Eric Bana Biography

Eric Banadinovich as he was born uses the shorter version of his name Eric Bana. Eric’s grandfather immigrated to Australia in the 1950’s. His father Ivan was a logistics manager for a tractor company called Caterpillar Inc. and his German-born mother Eleanor was a hair-dresser. Eric was born with the skills of mimicry; he started imitating his family members at the age of six. He has an older brother Anthony. Eric stands at six feet three inches but was still considered short according to his family standards as his brother stand in at six feet eight inches.

He started of his career as a bartender and a bus boy. He was encouraged by his friends to try a career in stand-up comedy. He worked a lot of inner-city pubs from 1991 to 1993. He got his first real break on TV when he got a chance to perform on Tonight Live with Steve Vizard. His act went well and he was noticed by the producers of Full Frontal, a sketch comedy show featuring comedians. He was hired as a writer and performer. Eric was a huge hit with the audience which even led to him having his own television special Eric in 1996. The success of his special encouraged him to have his own show called The Eric Bana Show. The show too was a sketch show featuring many guest performers. But the show failed to garner any audience and was cancelled only after eight shows.

Despite the failure Eric was not disheartened. In 1997 he made his big screen debut in the movie The Castle. His role was small but was a good start for him as the movie became a huge hit despite the small budget. Things seemed to be working great for him personally as well; he had started dating Rebecca Gleeson who was a publicist. He proposed to her on a trip to America which he had won from Cleo Magazine for being ‘The Bachelor of the Year’. They are happily married with two children; son Klaus and daughter Sophia.

Having just stepped in to the celluloid world, Eric had a huge opportunity waiting for him. He was approached by Andrew Dominik to play the lead role of Chopper Read in his film Chopper. Andrew had struggled making the film for five years as he was unable to find a leading man, Eric;s name was suggested to him by Chopper Read himself and he was taken onboard. Eric approached this role method acting style by piling on 30 pounds to look like Read, he even spent two days with Read to get his accent and mannerisms right. The film was hit and Eric got rave reviews for his portrayal, he even won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor.

Chopper’s success was a turning point in his career. He won a great role as Sergeant First Class Norm ‘Hoot’ Gibson in Black Hawk Down. This movie was a huge hit giving him the exposure he needed. He followed it up with a low-budget Australian film The Nugget (2002). While filming The Nugget he was offered the role of Bruce Banner in the big screen adaptation of The Incredible Hulk. This was a huge achievement for someone who had done only a handful of movies. He was slightly unsure about the role but came on board when he found out the movie was being directed by Ang Lee. Hulk came out in 2003 and he starred alongside Jennifer Connelly. The movie was not well received by critics but it still managed to make some money on the box-office.

His next was the epic Troy. Eric was recommended by Brad Pitt himself for the role of prince Hector as he had liked his performance in Chopper. Troy was an international success but faired ordinarily at home, but Eric was duly noticed for his performance. Just having acted in a few movies he found himself cast in Steven Spielberg’s Munich. The movie is about a Mossad assassination squad sent to kill the terrorists who had killed the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. The movie got a lot Academy Award nominations and Eric was well appreciated for his role.

In between he got back to his roots by doing an Australian film called Romulus, My Father (2008) and periodical film called The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). He then played Nero in the commercial success Star Trek (2009) and starred in The Time Traveller’s Wife (2009). Owing his background as a stand-up comedian he landed a role in Adam Sandler’s Funny People (2009) which is a movie about stand-up comedians.

He produced and directed a movie called Love the Beast. The movie is like a documentary on how he got his first car and how he started to love cars.