Biography
Date of Birth
21 December 1978, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Birth Name
Joshua Daniel Hartnett
Height
6' 2¾" (1.9 m)
Mini Biography
Joshua Daniel Hartnett was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Wendy Anne (Kronstedt) and Daniel Thomas Hartnett, a building manager. His father is of Irish and German descent, and his mother is of Swedish and Norwegian ancestry. Hartnett graduated from South High School in Minneapolis in June of 1996, then attended SUNY Purchase in New York. By April of 1997, he was offered the role of Michael Fitzgerald in the short-lived American television series Cracker: Mind Over Murder (1997). Josh started off doing small plays and national commercials, but broke into the big-screen movie business with his starring roles in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), The Faculty (1998), and Pearl Harbor (2001).
Trivia
Chosen as one of Teen People Magazine's "21 Hottest Stars Under 21." [1999]
Auditioned for Remember the Titans (2000).
Started a production company, Roulette Entertainment, with Elden Henson (Elden Ratliff).
Has three younger siblings: Jessica, Jake, and Joe.
He was caught supposedly robbing a Dairy Queen when he was 16 (he and his friends were actually making a short film).
He went to Minneapolis South High School with actress Rachael Leigh Cook and TV host/interior designer Genevieve Gorder.
Was raised for the most part by his father, Daniel, and stepmother, Molly. His mother moved back to San Francisco after divorcing his father.
Josh also attended Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul Minnesota before attending South High School.
Josh was in a production of Tom Sawyer, he played the part of Huckleberry Finn.
Recently moved back to Minnesota (March 2002).
Quit football in high school because of an injured left knee.
One of Teen People's 25 Hottest Stars under 25 (2002)
One of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People (2002)
Was scheduled to speak at a political rally in support of Sen. Paul Wellstone the weekend the Senator was killed along with 7 others in a plane crash. On October 26, 2002 (the day after the Senator's death), Hartnett appeared at a peace rally in St. Paul and spoke a few words in remembrance.
Is a vegetarian, and was voted the sexiest vegetarian in the world by PETA, 2003.
His father is of half Irish and half German descent. His mother is of 5/8 Swedish and 3/8 Norwegian descent.
Was voted Bliss magazines 3rd sexiest male.
Dated his childhood sweetheart Ellen Fenster. They had been together for a number of years and they bought a $2.5 million mansion together in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In February 2004 the two decided to go their separate ways.
Was set to play the role of Tino in Deuces Wild (2002) but dropped out when he won the role of Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor (2001). The Tino role eventually went to James Franco.
Was considered for the role of Evan Treborn in The Butterfly Effect (2004).
Director Sofia Coppola directed both Hartnett and his former girlfriend Scarlett Johansson, but not in the same movie. Hartnett stars in The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Johansson in Lost in Translation (2003).
Is a huge jazz fan.
The film Hero Wanted (2008) was originally conceived as a starring vehicle for him although the script at the time was very different.
He graduated from high school with New MC from Kanser.
Friends with Ben Affleck and Jason Isaacs.
Attended Nativity of Our Lord elementary and middle school in St. Paul, Minnesota.
From 2004 to late 2006 was the boyfriend of Scarlett Johansson.
Released from Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on April 5, 2009 after being taken to the hospital on March 30, 2009 for a gastrointestinal problem.
Named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2002.
Voted #3 on Bliss magazine's "Sexiest Male" in 2003, the same year PETA named him the "Sexiest Vegetarian Alive", as chosen by voters.
In 2011 Hartnett was named #1 on the list of 'Top 100 Most Beautiful Men in the World'.
Endorsed President Barack Obama for reelection on April 24, 2012.
Parents and sister still live in the home he grew up in in St. Paul, Minnesota off Cretin Avenue.
Attended the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea. [October 2009]
Attended the The 63rd International Venice Film Festival in Italy. [August 2006]
Attended the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival in Canada. [September 2010]
In West End, London, playing the role of Charlie Babbit in the stage adaptation of Rain Man. [October 2008]
Attended the The Irish Film & Television Awards in Dublin, Ireland. [February 2010]
Attended the 32nd Deauville Film Festival in France. [September 2006]
Has been offered the role of Clark Kent/Superman several times by Brett Ratner and Warner Bros. for their 2004 film, but he does not want to commit to a long-term contract which would hold him to doing 3 Superman films in 10 years. [February 2003]
Attended the Fantastic Fest 2010 in Austin, Texas. [September 2010]
In Auckland, New Zealand, filming 30 Days of Night (2007). [August 2006]
Attended the Ischia Global Film & Music Fest 2010 in Italy. [July 2010]
Attended the 62nd Annual Cannes Film Festival in France. [May 2009]
In New York City filming August (2008). [October 2007]
Has been in a long-term relationship with Tamsin Egerton, since August 2012. They have three children together.
He, Sam Rockwell, and Kat Dennings were set to star in the film adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel End Zone.
He and Jena Malone are supposedly attached to Ben Lewin's American remake of A Moment to Remember (2004) since 2016.
Trademarks:
Deep baritone voice
Quotes
I've had my heart broken, and it's not fun. But I'd rather have my heart broken than break someone else's heart.
I always wanted to get out [in the world] and see what was here . . . what defines me is wanderlust.
[interview in Feb. 202 "Teen People" magazine] It's hard for me to work closely with a girl and not completely fall in love with her as a person.
Making people laugh is hard, especially for someone who is not happy.
[on moving out of Los Angeles] I didn't want to get sucked up in the madness. Flitting around from club to club and girl to girl is no way to live.
We're all on a journey. The average American switches professions four times. I'm lucky to be in a business where I can change the character I am playing every couple of months.
That whole idea of American film being different from European film is nonsense. It all depends on what kind of American film you're looking at. There's a giant stretch of American films being made. Plus, there are different types of French movies. You know, people would say that Luc Besson's movies are American . . . so you go, "Well, he's French". Or that Wicker Park (2004) is an American film, but [the director] Paul McGuigan's Scottish, so . . . where are we talking about here? Is it all about where the money comes from, 'cause the money for this one comes from Europe. It can't be that. Is it the star? Then where do you put Russell Crowe? For me, film is film and it doesn't have to do with borders or any of that sort of thing.
I'm trying to choose scripts by character. I'm not so worried about creating a career. I want to create good roles, because ...I want to be the best actor I can be.
I try my hardest not to have any plans. It drives the people in my life crazy. But I try to spend the majority of my time back home.
Usually, when I meet a really pretty girl, right off the bat I start to feel pretty insecure.
Life isn't what it's like in the movies.
[on filming I Come with the Rain (2009)] Shooting in Hong Kong was nice. But it wasn't all that different from shooting in the U.S. or shooting in Europe. But shooting in the Philippines was. We shot for a bit in a place called Diwalwal, outside Davao in Mindanao. And it was about a five-hour car ride from the nearest airport to the foot of the mountain where this town was. We went up to the mountain, and they had never seen white people in person before. It was a really interesting dynamic. They would follow us around. There were 43,000 people in the town, and there would be a couple of thousand following us around everywhere. People were very nice, very sweet. But there were some rebels around the area who kidnap for money, so we had to have the Filipino army with us.
[on filming 30 Days of Night (2007)] I had a good time shooting in New Zealand. I almost bought a home there while I was there, because I loved it so much. The fact that so much topography is jammed into such a small area--it is like everything in the United States, basically, in a country the size of southern California. And there are so few people. It feels like open landscape. Natural. But it is still an 18-hour flight from here. That was kind of the biggest deterrent.
Be honest with yourself and lie to everyone else.
Hope is the most exciting thing in life and if you honestly believe that love is out there, it will come. And even if it doesn't come straight away there is still that chance all through your life that it will.
[on being a member of Hollywood] I love to reach out and slot myself into the Hollywood system and do my thing, but I don't ever want to be a fully-fledged member, someone who is a stable element. I don't want to be a pillar - I want to be a guy on the outside hitting it with a hammer.
Hollywood doesn't need my love.
I'm looking forward to finding someone in life that I can be truly happy with and relate to on all levels - someone I can bounce my stuff off. Right now, though, I'm not searching for that. But I still like knowing it will be out there sometime later.
(2015) The intensity of my sudden fame was overwhelming for me, and in the middle of that, I felt I couldn't trust any new person I met or their motives. I spent a lot of time back home in Minnesota with my friends and family. I did smaller movies, and I stopped working for a while. If I could go back and take with me my wisdom of today, I wish I'd been more resilient. I hope I wouldn't be as panicked as I was. Maybe I'd have known that no matter what people try to take from you, you don't have to give it to them. I've definitely grown a bit.
[About his first child, a daughter, back in April 2016, the Pearl Harbor actor shared how becoming a dad changed his outlook on life] Saying during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan (1988) (as Live! with Kelly and Michael) that his then-infant daughter is the "apple of my eye" and "perfect in every way."
(2015, on turning down roles) I've definitely said no to some of the wrong people. I said no because I was tired and wanted to spend more time with my friends and family. That's frowned upon in this industry. People don't like being told no. I don't like it. I learned my lesson when Christopher Nolan and I talked about Batman. I decided it wasn't for me. Then he didn't want to put me in The Prestige. They not only hired their Batman for it, they also hired my girlfriend at the time (Scarlett Johansson)... That's when I realized relationships were formed in the fire of that first Batman film and I should have been part of the relationship with this guy Nolan, who I felt was incredibly cool and very talented. I was so focused on not being pigeonholed and so scared of being considered only one thing as an actor. I should have thought, Well, then, work harder, man. Watching Christian Bale go on to do so many other things has been just awesome. I mean, he's been able to overcome that. Why couldn't I see that at the time?
