Jason Patric

Based on his strong performances in such fare as "After Dark, My Sweet" (1990) and "Rush" (1991), Jason Patric has been hailed as "the best young actor in American movies" (by David Denby in NEW YORK). Nevertheless, this darkly handsome, intense player remains a relatively unknown quantity. Preferring to downplay his showbiz lineage and eschewing personal details in favor of discussions about his work in interviews, Patric can seem smug or prickly. But he also possesses a directness and intelligence that inform his screen portrayals.

Born Jason Patric Miller in Queens, he is the middle child of actor-playwright Jason Miller and actress Linda G Miller (whose father was comic legend Jackie Gleason). After his parents' divorce, he and his siblings were raised in NYC and Bergen County, NJ. At age 16, Patric moved to California and with his younger brother Jordan earned credit as production assistants on the film version of Jason Miller's award-winning play "That Championship Season" (1982). Opting for an acting career, he dropped his surname and landed his first role as the troubled son of Bruce Dern and Lee Remick in the ABC movie "Toughlove" (1985).

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" (1986) but scored with his sophomore effort as a disaffected teen drawn into a cult of vampires in "The Lost Boys" (1987). The underrated "The Beast" (1988) 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. After another period drama, "The Journey of August King" (1995), in which he played a widower who helps a runaway slave, Patric returned to contemporary times, offering one of his best screen performances as a misogynistic bachelor in Neil LaBute's black comedy "Your Friends and Neighbors" (1998).

• Also Credited As:
  Jason Miller, Jason Patric Miller, John Anthony Miller Jr
• Born:
  John Anthony Miller Jr on June 17, 1966 in Queens, New York, USA
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Writer

Family

• Brother: Jordan Miller. Born c. 1968
• Father: Jason Miller. Pulitzer Prize-winning author of That Championship Season (1972); earned an Academy Award nomination for playing Father Karras in The Exorcist (1973); divorced from Patric s mother c. 1973
• Grandfather: Jackie Gleason. Maternal grandfather; best known for playing Ralph Kramden on the sitcom The Honeymooners from 1955-1956; was estranged from his daughter when he died in 1987
• Half-brother: Joshua Miller. Born in 1975; son of Jason Miller and Susan Bernard
• Mother: Linda Gleason. Daughter of actor/comedian Jackie Gleason; starred in An Unmarried Woman (1978); divorced from Patric s father c. 1973
• Sister: Jennifer Miller. Born c. 1964

Significant Others

• Companion: Christy Turlington. together since the mid-1990s; reportedly separated in summer 1999, but appeared to have reconciled by fall; no longer together
• Companion: Julia Roberts. dated c. 1991-92
• Companion: Robin Wright. dated c. 1989-90
• Companion: Sherilyn Fenn. dated c. 1990-91

Education

• Don Bosco Preparatory High School, Ramsey, NJ
• Saint Monica Catholic High School, Santa Monica, CA

Milestones

• 1982 First film job was a production assistant in the film version of That Championship Season (credited as Jason Miller)
• 1982 Moved with family to California at age 16
• 1985 Made TV acting debut in the ABC movie, Toughlove
• 1986 Made film debut in Solarbabies
• 1987 Made leading role debut in The Lost Boys
• 1990 Earned rave reviews for playing an ex-boxer in After Dark, My Sweet
• 1991 Starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh, as undercover narcotics officers, in Rush
• 1993 Co-starred in Geronimo: An American Legend
• 1996 Co-starred with Brad Pitt in Barry Levinson s feature adaptation of Lorenzo Carcaterra s novel, Sleepers
• 1997 Played opposite Sandra Bullock in Speed 2: Cruise Control
• 1998 Producing debut, Neil LaBute s Your Friends and Neighbors ; also co-starred
• 2002 Received rave reviews for his performance as an undercover narcotics officer in Narc
• 2003 Made Broadway debut opposite Ashley Judd in the production of Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• 2004 Cast as Jim Bowie in The Alamo, opposite Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton
• 2007 Cast opposite Ron Livingston in Neil LaBute s play, In a Dark Dark House at the Lucille Lortel Theater
• 2007 Co-starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in Paul Haggis In the Valley of Elah
• 2009 Appeared in the indie film, Downloading Nancy
• 2009 Co-starred in Nick Cassavetes film adaptation of Jodi Picoult s novel, My Sister s Keeper
• Appeared on stage in such productions as Beirut (at the Matrix Theatre) and Outta Gas on Lover s Leap
• Dropped surname Miller when he began his acting career, reportedly to avoid charges of nepotism
• Founded Fleece Productions
• While in junior in high school worked for a summer with Vermont s Champlain Shakespeare Festival