Guy Pearce Biography

Guy Pearce is an English-born Australian actor best known for his role as the memory-challenged protagonist of Memento (2000).

Guy Pearce began acting in his teens, and became a TV idol in Australia in the late 1980s as a regular on the series Neighbours (1986-89). While still on Australian television, he drew international attention with his feature film debut, as a drag artist in 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Pearce’s Hollywood debut was in the Oscar-winning 1997 film L.A. Confidential (with former Neighbours co-star Russell Crowe). His onscreen intensity and that film’s success led Pearce into big-budget features in the early 2000s such as Rules of Engagement (2000, starring Tommy Lee Jones), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and The Time Machine (2002).

But it was his turn as Leonard in Chris Nolan’s psychological thriller Memento — a man with no short-term memory, trying desperately to solve the mystery surrounding his wife’s death — that made him an art house favorite.

Guy Pearce then slowed his career to one or two independent features a year, including The Proposition (2005) and Factory Girl (2006, playing Andy Warhol), and began taking smaller roles in well-received movies.

His other films include The Hurt Locker (2008, starring Jeremy Renner), The Road (2009, starring Viggo Mortensen), Animal Kingdom (2010, with Jacki Weaver), The King’s Speech (2010, as England’s King Edward VIII) and Lockout (2012).