Sam Worthington

02 Aug, 1976 | Godalming, Surrey

Actor

Biography

Samuel Henry J. "Sam" Worthington is an English-born Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Jake Sully in the 2009 film Avatar and Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation. He will play Perseus  in the feature film remake of Clash of the Titans, to be released in April 2010. Early life Worthington was born in Godalming, Surrey, England, and moved to Perth, Western Australia during his childhood. He grew up in Warnbro, a suburb of Rockingham. His father, Ronald, was a power plant employee while his mother, a homemaker, raised him and his sister. He attended John Curtin College of the Arts, dropped out of school at 17 and worked construction and odd jobs, eventually settling in Sydney. He was nineteen and working as a bricklayer when he auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and was accepted, with scholarship. Career After graduating from NIDA in 1998, Worthington performed in a production of David Hare's play The Judas Kiss for Company B at the Belvoir St Theatre. He went on to act in a series of Australian movies and TV series; including a breakout role in Bootmen (2000) and leading roles in Dirty Deeds (2002), Gettin' Square (2003), Somersault (2004) and a modern Australian retelling of Macbeth (2006). Worthington was nominated in 2000 for Best Lead Actor by the Australian Film Institute (AFI) for his work in Bootmen and eventually won the 2004 AFI Award for Best Lead Actor for his role in Somersault. He is well known in Australia for his role as Howard in the acclaimed Australian TV series Love My Way, where he played the main love interest of the female lead. American television audiences had a glimpse of Worthington with a guest role in the 200th episode of the series JAG. Worthington's international film career began with a series of small roles in Hollywood productions such as Hart's War (2002) and The Great Raid (2005), which was filmed in Australia. He was one of several actors who was under consideration to take over the role of James Bond from Pierce Brosnan for the 2006 film Casino Royale. In Terminator Salvation, Worthington plays cyborg Marcus Wright who assists the humans despite their suspicions of him. In the science-fiction film Avatar (2009), Worthington stars as Jake Sully, a paraplegic U.S. Marine who, assigned to control an alien body called an avatar through a neural link, finds himself at the center of a war between his own species and the indigenous Na'vi people of the moon Pandora. Worthington will play Perseus in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans. In January 2010 he gained the role of Dracula in Year Zero. Worthington won the 2009 GQ Australia Actor and countless Man of the Year Awards. He was cast for the mystery thriller The Fields, which will star alongside Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Personal life When Worthington was around thirty years of age, he sold most of his possessions and ended up with around $2,000 to his name. He then purchased a car with the money and lived in it for a period of time. He equated his actions to hitting Control-Alt-Delete on a computer. He subsequently got a place to live following his successful audition and signing to the Avatar film project.