Everything about Ben Stiller totally explained
Benjamin Edward Stiller (born
November 30,
1965) is an
Emmy-winning
American comedian,
actor,
film producer and
director. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors
Jerry Stiller and
Anne Meara. After beginning his acting career with a play, he wrote several mockumentaries, and was offered two of his own shows, both entitled
The Ben Stiller Show. After acting in a few films, Stiller had his directorial debut with
Reality Bites, and has since written, starred in, directed, and produced over fifty films and television shows. Stiller's films have grossed $1.38 billion.
Stiller is a member of the comedic acting brotherhood known as the
Frat Pack. With multiple cameos in music videos, television shows, and films, he may be best known for his roles in
Zoolander,
Starsky and Hutch,
There's Something About Mary,,
Meet the Parents, its sequel
Meet the Fockers, and
Night at the Museum. Throughout his career, Stiller has received several awards and honors including an
Emmy Award, several
MTV Movie Awards, and a
Teen Choice Award. Stiller's most recent role was in the movie
The Heartbreak Kid.
Biography
Early life
Stiller was born in New York City where his granny came from, and grew up in
Manhattan, the second child of Stiller and Meara. Stiller's father is
Jewish and his mother, who is of
Irish Catholic background, converted to
Judaism after marrying his father. His parents frequently took him on the sets of their appearances, including an appearance on
The Mike Douglas Show when he was six. He admitted in an interview that he considered his childhood unusual: "In some ways, it was a show-business upbringing—a lot of traveling, a lot of late nights—not what you'd call traditional." His older sister, actress
Amy Stiller, appeared in his movie
Dodgeball in a short scene as a waitress at a restaurant. He displayed an early interest in film making and made
Super 8 movies with his sister and friends.
After he graduated from the
Calhoun School in New York in 1983, he enrolled as a film student at the
University of California, Los Angeles and joined
Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After nine months, Stiller left school to move back to
New York City. He made his way through acting classes, auditioning, and trying to find an agent.
Beginning career
He landed a role in the
Broadway revival of
John Guare's
The House of Blue Leaves, alongside
John Mahoney, a play which later garnered four
Tonys.
Directorial debut
After a few minor film roles in the early 1990s, such as
Stella,
Highway to Hell, and a cameo in
The Nutt House, Stiller devoted his time on writing, fund raising, recruiting cast members, and directing
Reality Bites. The film also connected Stiller with future
Frat Pack members
Jack Black and
Owen Wilson. Also in 1996, MTV invited Stiller to host the VH1 Fashion Awards. Along with
SNL writer Drake Sather, Stiller developed a short film for the awards about a male model known as Derek Zoolander. It was so well received that Stiller developed another short film about the character for the 1997 VH1 Fashion Awards and finally remade the skit into a film. and shots of the
World Trade Center had to be digitally removed and hidden for the film's release after the
September 11 terrorist attacks.
After Stiller invited
Owen Wilson to star in
Zoolander, Wilson returned the favor and invited Stiller to play Chas Tenenbaum in
The Royal Tenenbaums. Over the next two years, Stiller continued on with the lackluster box office film
Duplex and several cameos in
Orange County and
Nobody Knows Anything!. He also guest-starred on several television shows, including an appearance in an episode of the television series
King Of Queens as Arthur's father (Stiller's father Jerry Stiller) in a flashback. He also made a special guest appearance on
World Wrestling Entertainment's
WWE Raw.
2004 would be Stiller's busiest year as he acted in six different films. All six of the films were comedies, and include some of his highest grossing films. They include
Starsky & Hutch,
Envy,, an uncredited cameo in,
Along Came Polly, and
Meet the Fockers. Although
Envy only grossed $14.5 million worldwide, his most successful film of the year was
Meet the Fockers, which grossed over $516.5 million worldwide. In 2005, Stiller would begin his first attempt at a computer-animated film with
Madagascar, which performed so well at the box office that it resulted in a due in 2008.
In 2006, Stiller had two cameos, one in
School for Scoundrels, and, of which he was the executive producer. In December, Stiller starred in the lead role of
Night at the Museum. Although the film received many poor reviews, the film earned over $115 million in ten days. His most recent film,
The Heartbreak Kid, was released on
October 5, 2007.
Upcoming work
Stiller has several upcoming films in 2008 and 2009, including . He will provide a voice for one of the characters in
The Smurfs, and has completed production for
Tropic Thunder, a film he's directing and starring in about a group of actors in a war film who must become commandos themselves when a problem during filming ensues. In February 2007, it was announced that Stiller would star alongside
Jason Schwartzman in
The Marc Pease Experience as a former theater teacher and star alongside
Tom Cruise in a comedy adaptation of
The Hardy Boys entitled
Hardy Men. When speaking about working with Tom Cruise Stiller said, "I'd be very excited about working with him, because I've always been a huge fan". Stiller will also produce the upcoming
Date School. Stiller runs together with
Stuart Cornfeld the
Red Hour Productions company. The company will produce the comedy television show
Gods Behaving Badly based on
Marie Phillips' novel. In 2009, he'll star in the sequel and
Hardy Men.
The Frat Pack
Stiller is the "acknowledged leader" of the
Frat Pack, a core group of actors that have worked together in multiple films. The group includes actors
Jack Black,
Will Ferrell,
Vince Vaughn,
Owen Wilson,
Luke Wilson, and
Steve Carell. Stiller has been acknowledged as the leader of the group due to his multiple cameos and for his offering the other members movie roles in films he's involved with while producing and directing. He dated several actresses during his early television and film career including
Jeanne Tripplehorn,
Janeane Garofalo,
Calista Flockhart, and
Amanda Peet. In
May 2000, Stiller married
Christine Taylor, whom he met while filming a never-broadcast television pilot for the
FOX network called
Heat Vision and Jack, which starred
Jack Black. The couple appeared onscreen together in
Zoolander and . He and Taylor reside in
Hollywood Hills
Stiller is a supporter of the
Democratic Party and donated money to
John Kerry's 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign. In February 2007, Stiller attended a fundraiser for
Barack Obama and later donated to Obama's,
John Edwards, and
Hillary Clinton's 2008 U.S. Presidential campaigns. Stiller is also a supporter of several charities including
Declare Yourself, the
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation.
In a 1999 interview with
GQ and later in a 2001 interview with Hollywood.com, Stiller stated that he'd
bipolar disorder, an illness he said that ran in his family. In two interviews in November and December 2006, Stiller claimed that this earlier interview's comment about the disorder was false. In one interview he said: "I said jokingly in
GQ that I was, like, crazy, and it came out as: Ben Stiller, bipolar manic-depressive!"
Stiller frequently does impersonations of many of his favorite performers, including
Bono,
Tom Cruise,
Bruce Springsteen, and
David Blaine. In an interview with
Parade, he commented that
Robert Klein,
George Carlin, and
Jimmie Walker were inspirations for his comedy career.
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2002 ||
Orange County || The Firefighter || cameo
|-
|
Run Ronnie Run || Himself ||
|-
|rowspan="3"| 2003 ||
Nobody Knows Anything! || Peach Expert || cameo
|-
|
Duplex || Alex Rose ||
|-
|
Pauly Shore Is Dead || Himself || cameo
|-
|rowspan="6"| 2004 ||
Meet the Fockers || Gaylord 'Greg' Focker ||
|-
| || Arturo Mendes || cameo
|-
| || White Goodman ||
|-
|
Envy || Tim Dingman ||
|-
|
Starsky & Hutch || David Starsky ||
|-
|
Along Came Polly || Reuben Feffer ||
|-
|rowspan="3"| 2005 || || Himself ||
|-
|
Madagascar || Alex || voice only
|-
| || Commander ||
|-
|rowspan="4"| 2006 ||
Night at the Museum || Larry Daley ||
|-
|
In Search of Ted Demme || Himself ||
|-
| || Guitar Store Dude || cameo
|-
|
School for Scoundrels || Lonnie || cameo
|-
| 2007 ||
The Heartbreak Kid || Eddie Cantrow ||
|-
|rowspan="3"| 2008 ||
Tropic Thunder || Speedman ||
awaiting release
|-
| || Alex || voice only;
post-production
|-
|
The Marc Pease Experience || Jon Dribble ||
post-production
|-
|rowspan="1"| 2009 || || Larry Daley ||
filming
|}
Directing and producing in film and television
Television work
Music videos
Stiller has joined multiple artists for cameos in their music videos, including:
- Smash Mouth's video for their song All Star as it shows scenes of him being portrayed as Mr. Furious from the film Mystery Men.
- Limp Bizkit's video for their hit song "Rollin'," in which he gives the keys to friend Fred Durst and tells him "Don't scratch the car." He also appeared in the hidden track at the end of their album, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water.
- Tenacious D's video "Tribute", in which he merely walks across the shot in the mall during the climax of the song.
- P.Diddy's "Bad Boy for Life" video as P. Diddy's neighbor.
- Jack Johnson's music video, "Taylor," in which he runs over a chicken. An extended version of the video features Ben as a pedantic director, frequently interrupting and instructing Jack.
- Beastie Boys' 2006 in-concert movie Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That!, when Stiller and his wife appear among the audience members caught on amateur camera footage. Stiller is shown rapping along to three songs, then in a brief vox pops-style interview during the closing credits.
- Stiller also appears as a supermarket manager in Travis' video of their 2007 single "Closer".
Awards and honors
For his work in The Ben Stiller Show, he was awarded an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Variety or Music Program". He released six films in 2004 and Meet the Fockers was the only film he wasn't nominated for.
He has been nominated twelve times for the Teen Choice Awards and won once for "Choice Hissy Fit" for his work in Zoolander. He also was nominated by the MTV Movie Awards thirteen times and won three times for "Best Fight" in There's Something About Mary, "Best Comedic Performance" in Meet the Parents, and "Best Villain" in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
Princeton University's Class of 2005 inducted Stiller as an honorary member of the class during its "Senior Week" in April 2005.
On February 23, 2007 Stiller received the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. According to the organization, the award is given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.
On March 31, 2007, Stiller received the "Wannabe Award" from the Kids' Choice Awards.Further Information
Get more info on 'Ben Stiller'.
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