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Crowe to get Hollywood Star

Press release from Universal Pictures Australia

WHO: Russell Crowe
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, President/CEO Leron Gubler
Guest speakers: Jay Leno and Ron Howard

WHAT: 2,404th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

WHERE: 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Kodak Theatre

WHEN: Monday, April 12, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. (Tuesday, April 13 at 4.30am Sydney time)

COMMENTS:

Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe is considered one of the finest actors of his generation. Originally from New Zealand, he started making waves in the Australian film industry with his performance in the controversial film Romper Stomper, for which he became critically acclaimed around the world. He has received three consecutive Academy Award® Best Actor nominations — for his performances in The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001), taking home the Oscar® for his performance in Gladiator.

In addition to winning the Best Actor Oscar® for his performance as Maximus in Universal Pictures' Gladiator, from acclaimed director Ridley Scott, Crowe earned Best Actor honors from several critics organizations, including the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and Best Actor nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA.

Crowe will next be seen starring as Robin Hood along with Cate Blanchett in Universal Pictures’ Robin Hood, from director Ridley Scott. The film will be released on May 13 in Australia, by Universal Pictures. Over the past few years, he starred in Universal’s thriller State of Play, along with Edward Norton, Rachel McAdams, and Ben Affleck; Ridley Scott’s drama Body of Lies, for Warner Bros, also starring Leonardo DiCaprio; Lionsgate’s 3:10 to Yuma, opposite Christian Bale; and again with director Ridley Scott for Universal’s American Gangster, with Denzel Washington.

In Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, Crowe’s masterful portrayal of Nobel Prize-winning John Forbes Nash, Jr. earned him his third Academy Award® nomination and garnered him Best Actor awards from the Golden Globes, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and other critics groups.

He received his first Academy Award® nomination for his work in the non-fiction drama The Insider as tobacco company whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand. He also earned Best Actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Broadcast Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, and Best Actor nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Before his award-winning acclaim, Crowe made his mark on Hollywood in Curtis Hanson’s crime drama L.A. Confidential as vice cop Bud White. His other film credits include Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man, in which he starred as Jim Braddock; A Good Year, directed by Ridley Scott and based on the book by Peter Mayle; Jay Roach’s Mystery, Alaska; Taylor Hackford’s Proof of Life; and Virtuosity, opposite Denzel Washington. He made his American film debut in the Western The Quick and the Dead, with Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone. Additional credits include Heaven’s Burning; Breaking Up; Rough Magic; The Sum of Us; For the Moment; Love in Limbo; The Silver Brumby, based on the classic Australian children’s novel; The Efficiency Expert; and Prisoners of the Sun.

Born in New Zealand, Crowe was raised in Australia where he has also been honored for his work on the screen. He was recognized for three consecutive years by the Australian Film Institute (AFI) – nominated for Best Actor for The Crossing (1991), won the Best Supporting Actor award for Proof (1992) and received Best Actor awards from the AFI and the Australian Film Critics for his performance in Romper Stomper (1992). In 1993, the Seattle International Film Festival named Crowe Best Actor for his work in both Romper Stomper and Hammers Over the Anvil.

ROBIN HOOD opens in Australian cinemas on May 13
www.robinhoodthemovie.com.au <http://www.robinhoodthemovie.com.au/>