Sam Huntington Biography

Date of Birth

1 December 1982, Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

A dynamic young actor, Sam Huntington was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire, on April 1, 1982. His father is a cabinet maker and owns his own business. His mother, Christen Stabile, is an actress on stage and screen (most famously in Knots Landing (1979)). She also is a teacher and writer.

Sam began acting at the age of nine, under the direction of his mother as a part of her children's theater, The Black Box. Sam was also a part of Andy's Summer Playhouse in Wilton for three summers and performed at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge. His professional acting career began at the celebrated Peterborough Players in Peterborough where he was cast in four seasons from 1991 to 1994, in such roles as Jem in To Kill A Mockingbird, opposite James Rebhorn.

Although Sam wanted to begin screen acting right away, his mother encouraged him to gain more experience. In 1995, Sam signed with the JM Bloom Agency in New York City. Sam and his mother moved to an apartment there for a year, and Sam attended 7th grade at The Professional Children's School, where he became friends with Macaulay Culkin. During this year, Sam was cast in three television commercials, a voice-over for The Magic School Bus (1994), an instructional video for the Windows 95 computer operating system, the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Harvest of Fire (1996), and in the Winona Ryder film Boys (1996), but his scenes in the latter were edited out. Sam also signed a three-movie contract with the Walt Disney Company; the first film under this contract was in the key role of Mimi-Siku in the hit comedy Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), which also starred Tim Allen and and Martin Short. Filming for that picture began in April 1996 and lasted about 3 months. It was filmed entirely on location in New York City; Pound Ridge, NY; and Canaima National Park in Venezuela. During this time, Sam was accompanied by his mother (and often his father and sister) and had a tutor who kept him up on his 8th-grade studies. Sam also had a guest appearance on the award-winning television show Law & Order (1990) in December 1997.

Sam starred as 'Ox' in Columbia Pictures' ensemble comedy Not Another Teen Movie (2001), the teen movie Sleepover (2004), and the anticipated smash Superman Returns (2006). He appeared in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (2006) for Warner Bros., playing Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet reporter who works a alongside Lois Lane and Clark Kent. He also had memorable roles in Fanboys (2009), opposite Kristen Bell, Christopher Rodriguez Marquette, Dan Fogler, and Jay Baruchel, playing 'Jam' in New Line Cinema's Detroit Rock City (1999), opposite Edward Furlong, Not Another Teen Movie (2001), and 'Dinkadoo Murphy' in Thomas Haden Church's Rolling Kansas (2003).

Trivia

He was awarded the Showbiz Kids' New Young Actor of the Year award for 1997.

He was honored with the WAVM Youth Achievement Award for 1997.

Signed a three-movie contract with the Walt Disney Company, but has only made Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) under that contract.

He is the writer, director and star of a 35-minute suspense thriller entitled Sprint, filmed entirely in New Hampshire.

In 1997, he was having lunch with his mother at a New York City restaurant when Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York of the British royal family, stopped by his table to congratulate him on his work in Jungle 2 Jungle (1997).

His great-uncle was Ralph Bellamy, who won an Academy Award for lifetime achievement. When he died, Sam was given the Oscar. Ralph's wife Alice Murphy was the sister of Sam's maternal grandmother Clara Murphy.

Appeared alongside Aaron Ashmore in an episode of Veronica Mars ("You Think You Know Somebody", 2004). Later he played the role of Jimmy Olsen in Superman Returns(2006) while Ashmore played Olsen in Smallville, the TV series.

He is of Italian (from his maternal grandfather), English, Scottish, Irish, and French-Canadian descent.

Born on April Fools day.

Quotes

I can tell you Kristen Hager is one of my all time favorite people to work with ever and one of the greatest scene partners, and I'm such a lucky guy.

My kid is a year and a half old, and I just want to roll around on the floor with him for a little bit and have a normal relationship with my family.

In all seriousness, I'm flattered and humbled to have been asked to reprise my role as Luke in the 'Veronica Mars' movie.

I always learn something from every actor I've ever worked with. I always pick something from them.

There are movies that I love tonally, that I would love to emulate. Anything from Wes Anderson or the Coen brothers is right in my wheelhouse, as something that I would aspire to. I love that kind of indie, fun, colorful, funny, sweet, heartfelt but dark film.

You get to a place where you do your job, and then you dust your hands off and say, 'Okay, my job is done. Now, it's in the stars. We'll see what happens.' There's nothing I can do to affect it.

I would be hard-pressed to look back at anything that I have done in my career and not say, 'I would have done that a little different' because hindsight is 20/20.

I was in love with the British 'The Office', so even though I love Steve Carell, when they were going to remake it, I was like, 'This is not going to work. I'm going to completely veto this show. I am not going to watch this show.' But now, I love it.