Occupation: Actor, Director, Producer, Writer
Date of Birth: November 30, 1965
Place of Birth: New York City, NY, USA
Sign: Sun in Sagittarius, Moon in Pisces
Relations: Father: Jerry (comedian, actor); mother: Anne Meara (comedienne, actress); sister: Amy (actress); wife: Christine Taylor (actress)
Education: Dropped out of UCLA
SOME MIGHT SAY that writer/actor/director Ben Stiller's destiny was preordained: the son of comic actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, he almost literally has show business running through his veins. Born in New York City on November 30, 1965, Stiller was making films by the time he was ten, cathartic 8mm epics in which he got even with the schoolyard bullies who tormented him. He went on to attend UCLA and began appearing in such films as Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987). In addition to winning larger roles in such films as Fresh Horses (1988), Stiller continued to make comedy shorts, including the 1989 Elvis Stories, a spoof of obsessive Elvis fans featuring John Cusack. One of his shorts, a Tom Cruise parody called "The Hustler of Money," won Stiller a spot as a writer and player on Saturday Night Live in 1989.
His stint on the show was short-lived, but led to his own MTV vehicle, The Ben Stiller Show. Featuring the likes of Janeane Garofalo and Andy Dick, the show was eventually dropped, first by MTV and then by Fox, but Stiller did pick up an Emmy for comedy writing in 1993. The following year, he made his feature film directorial debut with the twenty-something angst comedy Reality Bites, in which he also starred alongside Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke. The film was a relative critical and commercial success; unfortunately, Stiller's next directorial effort, the 1996 The Cable Guy, was a flop. A black comedy that cast Jim Carrey as the psychotic title character, the film failed to register with critics and audiences, many of whom couldn't stomach the idea of Carrey's playing such a dark character. After a part in the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore, Stiller bounced back with a starring role in David O. Russell's Flirting with Disaster (1996). The relatively positive reception afforded to that comedy helped to balance out the relative failure of Stiller's other film that year, If Lucy Fell. It was not until two years later, however, that Stiller truly stepped into the limelight. Thanks to starring roles in three very different films, he emerged as an actor of versatility, equally adept at playing sensitive nice guys and complete jerks. In the smash comedy There's Something About Mary, he could be seen as the former type of character, earning permanent notoriety for various scenes featuring misplaced bodily fluids and mangled genitalia. He then did time as a not-so-nice guy in Neil LaBute's Your Friends and Neighbors, playing a philandering theatre
instructor. Finally, he starred in Permanent Midnight, earning critical acclaim for his portrayal of a heroin addict. Now possessing a solid footing in Hollywood, Stiller went on to star in Mystery Men (1999) as the leader of a group of unconventional superheroes. He also had a supporting role in The Suburbans, a comedy about the former members of a defunct New Wave band. Then, the following year, he starred as a rabbi who happens to be in love with the same woman as his best friend, a Catholic priest (Edward Norton), in the well-received romantic comedy Keeping the Faith.
Movies:
2000 Keeping the Faith
2000 Black and White
1999 The Suburbans
1999 Mystery Men
1998 Zero Effect
1998 There's Something About Mary
1998 Your Friends and Neighbors
1998 Permanent Midnight
1996 The Cable Guy
1996 Flirting With Disaster
1996 Happy Gilmore
1996 If Lucy Fell
1994 Heavyweights
1994 Reality Bites
1992 Highway to Hell
1990 Stella
1989 That's Adequate
1989 Next of Kin
1988 Fresh Horses
1987 Empire of the Sun
1987 Hot Pursuit
TV:
1997 Friends
1997 The Larry Sanders Show
1997 Viva Variety
1996 Mr. Show
1996 NewsRadio
1995 Duckman
1993 Frasier
1990 The Ben Stiller Show
1990 Working Tra$h
1989 Saturday Night Live
1987 The House of Blue Leaves
1975 Kate McShane
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
