Karl Urban

Karl Urban
Urban at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	Karl-Heinz Urban June 7, 1972 (1972-06-07) (age 38) Wellington, New Zealand
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1990–present

Karl-Heinz Urban (born June 7, 1972) is an actor from New Zealand.

He is best known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek. He played Vaako in The Chronicles of Riddick and the Russian assassin Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy, and won acclaim for his performances in New Zealand films The Price of Milk and Out of the Blue.

Early life

Urban was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of a leather goods manufacturer.^[1] He attended St Mark's Church School where he showed an early love for public performance. His first acting role came at age eight, when he had a single line on the New Zealand television series 'Pioneer Woman'. However, he did not act professionally again until after high school. He then went on to Wellington College. Upon leaving high school, Karl was offered a role in the hit New Zealand TV series Shortland Street playing gay paramedic Jamie Forrest. After appearing on the show for the 1993–1994 season he attended Victoria University of Wellington for one year, then left to pursue his acting career. Over the next few years, he landed several theater roles in the Wellington area. Eventually, he moved to Auckland where he was offered many guest roles in local shows. One of his first roles was that of a heroin addict in the police drama Shark in the Park.

Career

As well as appearing in films and television shows, Urban had various roles in theatre productions and TV advertisements. In February/March 1998, he was in a play called The Herbal Bed at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland. In August 1998, he played Mark Antony in Auckland Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The following year he appeared in the Auckland Theatre Company's production of New Zealand classic Foreskin's Lament.

Urban was seen on the internationally syndicated American TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and on its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess, in which he played both Cupid and Julius Caesar from 1996 to 2001. Both shows were filmed in New Zealand. He won the New Zealand Film and TV Awards for his starring role in the offbeat rural romance The Price of Milk. Urban later won acclaim for his portrayal of policeman Nick Harvey in Out of the Blue, a dramatisation of New Zealand's Aramoana massacre.

International roles

Urban's Hollywood break came with his role in the 2002 horror film Ghost Ship. Since then, Urban has worked on many high-profile films, including in two of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Bourne Supremacy and The Chronicles of Riddick.

The Hollywood Reporter speculated that Urban was one of several actors being considered for the part of British secret service agent 007 in Casino Royale, directed by fellow New Zealander Martin Campbell. The role eventually went to Daniel Craig.

Urban at the premiere of Peter Jackson's King Kong in Wellington, New Zealand

Urban played John "Reaper" Grimm, one of the lead characters in Universal Pictures' Doom which was released on October 21, 2005. Following his role in Doom, he played the lead in the 2007 Viking adventure Pathfinder, which is regarded as a box office disappointment.

A longtime fan of Westerns,^[2] Urban appeared in Comanche Moon, the miniseries prequel to Lonesome Dove. In 2009, he portrayed the role of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the eleventh Star Trek film.^[3][4][5][6]

In 2009, Urban appeared as himself in the documentary film Reclaiming the Blade talking about his past roles in films such as Lord of the Rings where wielding a sword was a main part of his character.^[7]

Urban potrayed Black Hat in the film adaption of the Korean manwha Priest.^[8]

It was reported in December 2009 that Urban had joined the cast of Red. Urban is playing the role of "Cooper" but few other details about the part were offered.^[9]

in July 2010, Urban was cast as Judge Dredd for in a new Judge Dredd film coming out in 2011.

Personal life

Urban married Natalie Wihongi (she was his makeup artist on The Privateers)^[10] in September 2004. Together they have two sons: Hunter (born November 2000) and Indy (born January 2006). They live in Auckland harbour-side suburb Herne Bay, New Zealand.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Karl Urban

• Karl Urban at the Internet Movie Database
• Karl Urban at Allmovie
• Karl Urban at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

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