Movies

Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an English-born Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young in the Australian television series Neighbours. He received international attention for his breakout role in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) and subsequently took starring roles in Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential (1997), Christopher Nolan's Memento (2000) and Simon Wells's The Time Machine (2002). Pearce is known for his performances in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2009), Kathryn Bigelow's war drama The Hurt Locker (2009) and Tom Hooper's historical drama The King's Speech (2010). He has appeared in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012), the Marvel action film Iron Man 3 (2013), Alien: Covenant (2017), and the historical biopic Mary Queen of Scots (2018).

In Australian cinema, he has appeared in The Proposition (2005), Animal Kingdom (2010), 33 Postcards (2011), The Rover (2014), Holding the Man (2015) and The Wizards of Aus (2016). Since 2012, he has played the title role in the TV adaptations of the Jack Irish stories by Australian crime writer Peter Temple. Pearce starred in Todd Haynes' limited series Mildred Pierce (2011) and the HBO crime miniseries Mare of Easttown. Pearce won a Primetime Emmy Award for Mildred Pierce and has received numerous award nominations including for a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and an Australian Academy Film Award.

IndieWire named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.

Early life
Pearce was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. His father, Stuart Pearce, was a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot and RAF test pilot, and his mother, Anne Cocking (née Pickering), was an English schoolteacher. He has an elder sister, Tracy. When Pearce was three years old, the family relocated to Geelong, Victoria, Australia. When Pearce was eight years old, his father died in a flying accident.

Pearce attended Geelong College, and was a member of the Geelong Society of Dramatic Arts (GSODA) Junior Players. At the age of 16, he was a competitive amateur bodybuilder, leading to the title of Junior Mr. Victoria. He lived in Box Hill North, Victoria in the late 1980s while working on the Australian drama series Neighbours. His first film appearance, while still at Geelong College, was in a Victorian Vice Chancellors-funded film Life and Study at University, produced and directed by Peter Lane of Deakin University. Pearce was 17 years old and played a 21-year-old student.