
He moved to Los Angeles, California when he was 16.
Took his mother and his sister to the Oscars in 2007.
Traveled to Chad in 2005 to make a documentary on the Darfur refugees living there.
One of 115 people invited to join AMPAS in 2007.
Lives in the popular Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake. Other Silver Lake locals include Beck, Bo Barrett, Christina Ricci, Rachel McAdams, and Jason Lee.
Was the first Canadian-born performer in over 60 years to be nominated for the best actor Oscar in Half Nelson (2006). The last was Walter Pidgeon for Madame Curie (1943).
Was originally cast as Jack Salmon in The Lovely Bones (2009), but after dropping out of the project a day before shooting began, Mark Wahlberg was cast instead.
Was ranked #23 on Entertainment Weekly's '30 Under 30' the actors list. (2008).
Member of the same Los Angeles gym as Jason Sarayba, Bradley Cooper, Jodie Foster, Michelle Monaghan, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Ashley Tisdale.
According to an interview in GQ, he was the only Mickey Mouse Club cast member that didn't live in the same complex as all the other cast members and their families. He and his family lived in a nearby trailer park and he was the family's only source of income.
Ryan drives the same color and year model 2011 Chevy Impala in both Drive (2011) and The Ides of March (2011).
Unlike many successful actors near his age, he has no entourage and few close friends. He admits to often preferring solitude while not working, attributing it to his autonomous latter childhood.
He first saw Blue Velvet (1986) when he was 14 years old. This movie left a strong impression on him.
Born at 2:34 PM.
He is of roughly half French-Canadian ancestry (from both of his parents combined), along with English, Scottish, Irish, and about 1/32 German. The Gosling surname originates in England, where Ryan's great-great-grandfather, George Edward Gosling, was born in Paddington. Also, one of Ryan's five times paternal great-grandfather, James-Jacques Robinson/Robertson, who was from the United States, was African-American, and married into the French-Canadian community.
Was considered to play Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) before Ben Affleck was cast.
Auditioned for the role of Frankie Ballenbacher in Alpha Dog (2006) but lost to Justin Timberlake.
Auditioned for the role of Sam Flynn in TRON: Legacy (2010), but lost to Garrett Hedlund.
Touring the U.S. and Canada with his band, Dead Man's Bones, in support of their debut album. [October 2009]
He and Benicio Del Toro are making tentative plans to visit the jungle in Bolivia, to learn a few survival skills first-hand for Che: Part Two (2008) (aka "Che"). [August 2004]
New York City: Announces that he plans to take an unspecified "break" from acting because he feels as if he has "lost perspective on what I'm doing." [March 2013]
He is in a relationship with Eva Mendes, whom he met on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) in July 2011.
Was mentioned in two movies in 2014: Maps to the Stars (2014) and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014).
A series of videos, entitled "Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal", which feature clips from various Gosling films with a spoonful of cereal superimposed over the footage, went viral in 2013, receiving millions of views on Vine and YouTube. When the creator of the videos, Ryan McHenry, passed away from osteosarcoma in May 2015, Gosling posted his own video on Vine, in which he can be seen eating a bowl of cereal in tribute to McHenry. He also offered his public condolences to McHenry's family.
Appeared in two films with Michelle Williams: The United States of Leland (2003) and Blue Valentine (2010). They lived together for four weeks, while filming "Blue Valentine", in a house in Carbondale, Pennsylvania.
Has 2 daughters: Esmeralda Amada Gosling (b. September 12, 2014) & Amada Lee Gosling (b. April 29, 2016) with girlfriend, Eva Mendes.
Has starred in four films specifically set in Los Angeles (Drive, Gangster Squad, The Nice Guys, and La La Land). Additionally, he has starred in seven films set in New York (The Believer, Stay, Half Nelson, Blue Valentine, All Good Things, Place Beyond the Pines, and The Big Short).
By fans in public, he often gets confused for fellow Canadian actor named Ryan, Ryan Reynolds.
He is the third male born in 1980 or after to have received more than one Academy Award nomination for acting (for Half Nelson (2006) and La La Land (2016)). The first two are Jonah Hill (for Moneyball (2011) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)) and Eddie Redmayne (for The Theory of Everything (2014), which he won, and The Danish Girl (2015)).
He is the first person born in the 1980s (and thus could be considered the first millennial) to have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Half Nelson (2006); Keisha Castle-Hughes is the first millennial nominated for the Best Actress Oscar (for Whale Rider (2002), in the ceremony for 2003). Eddie Redmayne and Natalie Portman are the first persons born in the 1980s to have won in those two respective categories.
He played all his filmed piano-playing scenes in La La Land, learning to play the instrument in the months before shooting.
Is the first person born in the 1980s to have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor (he has been nominated in the category twice). The next four were Jesse Eisenberg (born in 1983), Eddie Redmayne (one win, one nomination) (born in 1982), Andrew Garfield (born in 1983), and Daniel Kaluuya (born in 1989).
Can speak some basic, conversational Spanish. He began learning in 2011 after starting to date longtime friend and costar Eva Mendes. He said in 2012 he was attempting to read Zoé Valdés' Café Nostalgia in Spanish, and his two daughters with Mendes are being raised bilingual.
In 1992 he was the only boy with a group of girl dancers in a tv talent show.
Gained 60 lbs to play Jack Salmon in The Lovely Bones (2009) by eating melted ice cream. Ultimately he was fired due to creative differences which left him, in his words, "fat and unemployed".
Born on the same date as Gustaf Skarsgård.
His characters often suffer a broken nose, as seen in Blue Valentine (2010), Only God Forgives (2013), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
Has a doberman named Lucho.
His favorite actor is Gary Oldman.
He is trained in and regularly practices Muay Thai.
His nickname is 'RY'.
Trademarks:
Often plays quiet, emotionally distant characters
Frequently works with directors Nicolas Winding Refn, Derek Cianfrance, and Damien Chazelle
Quotes
I've learned it's important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is.
I always wanted to entertain. When I was 6, a scrawny, scrawny kid, I'd get in my red speedo and do muscle moves. I actually thought I was muscular. I didn't know everyone was laughing at me.
You know how sometimes department stores have these things where, if you win, you get 10 minutes and go in and take anything you want from the store? That's basically what I'm doing. I'm running in and just trying to grab as many characters as possible before they pull the plug on me.
It's nice to be around people that have a sense of the world around them, that are, in general, more conscious and conscientious. It was important for me to get an outside look at America even though I grew up in Canada, it's an incredible country and I love it, but it's so close. It's like being too close to a Monet or something. You have to move back. Going to New Zealand helped me to get a read on this place that the whole world was obsessed with.
I also think that something interesting comes out when you do something that you're afraid of, so I try to take things that I'm not sure that I can do. And this was certainly one of them. I didn't feel like I was right for this at all, and I wondered how to find truth in a fairy tale.
For now, I'm just going to keep doing the work and hope I don't get fired. If people want to put me up on their walls, I'll love it.
I think American news is pretty tragic in general. I can't tell the difference between Entertainment Tonight (1981) and the news. It's all about ratings. They are trying to sum it all up pretty quickly and try to act as if they understand it.
The theme for me is love and the lack of it. We all want that and we don't know how to get it, and everything we do is some kind of attempt to capture it for ourselves.
I understand the studios, in the sense that if they're going to spend $100 million on a film, they want to make sure they're gonna get that back . . . but I don't know how to guarantee you you're going to make that money back, and I'm uncomfortable working with those kind of numbers.
There is this idea in Hollywood, and I've seen it work for people, where the unspoken rule is 'Do two for them and one for yourself.' And that's kind of considered a fact. I've never really found that to be true for me. I've gotten more opportunities out of working on things I believed in than I ever did on things that weren't special to me.
All my characters are me. I'm not a good enough actor to become a character. I hear about actors who become the role and I think 'I wonder what that feels like'. Because for me, they're all me. I relate to these characters because aspects of their personality are like me. And I just turn up the parts of myself that are them and turn down the parts that aren't.
(On this acting hero) Gene Wilder is my Marlon Brando. Gene Wilder will break your heart and make you laugh at the same time. And that's deep. There's something really profound about what he's able to do. It's transcendent. It's everything. He gives you everything at once and you have to decide what you feel about it.
I mean, God bless The Notebook (2004), it introduced me to one of the great loves (Rachel McAdams) of my life. But, people do Rachel and me a disservice by assuming we were anything like the people in that movie. Rachel and my love story is a hell of a lot more romantic than that.
[on working on independent films] - Not to discriminate against budgets, I feel that independent films tend to ask more questions and don't pretend to know as much as the bigger films, which tend to think they know everything.
I don't really like doing interviews because I don't have any answers about why I act. It's like a compulsion. It's like people who eat and eat and eat and they don't know why and they keep getting fatter but they can't stop. It's like that.... And then you find yourself on a set throwing yourself off a bridge, and you're asking yourself, 'Why am I doing this?' And I don't know.
I try not to make too many movies. I get sick of myself, so I can imagine how everyone else feels.
[on Blue Valentine (2010)] In most movies you spend so much time looking for any scraps of truth, and in this movie you're just marinating in it.
[After Blue Valentine (2010)] I had to go to the doctor for a physical and when I left he gave me a prescription. he wrote, 'Do a comedy'.
[on Drive (2011) director Nicolas Winding Refn] I don't think that Nicolas believes that art and entertainment are mutually exclusive. He doesn't limit himself. If he were a baseball player, it's like he walks up to the plate [and] points out a home run before he swings. He may not hit a home run, but that's the only thing he's hoping for. He's got guts. And also, he loves exploitation films and genre movies as well as art films.
[on choosing film roles] There's always those 'Blair Witch Projects' that haunt you. The idea that you could make a little movie, and you could make it the way you want to make it, and people will still want to see it. People will want to see it for what it is, not for the way it's marketed.
I always wanted to make a violent John Hughes movie. I love John Hughes movies. I love Pretty in Pink (1986). But I always thought if there were head-smashing in it it'd be a better movie.
[on Drive (2011)] I guess I wanted to make a superhero movie, but all the good ones were taken. This was the opportunity to create one.
The writing was on the wall when I saw Rocky (1976) for the first time. I went and picked a fight right afterwards and got my ass kicked. The movies took me into their dream.
[on working with directors Derek Cianfrance and Nicolas Winding Refn] I found my guys I got a team I know. We're just getting started.
[on the possibility of directing] You can't act forever. Some people manage, but they're the marathon runners. You have a shelf life as an actor, so you have to find another way to express yourself.
[on being recognized in public] You just have to hang out in places that are more interesting than you are. It has a weird effect on people. The experience of recognizing you puts them into some kind of trance where they think they know you but they don't. They start sharing with you, and it gives you this intimacy that's very rare.
[on Drive (2011) director Nicolas Winding Refn] I was very ill, and we were sitting there not really able to communicate. He looks at me with tears in his eyes, and he starts singing at the top of his lungs and hitting his knees, and he says, 'I know what this movie is, it's a movie about a guy who drives around listening to pop music because it's the only way he can feel.'
I think the one thing I love most about being an adult is the right to buy candy whenever and wherever I want.
There's no way that a film can capture the experience of making it... The thing that's so exciting when you're making a film is that it can be anything and there are no limitations on it.
[on becoming famous] I don't know what to say about fame. I've been doing this since I was eight, so I can't really say that it came out of nowhere. But I can't say that I saw it coming either. My friend's grandmother would soak a lobster in vodka, get it good and drunk before she put it in the pot to cook it. Then she'd turn the heat up real slow. That lobster never knew what hit him.That's kind of how it's gone down for me. Except in my story, I guess I'm the old lady AND the lobster.
When I'm down in the dumps, nothing gets my toes a-tappin' like putting on my old M.C. Hammer pants. And they still fit, even though my aunt made them for me when I was eight. But that's the genius of M.C. Hammer. They still fit me though I've grown significantly. I'll never know how M.C. Hammer got into money problems. Genius.
I thank God for music. It's made me a better actor. I think acting has made me a better musician. Now, I come into a scene and I think "This guy's playing the beat." You're trying to figure out what the other actors are doing in terms of, like, Michelle Williams's got the baseline on this. And this guy's playing the drums. And this person wants the guitar solo on this song, so I'll just play some synth line. You have to figure out what your part is in the dynamic. So you're filling in a space. You're not all trying to be the lead singer.
[on playing a bank robber in The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)] I fantasized about robbing banks for a long time, ever since I was a kid. Then, telling Derek [Cianfrance] that if ever I could rob a bank I'd do it on my motorcycle, and he said 'That's weird, I just wrote a script about that'. It just felt meant to be. He said that I was going to get to rob the bank for real. There would be no cuts, real people in there, real tellers. I'm going to get to ride the bike up, rob it, and ride the bank away. I was very excited.
[2013] I've been doing it too much. I've lost perspective on what I'm doing. I think it's good for me to take a break and reassess why I'm doing it and how I'm doing it. And I think this is probably a good way to learn about that. I need a break from myself as much as I imagine the audience does.
[on some apprehension about undertaking the role of film director] When you're a director there's no place to hide. You're completely exposed. When you're the actor, you can say, 'Well, it's the character', or 'I didn't write it', or 'I didn't direct it, cut it, score it. I didn't make that poster'. You can hide behind a lot of things. Whereas, as a filmmaker you're responsible for everything.
I'm really not good at knowing what people want, because don't have that talent. If ever I try to predict, I'm sure I will be instantly humbled.
[on his role as Luke in The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)] He's the motorcycle equivalent of a boy band doing some low-level carnival circuit. He's kind of a melting pot of every masculine cliché with his tattoos, muscles and guns.
It feels like not that long ago that I was on a show called Young Hercules (1998) in which I had a fake tan and wore tight leather pants and fought imaginary monsters.
I can't tell you how many times people go, "Are you Ryan?" Then they take the picture and realize, in that moment, that I'm not Ryan Reynolds.
I think women are better than men. They are stronger. More evolved. You can tell especially when you have daughters and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately.
