Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Lee Renner (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor, singer, and film producer. Throughout the 2000s, Renner appeared largely in independent films such as Dahmer (2002) and Neo Ned (2005). He also appeared in supporting roles in bigger films such as S.W.A.T. (2003) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). He then turned in a much-praised performance in The Town (2010), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Renner is best known for his roles in The Hurt Locker (2008) for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and for playing Hawkeye in Marvel's The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). He also appeared in commercially successful films such as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), The Bourne Legacy (2012), Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), and American Hustle (2013).

Born: January 7, 1971 (age 44), Modesto, California, United States

Height: 1.78 m

Spouse: Sonni Pacheco (m. 2014)

Upcoming movies: Mission: Impossible 5, Captain America: Civil War

Awards: MTV Movie Award for Best Fight

Early life

Renner was born in Modesto, California, to mother Valerie Cearley (née Tague) and father Lee Renner, who managed McHenry Bowl, a Modesto bowling alley, in the 1980s. His parents married as teenagers and divorced when he was ten. He is the oldest of seven siblings. His ancestry includes German, English, Scottish, Swedish, Irish, and Panamanian.

Renner graduated from Fred C. Beyer High School in Modesto in 1989. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied computer science and criminology, before he took a drama class and decided to start acting.

Career

Early work

Renner's film debut came in 1995 when he played an underachieving student in the cult favorite National Lampoon's Senior Trip. Although the film was critically panned, he went on to guest star on two television shows, Deadly Games and Strange Luck and had a minor role in the television movie, A Friend's Betrayal as the friend of Brian Austin Green's character. Over the next few years, Renner had guest roles in Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane (1999), The Net (1999), The Time of Your Life (1999) and Angel (2000). Renner also had a small role on an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2001. In between acting roles, Renner worked as a makeup artist to make ends meet.

Early success: 2002–2008

In 2002, Renner had a starring role in the film Dahmer playing serial-killer Jeffrey Dahmer. He found the role a challenge to cope with after he had finished shooting after seeing how easily Dahmer took advantage of his victims. His performance was well received, and he gained a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male. He also appeared in Pink's 2003 music video for her song "Trouble" as a Bad Boy Sheriff. Renner went on to appear in S.W.A.T. as the former police partner of Colin Farrell's character in 2003 and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things in 2004.

Renner at the Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters premiere in 2013

In 2005, Renner starred with Julia Stiles and Forest Whitaker in A Little Trip to Heaven, with roles in North Country and 12 and Holding. He next starred as a neo-Nazi skinhead who is admitted into a psychiatric hospital in Neo Ned opposite Gabrielle Union. The film won all of the awards it was nominated for at festivals, including the Palm Beach International Film Festival Award for Best Actor. Renner also had a small (though uncredited) role in skateboard film Lords of Dogtown as the manager of Emile Hirsch's character. In 2006 he starred with Ginnifer Goodwin in Love Comes to the Executioner.

Renner had supporting roles in 2007 in the critically acclaimed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as Wood Hite, the cousin of outlaw Jesse James portrayed by Brad Pitt, and as Sergeant Doyle in 28 Weeks Later. He appeared alongside Minnie Driver in Take and guest starred as a patient in an episode of House as a reckless rock musician. Renner had a role in the pilot of The Oaks but the series was not picked up.

Breakthrough: 2009–present

After starring with Dallas Roberts in the comedy-drama Ingenious and starring in the short-lived television series The Unusuals, Renner went on to achieve critical success for his portrayal as bomb disposal expert, Sergeant William James in the 2009 Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker (directed by Kathryn Bigelow). The role earned him several awards in the Best Actor category and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor as well a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

In 2010, Renner's performance in Ben Affleck's The Town alongside Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Slaine and Michael Yebba garnered him rave reviews and his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also gained his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor and his second Screen Actors Guild nomination. The Hollywood Reporter named Renner as one of the young male actors who are "pushing – or being pushed" into taking over Hollywood as the new "A-List".

In 2011, Renner had an uncredited cameo appearance as Hawkeye in Thor for familiarity with his character for The Avengers, which was released in May 2012. In December 2011,. he starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible series, as a new addition to Ethan Hunt's team.

In 2012, Renner starred as Hawkeye in the Marvel film, The Avengers. The same year, he also starred in the fourth film in the Bourne franchise, The Bourne Legacy, which was written and directed by Tony Gilroy. Renner played a new lead character, Aaron Cross, in place of Jason Bourne, who was played by Matt Damon in the first three films. Renner has expressed interest in doing a Bourne film with Damon in the future, stating that "[it] would be kick-ass. I love Matt".

Renner at The Bourne Legacy premiere in Sydney, Australia

Renner starred in the action horror film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (released in January 2013), in which he and Gemma Arterton played Hansel and Gretel, respectively. The 3-D film was set 15 years after Hansel and Gretel killed the witch who kidnapped them.

Renner was also featured in the ensemble cast of David O. Russell's dramedy American Hustle based on the controversial FBI ABSCAM operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The film, which was released in December 2013, also starred Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jennifer Lawrence in principal roles. The film earned much critical acclaim, including the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In October 2014, Renner starred as journalist Gary Webb in the Focus Features movie Kill the Messenger based on Webb's book Dark Alliance. Renner also co-produced the film. In December 2014, Crackle aired The Throwaways, a film for which he served as executive producer.

Renner reprised his role as Hawkeye in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the sequel to The Avengers, which was released in May 2015. He confirmed his return to the Mission: Impossible franchise in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, set for release in July 2015. In 2016, Renner will star in the sci-fi film Story of Your Life, opposite his American Hustle costar Amy Adams, and play Hawkeye again in Captain America: Civil War.