(1980-)

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), The Ides of 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.”

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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.

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

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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.

QUICK FACTS

  • Name: Ryan Gosling
  • Birth Year: 1980
  • Birth date: November 12, 1980
  • Birth City: London, Ontario
  • Birth Country: Canada
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: 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.’
  • Industries
    • Film
    • Television
    • Music
    • Drama
  • Astrological Sign: Scorpio

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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/actors/ryan-gosling
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: April 8, 2021
  • Original Published Date: September 17, 2014

QUOTES

  • I went through puberty in a theme park. [On performing on ‘The Mickey Mouse Club.’]
  • 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.