Guy Pearce

Guy Pearce met his first wife, the future psychologist Kate Mestitz, when they were still children. They married on March 15, 1997. In October 2015, Pearce made the news of his and Mestitz’s separation public.

Sometime in 2015, Pearce began dating Dutch actress and singer Carice van Houten. In March 2016, van Houten revealed that she was expecting a child with Pearce. They announced the birth of their son, Monte, on August 29, 2016.

Born on October 5, 1967, in Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK, Guy Pearce is one of the two children born to Anne and Stuart Pearce. His mother came from County Durham, England and worked as a schoolteacher specialising in needlework and home economics. His father, a native of New Zealand, became an RAF Squadron leader and a Hawker Siddeley Harrier test pilot. Pearce’s older sister, Tracy, suffers from Cornelia de Lange syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that hinders intellectual and physical development.

Three years after his birth, Guy’s father was hired as the Chief Test pilot for the Australian Government Aircraft Factories, which required the family to move to Geelong, Victoria, Australia. When the family finally got there, his mother found work at Matthew Flinders Girls High school.

Guy lost his father when he was eight years old. While Stuart was attempting to take off in an extended-range version of the GAF Nomad, an accident occurred and he perished.

Guy subsequently enrolled at Geelong College, a private institution in Newtown. A deep love for the performing arts was already taking shape in him. He became a member of the Geelong Society of Dramatic Arts (GSODA) Junior Players.

By the time he turned 16, Pearce was extremely active at his school. He participated in, and won, several amateur bodybuilding competitions, including the Junior Mr. Victoria, and took fencing classes. He was also regularly getting roles in various theatre productions.

In 1990, Guy Pearce made his cinematic debut in writer-producer Frank Howson’s ‘Heaven Tonight’, playing the role of Paul Dysart. He would collaborate with Hawson in his next two films as well: ‘Hunting’ (1991) and ‘Flynn’ (1997). The former was a film that Hawson himself had directed and he paid for Pearce’s trip to the 1991 Cannes Film Festival where the movie premiered.

His collaboration with Howson helped Pearce garner international exposure and eventually led to his casting in the critically and commercially successful comedy-drama, ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ (1994).

He appeared as the male lead in the romantic-comedy ‘Dating the Enemy’ (1996). Pearce made his Hollywood debut in ‘L.A. Confidential’, in which he shared screen space with fellow Aussie Russell Crowe. For his performance, he was nominated for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

In 2001, he received the New York International Independent Film Award for Best Actor for ‘Woundings’ / ‘Brand New World’ (1998).

In 2000, he worked with Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones in William Friedkin’s war film ‘Rules of Engagement’. That year, he also got to work with the up-and-coming filmmaker Christopher Nolan in ‘Memento’. He returned to Australia in 2001 to do a film titled ‘The Hard Wood’ (2002) with Rachel Griffiths.

Besides ‘Neighbours’, Guy Pearce also appeared in several episodes of the soap opera ‘Home and Away’ (1991). From 1994 to 1996, he appeared in 65 episodes of the adventure drama ‘Snowy River: The McGregor Saga’. Pearce starred as the eponymous character in the Jack Irish telefilm series.

In 2016, he appeared on SBS’ three-part television series, ‘The Wizard of Aus’. He portrayed AIDS and LGBT rights activist Cleve Jones in the 2017 miniseries, ‘When We Rise’. He is set to appear in the Netflix series ‘The Innocents’.