John C Reilly

Born: 24th May 1965
Where: Chicago, Illinois, USA

The actor's American "regular guy" qualities have landed him with roles ranging from Chicago to Gangs of New York.

A sought after character actor, he has also appeared in The Thin Red Line, Magnolia and landed his first lead role in Criminal.

Born into an Irish Catholic family and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Reilly became interested in theatre while attending DePaul University, where he studied at the famed Goodman School of Drama.

The quick-witted and admittedly soft-hearted actor got his first taste of stage work as an undergraduate and made his professional debut with Chicago's Organic Theatre.

He also travelled with the cast to Broadway, but did not repeat the role for the TV adaptation - he was filming his first movie role in Brian De Palma's Casualties of War.

The actor had sent a video of his work to the director and had originally won a smaller role (which was later played by Woody Harrelson, but cut from the movie).

However, De Palma was impressed with Reilly enough to offer him the pivotal role of Hatcher.

Small roles followed in big movies including We're No Angels, Days of Thunder and State of Grace.

In 1992, he starred opposite Jack Nicholson in the union drama Hoffa and also enjoyed character roles in What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Dolores Clairborne.

In 1997, he played porn star and drug buddy Reed Rothchild to Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights.

Terrence Malik cast him as Mess Sergeant Storm in the harrowing World War II drama The Thin Red Line.

Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson played him as a sympathetic cop in the epic Magnolia in 1999 and he played a fishing crewman in The Perfect Storm.

In 2002, he played Jennifer Aniston's husband in The Good Girl and also appeared as Happy Jack in Martin Scorcese's Gangs of New York.

He attracted a best supporting actor nomination as Amos Hart opposite Renee Zellwegger in Chicago.

Switching styles, he starred in the dour drama The Hours, also starring Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman.

In 2004, he was cast in the lead as ace conman Richard Gaddis in Criminal, the American remake of the Argentinian caper movie Nine Queens.

Recent work includes Will Ferrell's racing team-mate in Talladega Nights and the role of a spoof American rock star in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.