Gerard Butler Biography

Gerard was born in a strict Roman Catholic family; he is the youngest of three children. He spent a few a years of his early life in Montreal, Canada, but eventually came back to Scotland with his family. Gerard grew up with dreams of becoming a lawyer and enrolled himself into a law degree course after high school. He wanted to live life before he became a lawyer so before his final year, he took some time off and moved to California; his own version of a year-long spring break. He spent the year doing odd jobs to survive and getting drunk. He was even arrested for disorderly conduct. Gerard returned back home and finished his degree. He got a job as a trainee lawyer but was soon fired. That spelt the end of his career as a lawyer and he moved to London the next day to become an actor.

Owing to his good looks and a natural knack for acting, he soon found work in the theatre circuit. And soon he made his film debut in Mrs. Brown. The role was a small one but was enough to support him for a while. He also got small roles in Tomorrow Never Dies and Tale of the Mummy (1998). His big break came in 2000, when he got the lead role of Attila the Hun in the mini-series Attila. Then came an even bigger break after he was cast in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The movie was a blockbuster and gave Gerard exposure in Hollywood.

So far, Gerard had done only serious roles and had no real experience in singing and dancing. Despite the fact, he was approached by Joel Schumacher, who was casting for The Phantom of the Opera (2004). Gerard was once in a band during his college days but that was it and that was about all he knew about music. So he took singing lessons and auditioned for the role. Joel loved him and immediately cast him in the lead role. Gerard has always had a love for action and stunts so to fulfill this desire he starred in 300. 300 is the story of how just 300 Spartan warriors held off attack from the Persian King Xerxes, the movie was completely shot in front of a chroma screen in a studio. The movie was also embroiled in some controversy after historians claimed that the facts in the movie were all inaccurate, but the audience didn’t really care and the movie was a huge hit. 300 proved to be Gerard’s break-out role and made him into an international superstar.

Gerard was now hot property in Hollywood and everyone wanted a piece of him. He tried a variety of roles not wanting to get tied down to one type of acting. He did the super romantic P.S. I Love You and Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla (2008). Both the movies were hits and only increased his popularity amongst the female fans. Lately, Gerard has shown a liking towards comedy movies, he starred in The Ugly Truth (2009) opposite Katherine Heigl and in Bounty Hunter (2010) with Jennifer Aniston. The latter movie did not do well but gave the tabloids a lot to write about him and Jennifer. There were many rumors that the two were dating but they never confirmed it. Gerard is currently awaiting the release of Coriolanus (2010), which is to be released late in 2010.