Who is Eric Hamilton Stoltz?

Who is Eric Hamilton Stoltz? ^[1][2] The entertainment and directing world knows Eric Stoltz as an American actor and director. He is known for playing sensitive misfits (Mask, Kicking and Screaming, The Waterdance, Killing Zoe). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Mask. He recently starred in the science fiction television series Caprica.

Early life

Stoltz was born September 30, 1961 in Whittier, California, the son of Evelyn B. (née Vawter), a violinist and schoolteacher who died in 1994, and Jack Stoltz, an elementary school teacher.^[3][4][5] He has two sisters, mezzo soprano Catherine Stoltz^{[6][7][8][citation needed]} and writer Susan R. Stoltz^[9] Eric was raised in both American Samoa and Santa Barbara, California, where as a child, he once earned money playing piano for local musical theatre productions.^[10] He attended the University of Southern California but dropped out after his junior year.^{[citation needed]}

Career

In the 1970s Stoltz joined a repertory company that performed ten plays at the Edinburgh Festival. He returned to the United States in 1979, when he entered USC as a drama student, but subsequently dropped out to pursue film and TV roles. In the late 1970s he was cast as Carol Burnett and Charles Grodin's son in the TV adaptation of Erma Bombeck's "The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank". In 1981 he studied with Stella Adler and Peggy Feury in New York.
Director Cameron Crowe and Stoltz became friends while making Stoltz's first feature film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). According to Stoltz, Crowe promised Stoltz a role in all of his future films, but that did not happen.^[10]
Originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), he was replaced after five weeks of filming, when Michael J. Fox (the director's first choice for the role) agreed to divide time between the movie and his television sitcom, Family Ties. The director, Robert Zemeckis, said that while Stoltz provided an admirable performance, it lacked the precise comedic sense that Zemeckis was looking for.^[11] Some of the original footage, where Stoltz does not appear but was on set, was used in the film.^[12][13] This was referenced in a 2010 episode of Fringe where, in an alternate universe, a theater marquee reads "Back to the Future starring Eric Stoltz".^[14]
In 1985, Stoltz garnered attention with a Golden Globe nomination starring as Rocky Dennis in Mask. Among other roles in the 1980s, he appeared in the 1987 hit, John Hughes's Some Kind of Wonderful.
During the 1990s, Stoltz went back and forth between stage, film, and television, appearing in studio and independent films such as Independent Spirit Award Winner Pulp Fiction (1994) and Sundance Festival Winner The Waterdance (1992). He was also a production assistant on Say Anything and Singles, and produced the films Bodies, Rest & Motion in 1993, Sleep with Me in 1994, and Mr. Jealousy in 1997. He continued to appear on the New York stage both on Broadway (Three Sisters, Two Shakespearean Actors, Arms and the Man) and off-Broadway (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie, Sly Fox and Our Town). He was nominated for a Tony Award as Featured Actor for his performance as George Gibbs in the 1989 Broadway revival of Thorton Wilder's Our Town.^[15] A performance of this production was featured on Great Performances: Live From Lincoln Center, which received a 1989 Emmy nomination.^[16]
On television, he had a recurring role as Helen Hunt's character's ex-boyfriend on Mad About You (5 episodes, 1994–1998), spent a year on Chicago Hope (1994), and did some TV and cable movies such as Inside (1996) (TV) (directed by Arthur Penn) and The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999) (with Helen Mirren).
Stoltz received the Indie Support Award at the 1998 Los Angeles Film Festival.
During the first part of the 2000s, he starred with Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth (2000), based on the novel by Edith Wharton. From 2001 to 2002, he had a recurring role as the English teacher-poet August Dimitri in ABC's Once and Again, where Julia Whelan's character, a teenager, fell in love with him. He directed an episode of the show in 2002.
In 2003, he played his first leading TV role in Out of Order, which was canceled after five episodes. In 2004, he appeared in The Butterfly Effect as a child molester; the following year, he guest-starred in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace as Debra Messing's love interest.
He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his direction of the cable movie My Horrible Year! (2001). He also directed a short film entitled The Bulls, as well as the highest rated episode of Law & Order in 2005, entitled "Tombstone."
He appeared in the music video of The Residents' "Give it to Someone Else," featured on The Commercial DVD.
He has contributed essays to the books City Secrets — New York as well as Life Interrupted by Spalding Gray, and appears on the children's CD Philadelphia Chickens.
Beginning in 2007, Stoltz directed episodes of the 20-something drama Quarterlife, which began airing as webisodes and were then picked up to air on the NBC network in 2008.
Stoltz played a serial killer in need of medical attention in three episodes of the fifth season of Grey's Anatomy.^[17] He has also directed two episodes of Grey's Anatomy. The actor is currently shooting the film Fort McCoy.
Stoltz recently starred as Daniel Graystone, the inventor of Cylons, in the canceled science fiction television series Caprica, a prequel set 58 years before the Battlestar Galactica series.

Personal life

Stoltz has been a vegetarian for 25 years.^[18]

Credits

Film acting credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Fast Times at Ridgemont High	Stoner Bud
1984	The Wild Life	Bill Conrad
1984	Surf II	Chuck
1985	Mask	Rocky Dennis	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
1985	The New Kids	Mark
1985	Code Name: Emerald	Lt. Andy Wheeler
1987	Some Kind of Wonderful	Keith Nelson
1987	Sister, Sister	Matt Rutledge
1987	Lionheart	Robert Nerra
1988	Our Town	George Gibbs
1988	Haunted Summer	Percy Shelley
1989	The Fly II	Martin Brundle
1989	Say Anything	Vahlere
1990	Memphis Belle	Sgt Danny 'Danny Boy' Daly
1991	Money	Franck Cimballi
1992	The Waterdance	Joel Garcia	Also producer
1992	Singles	The Mime
1993	Bodies, Rest & Motion	Sid
1993	Naked in New York	Jake Briggs
1994	Killing Zoe	Zed
1994	Pulp Fiction	Lance	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1994	Little Women	John Brooke
1994	Sleep with Me	Joseph	Also producer
1995	Rob Roy	Alan MacDonald
1995	Fluke	Jeff Newman
1995	The Prophecy	Simon
1995	Kicking and Screaming	Chet
1996	Don't Look Back	Jesse Parish
1996	Grace of My Heart	Howard Cazsatt
1996	2 Days in the Valley	Wes Taylor
1996	Jerry Maguire	Ethan Valhere
1997	Keys to Tulsa	Richter Boudreau
1997	Anaconda	Dr. Steven Cale
1997	Mr. Jealousy	Lester Grimm, aka Vince	Also producer
1997	The Rocking Horse Winner	The Man
1997	Highball	Darien
1998	Hi-Life	Jimmy
1998	A Murder of Crows	Thurman Parks III
1998	Blackout Effect	John Dantley
1999	Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge
1999	The Passion of Ayn Rand	Nathaniel Branden
2000	The Simian Line	Sam Donovan
2000	The House of Mirth	Lawrence Selden
2000	Common Ground	Johnny Burroughs
2000	It's a Shame About Ray	Mr. Stoltz	Short film
2001	Things Behind the Sun	Dan
2001	Harvard Man	Teddy Carter
2002	The Rules of Attraction	Mr. Lawson
2003	When Zachary Beaver Came to Town	Otto
2004	The Butterfly Effect	George Miller
2005	The Honeymooners	William Davis
2006	The Lather Effect	Mickey
2007	The Grand Design	Josh
2009	Sparks	Joseph	Short film
2009	Fort McCoy	Frank Stirn

Television acting credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	St. Elsewhere	Eddie Carson	3 episodes
1993	Frasier	Don	1 episode
1994–1998	Mad About You	Alan Tofsky	6 episodes
1995	Partners	Cameron	1 episode
1998–1999	Hercules: The Animated Series	Theseus	2 episodes
1998–1999	Chicago Hope	Dr. Robert Yeats	22 episodes
2001–2002	Once and Again	August Dimitri	7 episodes
2002	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Father Michael Sweeney	1 episode
2003	Out of Order	Mark Colm	5 episodes
2005	The Triangle	Howard Thomas	three part TV mini-series
2005	Will & Grace	Tom	2 episodes
2007	Medium	Sonny Troyer	1 episode
2007	Close to Home	Det. Chris Veeder	3 episodes
2009	Grey's Anatomy		3 episodes
2010	Caprica	Daniel Graystone	18 episodes

Film directing credits

Year	Title	Notes
2003	Once and Again
2005	The Bulls	short film, 18 min.
2007	Grand Design	short film, 18 min., also actor

Television directing credits

Year	Title	Notes
2001	My Horrible Year!	TV film
2002	Once and Again	Episode: "Falling in Place"
2005	Law & Order	Episode: "Tombstone"
2007	Boston Legal	Episodes: "The Object of My Affection", "Dumping Bella"
2008	Quarterlife	Episodes: "Anxiety", "Home Sweet Home"
2008	Grey's Anatomy	Episodes: "Brave New World", "These Ties That Bind"
2009	Nip/Tuck
2009–2011	Private Practice	Episodes: "Do the Right Thing" (2009), "Eyes Wide Open" and "War" (2010), "If You Don't Know Me by Now" (2011)
2010	Huge	Episode: "Talent Night"
2010–2011	Glee	Episodes: "Duets" (2010), "Blame It on the Alcohol" and "Prom Queen" (2011)
2010	Caprica	Episode: "Unvanquished"

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