Ryan Gosling

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Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor known for his starring roles in such films as 'The Notebook,' 'Blue Valentine,' 'La La Land' and 'Blade Runner 2049.'

Who Is Ryan Gosling?

Canadian actor Ryan Gosling first found success by joining the cast of

The Mickey Mouse Club

in 1993. As an adult, he starred in the romantic hit

The Notebook

(2004) and garnered award nominations for

Half Nelson

(2006) and

Lars and the Real Girl

(2007). Gosling has also appeared in

Blue Valentine

(2010),

Crazy, Stupid, Love

(2011),

Edes in March

(2011) and

The Big Short

(2015), among other projects. He received Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for his portrayal of a jazz pianist in the 2016 hit movie musical

La La Land

, and the following year he starred in the popular sci-fi flick

Blade Runner 2049

.

Early Years and Career

Born on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, Ryan Thomas Gosling grew up in a working-class Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints family in the city of Cornwall. One of

Sylvester Stallone

's action films proved to be an early influence on the future thespian: "When I was in first grade I watched

First Blood,

and I filled my Fisher-Price Houdini kit with steak knives and brought them to school and started throwing them at kids in recess," Gosling later told

Maclean's

magazine. He was suspended for this dangerous reenactment, but he continued to be inspired by the movies he saw.

Gosling caught his first big break in 1993 when he joined the cast of

The Mickey Mouse Club

, a variety show for young people. He sang, danced and acted alongside such future stars as

Britney Spears

,

Justin Timberlake

and

Christina Aguilera

. "I went through puberty in a theme park," Gosling explained to

Esquire

magazine, about the show's process of filming at Walt Disney World in Florida. "I'm grateful. That place was a landscape to me. I had adventures every day."

After the show was canceled in 1995, Gosling went to work on other television series. He appeared in the teen comedy

Breaker High

from 1997 to 1998, before transitioning to a more mythical role: At the age of 17, Gosling moved to Los Angeles to star as the title character in the popular teen series

Young Hercules

.

Rising Film Star

For his film debut, Gosling had a supporting role in the sports drama

Remember the Titans

(2000), starring

Denzel Washington

. His first major film breakthrough came in 2001's

The Believer

. He played a Jewish neo-Nazi in this critically acclaimed film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

However, it wasn't until 2004 and his starring turn in the romantic blockbuster

The Notebook,

opposite

Rachel McAdams

, that mainstream audiences sat up and took notice. In 2006, Gosling received raves for his role as the drug-addicted teacher Dan Dunne in

Half Nelson

. The intense, moving performance earned him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

Always one to tackle diverse roles, Gosling played a young prosecutor in

Fracture

(2007), opposite

Anthony Hopkins

. He then went on to star as a shy, delusional man who forms a sincere attachment to a doll in the offbeat comedy

Lars and the Real Girl

(2007). For his performance, Gosling earned a Golden Globe nomination.

'Blue Valentine,' 'Crazy, Stupid, Love' and 'Drive'

As his career developed, Gosling emerged both as a serious actor with impressive range and as one of Hollywood's most popular sex symbols. He gave a strong performance alongside

Michelle Williams

in the 2010 indie drama

Blue Valentine

, which followed the downward spiral of a couple.

The following year proved to be big for the actor. Gosling appeared in three very different types of films, ranging from romantic comedy to political drama to edgy thriller. In

Crazy, Stupid, Love

(2011), he played a smooth ladies' man who tries to help a man going through a divorce (

Steve Carell

), before falling head-over-heels for a young woman played by

Emma Stone

. Moving on to a more action-oriented role, he then starred in

Drive

, about a stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver. That fall, Gosling co-starred with

George Clooney

in

The Ides of March

, playing a smart and savvy press secretary to a politician.

Continuing to challenge himself and hone his craft, Gosling starred with

Eva Mendes

and

Bradley Cooper

in the crime drama

The Place Beyond the Pines

, which debuted at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. Re-teaming with Stone, Gosling also played a lawman out to fight organized crime figures like

Mickey Cohen

(

Sean Penn

) in

Gangster Squad

. The project had originally been set to debut in the fall of 2012, but after a gunman opened fire on a crowd inside a Colorado movie theater, the film was delayed for revisions and pushed back to January 2013.

'The Big Short' and 'La La Land'

After starring in the 2013 crime drama

Only God Forgives

, Gosling made his directorial debut with 2014's

Lost River

. The film, which he also wrote and produced, stars Christina Hendricks as a beleaguered single mom. The following year saw the actor co-starring with

Christian Bale

, Carell and

Brad Pitt

in

The Big Short

.

Based on the nonfiction best-seller by Michael Lewis, the film focuses on the housing market bubble that fueled the 2008 financial collapse and a group of men who'd predicted the turmoil to come. The project garnered multiple Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations.

In 2016, Gosling teamed with

Russell Crowe

in the dark comedy

The Nice Guys

and also dove into the musical comedy realm with

La La Land

, co-starring Stone.

La La Land

proved to be a massive hit, garnering a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for Gosling, and winning six.

In 2017, after joining the ensemble cast for Terrence Malick's romantic drama

Song to Song

, Gosling returned to more mainstream fare with

Blade Runner 2049

, the sequel to the 1982

Harrison Ford

vehicle. Gosling next starred as famed astronaut

Neil Armstrong

in

The first person

, about the NASA mission to send a man to the moon in the 1960s.

Personal Life and Wife

Gosling has worked to promote several social causes, including AIDS research, poverty relief and the humane treatment of animals. He likes to box and to make furniture—a skill he picked up while making

The Notebook

. Gosling is also an accomplished jazz guitarist and singer.

Over the years, Gosling has been romantically linked to such co-stars as

Sandra Bullock

and McAdams. Since 2011, he has been romantically linked to

Place Beyond the Pines

co-star Mendes. In the summer of 2014, news broke that they were expecting their first child. Their daughter, Esmeralda Amada Gosling, was born that September. In April 2016, Mendes gave birth to the couple's second daughter, Amada Lee. In September 2016,

US Weekly

reported that Gosling and Mendes were secretly married earlier that year.

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Citation Information

Article Title

Ryan Gosling Biography

Author

Biography.com Editors

Website Name

The Biography.com website

URL

https://www.biography.com/actor/ryan-gosling

Access Date

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

April 8, 2021

Original Published Date

September 17, 2014

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