Ben Mendelsohn

Mendelsohn is also the father of another daughter from a past relationship.

He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Born on 3 April 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Paul Benjamin "Ben" Mendelsohn was one of the three sons in the Mendelsohn family. His father, Frederick Arthur Oscar Mendelsohn, was a prominent neuroscientist who headed the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne. His mother, Carole Ann, worked as a nurse.

His father’s work commitments prompted the family to move a lot which is why they lived throughout Europe and the U.S. However, Mendelsohn returned to complete his high school. He went to Heidelberg Primary School and Eltham High and Banyule High Schools.

In school, he took up drama course as he thought he would easily sail through it and soon learnt that he was good at memorising lines.

While still in school, Ben Mendelsohn auditioned with Crawford Productions and eventually landed himself the role of Ted Morgan in the 1985 Australian TV show ‘The Henderson Kids’.

He made his big-screen debut with ‘The Year My Voice Broke’ in 1987 which earned him praise from both critics and viewers. He bagged the ‘Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ that year.

Ben Mendelsohn portrayed the role of Danny Clark in ‘The Big Steal’ which came out in 1990 followed by ‘Spotswood’ in 1992 in which he starred along with Anthony Hopkins.

Over the next few years, he starred in a number of movies. These include ‘Idiot Box’ (1996), ‘Cosi’ (1996), ‘True Love and Chaso’ (1997), ‘Amy’ (1997), ‘Vertical Limit’ (2000), ‘Mullet’ (2001), ‘Black and White’ (2002) and ‘The New World’ (2005).

In 2007, Mendelsohn appeared in the third season of the TV series, ‘Love My Way’. In 2008, he became a part of Baz Luhrmann's ‘Australia’. He was then seen in the 10-part Melbourne series, ‘Tangle’ which was telecast in 2009.