Tommy Solomon

Background:

"The whole concept of celebrity pi***s me off. While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors." Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Former child actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt appeared in a string of TV commercials, television movies, TV series and features before landing the star-making role of Tommy Solomon (1996-2001), an information officer and the oldest member of the aliens, on NBC’s popular sitcom "3rd Rock from the Sun." He subsequently developed into adult roles, playing lead roles in such films as A River Runs Through It (1992), Gregory K (1993; TV), Angels in the Outfield (1994), The Juror (1996), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Treasure Planet (2002; voice), Mysterious Skin (2004), Brick (2005) and The Lookout (2007). He will star in the upcoming films Killshot, opposite Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke, and Stop Loss, alongside Ryan Phillippe and Channing Tatum. Recent rumors mentioned that the 5' 10” player will replace Tobey Maguire as the next Peter Parker/Spiderman in the fourth sequel of the Spiderman franchise.

The rising star, who has been noted by Jam! Showbiz for having "defied the clichéd fates that befall most underage actors when they grow up" and described by The New York Times as "one of the hottest young stars in the indie firmament," was one of Teen People Magazine's “21 Hottest Stars Under 21” (1999). In the late 1990s, he dated 10 Things I Hate About You co-star Julia Stiles (born on March 28, 1981).

"Actors didn't use to be celebrities. A hundred years ago, they put the theaters next to the brothels. Actors were poor. Celebrities used to be kings and queens. Then the United States abolished monarchy and now there's this coming together of show business and celebrity. I don't think it's healthy. I don't want to sound self-important, but all these celebrity shows and magazines - it comes from us, from Hollywood, from our country. We're the ones creating it and I think it works in close step with a lot of other bad things that are happening in the world. It promotes greed, it promotes being selfish and it promotes this ladder, where you're a better person if you have more money. It's not at all about the work itself. Don't get me wrong. I love movies. But this myth of celebrity has nothing to do with movies." Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joe

Childhood and Family:

"My dad never blew anything up, but he probably had friends who did. He and my mom have always preached that the pen is mightier than a Molotov cocktail." Joseph Gordon-Levitt

In Los Angeles, California, Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born on February 17, 1981, to Dennis Levitt, a former radio news director for KPFK-FM, and Jane Gordon, who ran for Congress in California during the 1970s for the Peace and Freedom Party. His maternal grandfather was Michael Gordon (born on September 6, 1909; died on April 29, 1993), an actor/director who has directed such films as Cyrano De Bergerac (1950) and Pillow Talk (1959) and was blacklisted during the Red Scare of the mid-Twentieth Century. The younger of two sons, Joseph has an older brother named Dan.

Joseph, nicknamed “Joe” or “Joey,” studied French poetry, history and literature at Columbia University, in New York, but dropped out in 2004 to become a full-time actor. He recalled, “My freshman year (at Columbia) was the longest break I’d had from acting since I was six years old. When I was a teenager, I loved acting, but I really just loved it for myself. I didn’t like the fact that anyone else saw the work I was doing.”

When he was younger, Joseph’s hobbies included gymnastics, flag football, roller-blading, reading and playing Dungeons and Dragons. He is also a self-proclaimed videophile and plays the guitar. He recorded a song called “I Don't Want to Live on the Moon,” written by Jeff Moss, which was performed originally by Ernie on Sesame Street. He now splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.

“The movies I watch and the music I listen to and the books I read - those are important to me. It's very important to me and I don't know what I would do without those things.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt

3rd Rock from the Sun

Career:

Taking theater classes and performing in a children's choir at the age of four, Joseph Gordon-Levitt went on to play the Scarecrow in a preschool production of “Wizard of Oz.” From there, he progressed to national television commercials and was seen in commercials for Sunny Jim peanut butter, Cocoa Puffs, Pop-Tarts, and Kinney Shoes.

At the age of six, he began his professional acting career in the made-for-television movie Stranger on My Land (1988), starring Tommy Lee Jones, and in two 1988 episodes of NBC’s popular sitcom “Family Ties.” He also shared the screen with Jaclyn Smith in the suspenseful drama TV movie Settle the Score (1989).

Later, in 1991, Joseph secured his first regular role as David Collins/Daniel on NBC's lavish, big-budgeted, but short-lived, revival of the classic Gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows." The next year, he had a small part as a student in his first film, director Brian Levant's dog movie Beethoven. That same year, he also played Young Norman (Norman Maclean played the adult version) in Robert Redford's period drama film based on the semi-autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It, which starred Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt and Brenda Blethyn. Joseph’s performance in the film, set in Montana between 1910 and 1935, won him a Best Actor Under Ten in a Motion Picture at the Young Artist Awards.

From 1992 to 1993, Joseph co-starred as Pierce Van Horne, the son of an eating-disorder mother (played by Valerie Mahaffey) and a suicidal father (played by David Hyde Pierce) on NBC’s short-lived sitcom "The Powers That Be." Afterward, he starred as the title role in the true events-based TV movie, Gregory K (a.k.a. Switching Parents; 1993). He also had a recurring role as George (1993-1995) on ABC’s hit sitcom starring stand-up comedian Roseanne Barr, "Roseanne."

Meanwhile, Joseph snagged his first leading role in Kevin McNamara's remake of the 1951 film, Angels in the Outfield (1994; with Danny Glover, Tony Danza and Christopher Lloyd), as a young foster child named Roger who believes that his luck will change if his beloved California Angels baseball team can win the pennant. He also nabbed the role that would make him a star, as information officer Tommy, the oldest member of the aliens and the most intelligent of the Solomons, on NBC’s popular sitcom "3rd Rock from the Sun." He stayed on the show from 1996 to 2001 and won two YoungStar Awards for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy TV Series in 1997 and in 1998.

During his hefty 5-year stint in "3rd Rock from the Sun," Joseph continued acting in films. He co-starred as Demi Moore's son in Brian Gibson's adaptation of George Dawes Green's novel, The Juror (1996), appeared with Jamie Lee Curtis and Josh Hartnett in Steve Miner's seventh film in the Halloween film series, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and co-starred with then-girlfriend Julia Stiles in the romantic comedy film adapted from Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," set in a modern American high school, 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). He also co-starred opposite Don Cheadle in the Sundance-premiered drama Manic (2001).

“When I first saw the script for Manic (2001), I was in the midst of reading a lot of scripts for teenagers, because I was a teenager. And basically what people write for teenagers when it comes to studios is just s**t.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt

On stage, Joseph made his impressive New York City Stage debut in the critically applauded Off-Broadway premiere of Austin Pendleton's play "Uncle Bob" (2001), opposite theatre veteran George Morfogen at the SoHo Playhouse. The following year, he provided the voice for the lead character Jim Hawkins, a fifteen-year-old who stumbles upon a map to the greatest pirate trove in the universe, in the sci-fi animated feature film Treasure Planet, a Disney’s retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel “Treasure Island.”

“When I moved to New York, I started to realize that I wanted people to see the stuff that I was doing and I wanted it to mean something to them. A lot of people have told me ‘Mysterious Skin’ (2005) meant something to them and that meant the world to me.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

2005 saw Joseph win a Best Actor award at the Seattle International Film Festival for his brilliant portrayal of Neil McCormick, a sexually abused victim-turned-hustler who is obsessed with alien abductions, in Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin. The film, based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Scott Heim, debuted at the Venice Film Festival in 2004 and received a semi-wide release in 2005. About the film, Joseph commented, “I didn't read the book till after I read the script, but probably more than any other movie I've ever been a part of, the movie turned out the way I thought it should look based on the script and the book.”

Also in 2005, Joseph landed another lead role, this time as Brendan Frye, a young loner joining a high school crime ring to track the murderer of his ex-girlfriend (played by Emilie de Ravin), in Rian Johnson's directorial debut, Brick, which won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. He said, "Most scripts are bad. I read a lot of them. ‘Brick’ was a good script just to read. It was like, 'Oh my God, these words feel so good in my mouth.' A lot of movies try to set up a world with cool sets, costumes, camera work. In ‘Brick,’ the world is born from the words."

That same year, Joseph also co-starred with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Helen Mirren in Lee Daniels' violent thriller Shadowboxer, and was seen in Scott Frank's directorial debut, the crime thriller The Lookout, in which he starred as Chris Pratt, a former star athlete and golden boy whose life is turned upside down after a tragic accident. About the latter film, which hit theaters on March 30, 2007, Joseph said, “I have to give credit to the producers. I don't usually talk about the producers, but in this case, they did right. They understood that Scott Frank is a really talented guy. And they said, ‘We're not gonna tell you who to cast, we're not gonna tell you what to do, we're not gonna do a ton of market research and then make you change the ending. We're just gonna let you do it and trust that at the end, it will make a profit, and it will all be good.’”

Joseph is currently on set and will soon complete his upcoming film, Killshot, John Madden's big screen version of Elmore Leonard's 1989 novel. He will star opposite Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke, playing punk crook Richie Nix. About his role in the film, he said, “It's a really smart, faithful adaptation of the book. The book is such a tight page-turner. The character I play is an extreme guy. He's a killer. He wants to be Jesse James. He grew up watching cowboy and Indian movies and wants to be that. Then he meets Mickey Rourke's character, who's named The Black Bird and he wants to partner up with him and be a criminal and kill people. He's a psychotic and very bad guy.”

He will also wrap up Stop-Loss, Kimberly Peirce's highly anticipated follow up to her directorial Oscar-winning film Boys Don't Cry. In the true story-based film, Joseph will team up with Ryan Phillippe and Channing Tatum. Additionally, recent rumors mention that Joseph will be the next Peter Parker/Spiderman, replacing Tobey Maguire in the fourth sequel of the Spiderman franchise after the original Spiderman Maguire announced that he may be quitting the hit movie series.

"I don't blame the people for the fact that so many movies are bad. I think there's a corrupt, perverted, lazy and sloppy attitude that's pervasive in the movie business. The whole entertainment business is kind of crumbling around us."

Awards:

• Seattle International Film Festival: Best Actor, Mysterious Skin, 2005

• YoungStar: Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy TV Series, "3rd Rock from the Sun," 1998

• YoungStar: Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy TV Series, "3rd Rock from the Sun," 1997

• Young Artist: Best Actor Under Ten in a Motion Picture, A River Runs Through It, 1993