Jason Patric

Born: June 1966
Where: Queens, New York, USA

The grandson of legendary actor Jackie Gleason, Patric's first film job was as a production assistant in the film version of That Championship Season.

Opting for an acting career, he landed his first role as the troubled son of Bruce Dern and Lee Remick in the ABC movie Toughlove.

Over the course of his career, Patric has been quite selective in his roles, generally down-playing his good looks and unconcerned over both box-office appeal and career effect.

He debuted as a roller-skating hunk in the unsuccessful sci-fi flick Solarbabies but scored with his sophomore effort as a disaffected teen drawn into a cult of vampires in The Lost Boys.

The underrated The Beast afforded him the unusual role of a pacifist Russian soldier in Afghanistan who eventually joins the Afghan rebels.

Patric's back-to-back turns as a punch-drunk boxer caught up in a kidnapping scheme in After Dark, My Sweet and a heroin-addicted narcotics cop in Rush firmly established his credentials as an intense and serious actor.

For this intensely private player, the 1991 tabloid frenzy sparked by his romantic involvement with Julia Roberts on the heels of her well-publicized break-up with Kiefer Sutherland was undoubtedly painful.

Patric seemingly retreated from view until 1993 when he co-starred in Geronimo: An American Legend. playing an officer escorting the title character to a meeting with a US general.

Period piece the Journey of August King followed and then Patric, in a rare error of judgement, opted for fatuous spin-off Speed 2.

Neil LaBute's black comedy Your Friends and Neighbors offered a satisfying role which was followed by 3 Days of Rain.

Recent work includes the bleak cop thriller Narc opposite Ray Liotta and The Alamo with Dennis Quaid.