David Wenham
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
Not to be confused with the British New Testament scholar and author of the same name.
A portrait of the actor painted by artist Adam Cullen won the Archibald Prize in March 2000.
Biography
Largely unknown outside of his native Australia, actor David Wenham was a busily working television and film actor until his international breakout playing Faramir in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002) and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (2003). Wenham earned a reputation as an "actor's actor" in Australia, where his charismatic screen presence and his ability to disappear into wildly different roles had made him a sought-after talent for local dramas and comedies including "Cosi" (1996) and "Moulin Rouge" (2001). After proving his capable dramatic chops in two of cinematic history's biggest blockbusters, Wenham was welcomed into the big budget Hollywood folds with high profile roles in further bombastic productions like "Van Helsing" (2004) and "300" (2007), where he arrived as an international star and scored points with both female fans for his handsome looks and male moviegoers for his prowess in battle.
The youngest of seven, Wenham was born Sept. 21, 1965, and raised in Sydney, Australia. His talent for crowd-pleasing showed itself during childhood when he earned somewhat of a class clown reputation for making up funny characters at school, and was known to put on living room shows for his family at home. With their blessing, Wenham went on to pursue acting at the University of Western Sydney's Nepean Theatre School. He began his acting career on the popular primetime serial, "Sons and Daughters," and quickly achieved the status of working actor with stints on many popular Australian television series; from "A Country Practice" to "Police Rescue" throughout the 1990s. On stage, Wenham gave a well-received turn in the searing play "The Boys" and starred as a dangerous pyromaniac in "Cosi" - a role he was asked to reprise in the 1996 film adaptation. He further began to receive attention for recreating his sociopathic character in Rowan Woods' film adaptation of "The Boys" (1997), earning nominations for several prizes including the Australian Film Institute Award for his brilliant turn as the troubled, nasty and dysfunctional parolee.
Wenham became a reluctant sex symbol in 1998 when he was cast in the Australian Broadcasting Company's weekly series "SeaChange," as the scruffy, beach-dwelling 'Diver Dan' who comes to romance a female judge (Sigrid Thornton) over the course of 26 episodes. His work on the series insured the actor many magazine covers and a nomination for an Australian Film Institute Award. Wenham chose to leave the series after one season, and instead accepted the lead role in the biopic, "Molokai: The Story of Father Damien" (1999), portraying a Belgian priest who spent his life at a leper colony in Hawaii. That film helped introduce Wenham to overseas audiences, who probably failed to recognize his next international turn as a transvestite playwright in Baz Luhrmann's kaleidoscopic masterpiece, "Moulin Rouge!" (2001). The actor's chameleonic quality made him further difficult to recognize in follow-up roles as a straying Jewish spouse in "Russian Doll" (2001), a cowboy-turned-soldier in the indie "Dust" (2001), and a swaggering international photojournalist in the romantic comedy, "Better Than Sex" (2001), for which he earned a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role from the Australian Film Institute.
From these largely art house offerings Wenham moved into the mainstream with "The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course" (2002), appearing opposite real-life wildlife expert Steve Irwin. He scored an international breakthrough later that year when he was cast as Faramir, Ithilien captor of Frodo, Sam and Gollum, in the second of director Peter Jackson's J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy, "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002). Naturally it was a major career boost to have a supporting role in a critically loved film that was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award and brought in a staggering $900 million at the box office, so Wenham reprised his role the following year in "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (2003), which topped the billion dollar mark and again dominated the Oscar nominations, winning Best Picture. In the shadow of that career mark but a testament to Wenham's versatility, that same year he gave a critically acclaimed performance in an Australian stage production of Sam Shepard's "True West" and co-starred with Sam Worthington and Gary Sweet as ex-cons trying to stay out of trouble in the Australian gangster comedy "Gettin' Square" (2003).
Back in big-budget Hollywood, Wenham's profile continued to rise with his co-starring role alongside Hugh Jackman as his dedicated friar sidekick in the vampire actioner "Van Helsing" (2004), which was a crowd pleaser; albeit not a critical one. Wenham's next two features brought him back home, where he had a small role as a brutal and arrogant lawman in John Hillcoat's award-winning, gritty Western "The Proposition" (2005), alongside Guy Pearce and Ray Winstone. Taking the lead, he gave a subtle and moving performance as an honest everyman faced with supporting a wife and child after losing his job in "Three Dollars" (2005). Wenham hit the gym for a grueling training program and was next seen as a leather-clad ancient Spartan warrior in "300" (2007), an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the famed Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. The historic actioner was an international blockbuster that proved Wenham's place in Hollywood. However that did not mean the actor would not jump at the chance to return home to co-star in a rare villainous role alongside Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in "Australia" (2008), Baz Luhrmann's sweeping World War II epic that left U.S. critics lukewarm but was a smash hit in its titular nation. Wenham continued his run of period offerings with his role as a henchman of famed Chicago bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" (2009). Going further back in time, Wenham co-starred in "Pope Joan" (2009), based on the little-known story of a medieval-era female pope in which the fetching actor played her lover.
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1990
Played a supporting role in the Australian TV-movie "Come in Spinner"
1991
Created the role of the gruff parolee Brett Sprague for the stage play "The Boys"
1992
Appeared in the feature film "Greenkeeping"
1994
Played a 12-year-old boy in the stage production "That Eye, The Sky"; co-written and directed by Richard Roxburgh
1996
Had featured role as a pyromaniac in "Cosi"; had originated the role on stage
1997
Earned critical praise for his role in the TV miniseries "Babies/Simone de Beauvoir's Babies"
1997
Re-created his stage role for the film adaptation of "The Boys"; also associate producer
1998
Portrayed a genius research scientist opposite Frances O'Connor in "A Little Bit of Soul"
1998
Appeared in the underrated thriller "Dark City"
1998
Had leading role in the Australian TV series "SeaChange"; did not renew contract for the second season
1999
Co-starred with Tom Conti in the Australian stage production of "Art"
1999
Portrayed the missionary priest Father Damien in "Molokai: The Story of Father Damien"
2000
Offered a fine turn as a philandering husband in "Russian Doll"
2000
Delivered a fine performance as the male half of a couple whose one-night stand turns into something a bit more complicated in "better than sex"; released theatrically in the USA in 2001
2001
Seen briefly at the beginning of "Moulin Rouge!" playing a transvestite playwright
2001
Portrayed a cowboy who competes with his brother (played by Joseph Fiennes) for the love of the same woman in "Dust"
2001
Starred as a computer programmer in the thriller "The Bank"
2002
Appeared in "The Crocdile Hunter: Collision Course" opposite Steve Irwin
2002
Cast as Faramir in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
2002
Acted on stage in the Melbourne Theatre Company's production of "True West"
2003
Reprised role of Faramir for "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
2004
Played Hugh Jackman's sidekick, Friar Carl in "Van Helsing"
2006
Co-starred with Guy Pearce in the Australian western "The Proposition"
2007
Narrated and appeared in the film "300"
2008
Co-starred with Hugh Jackman in the Baz Luhrmann-directed epic "Australia"
2009
Cast as a member of American bank robber John Dillinger's crew in Michael Mann's 1930s gangland flick "Public Enemies"
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Not to be confused with the British New Testament scholar and author of the same name.
A portrait of the actor painted by artist Adam Cullen won the Archibald Prize in March 2000.
"Growing up I always wanted to be a performer. I was forever entertaining people - I think it was a case of not being very good at anything else." --David Wenham quoted in an October 29, 1999 interview with his alma mater, the University of Western Australia
"David Wenham created Brett on the stage, and on film, he's truly extraordinary. Not since Russell Crowe's performance in Romper Stomper has an Australian actor emerged on the scene with as much intellect, precision, emotional force and sheer complexity as Wenham." --From Australian critic Paul Fischer's review of "The Boys", posted at www.urbancinefile.com.au
