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Joaquin Phoenix

Two-time Academy Award nominee JOAQUIN PHOENIX (Ethan Learner) reunites with director Terry George on the film after earning high praise for his turn as a cynical journalist witnessing the horrific 1994 genocide of the Tutsis in George’s Oscar-nominated 2004 drama, “Hotel Rwanda.”

Most recently, Phoenix was hailed for his mesmerizing performance as legendary singer-songwriter Johnny Cash (opposite Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon) in James Mangold’s riveting biopic, “Walk the Line.” For his performance, he collected his second Academy Award nomination (this time, as Best Actor) and nominations for the BAFTA and SAG Awards. He also won the Golden Globe as Best Actor/Musical.

Phoenix was born in Puerto Rico and began his acting career at the young age of eight. As a boy, he made numerous episodic television appearances on such hit shows as "Hill Street Blues,” "The Fall Guy," and "Murder, She Wrote." He was a regular on the short-lived 1986 CBS series "Morningstar/Eveningstar,” and followed that same year with his first feature film role in “Spacecamp.” The following year, he starred in “Russkies” with sister Summer and Carole King. Two years later, director Ron Howard cast the teenager as Dianne Weist’s son in his popular family comedy “Parenthood.”

It wasn’t until 1996 that the young actor returned to the fold with a stunning and critically-acclaimed performance opposite Nicole Kidman in Gus Van Sant’s “To Die For.” New York Times film critic Janet Maslin hailed the young talent as “an actor to watch for.” He next co-starred with Liv Tyler, Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly in “Inventing the Abbotts” in 1997. That same year, he co-starred opposite Claire Danes, Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez in Oliver Stone’s “U-Turn.”

In 1998, Phoenix co-starred opposite Vince Vaughn in two very different roles -- as an American jailed in Malaysia for possession of drugs belonging to accomplice Vaughn in “Return to Paradise,” and as a dupe to Vaughn’s smooth-talking serial killer in the black comedy, “Clay Pigeons.”Continuing his ascendant star track, Phoenix next won acclaim as a streetsmart adult bookstore clerk who helps detective Nicolas Cage search for the truth behind what appears to be a snuff film in Joel Schumacher’s dark thriller, "8mm."

In 2000, a banner year for the actor, Phoenix starred in three very different films. He earned his first Academy Award nomination co-starring opposite Russell Crowe as the complex Commodus in Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, “Gladiator.” In addition to nominations for the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the British Academy 9BAFTA) Award, he received awards as Best Supporting Actor from the National Board of Review and The Broadcast Films Critics Association.

He followed that up with Philip Kaufman’s Oscar-nominated “Quills” opposite Kate Winslet and Geoffrey Rush in the film based on Douglas McGrath’s play about the Marquis de Sade, for which he won the Broadcast Film Critics Award as Best Supporting Actor. That same year, he also starred opposite Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn and Charlize Theron in James Gray’s “The Yards,” and most recently reunited with director Gray on the upcoming crime drama, “We Own the Night.”

Phoenix continued his busy career as Mel Gibson’s brother in the M. Night Shyamalan blockbuster, “Signs,” which earned a half billion dollars worldwide. He reteamed with Shyamalan two years later on his gothic thriller “The Village,” starring as a young member of an isolated 19th Century village whose desire to see the outside world threatens to break the community’s pact with the mysterious creatures who live in the surrounding forest.

He provided the voice of Kenai’ in the animated Disney film “Brother Bear,” and followed with the romantic drama "It's All About Love,” reuniting with actress Danes in the story of two lovers and their attempts to save their relationship in a near-future world on the brink of cosmic collapse. He also starred in the dark comedy “Buffalo Soldiers” opposite Ed Harris as a devious and clever American soldier stationed in Berlin, and took the lead in the firefighting drama "Ladder 49" opposite John Travolta, playing a firefighter who reflects on his life, loves and career while awaiting rescue from a blaze.