British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD, London, no. SPC2570.
French poster postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 604. Spanish poster for Christian Slater in Kuffs (Bruce A. Evans, 1992).
English postcard, no. C097. Caption: Christian Slater - Portrait.
A murderous high school student
Christian Michael Leonard Slater was born in 1969 in New York City. He was the son of Michael Hawkins, a well-known soap actor, and Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), a casting agent. Christian started in show business early, appearing on the soap opera The Edge of Night (1976) at the age of 7. He made his theatre debut opposite Dick Van Dyke in the musical 'The Music Man' (1980). His other Broadway credits include 'Macbeth', 'David Copperfield' and 'Merlin'.
In Hollywood, he landed the role of Billie Jean's brother, Binx Davey, in The Legend of Billie Jean (Matthew Robbins, 1985) with Helen Slater. He then played alongside Sean Connery in the historical thriller In the Name of the Rose (Jean Jacques Annaud, 1986), based on the novel by Umberto Eco. Slater played Connery's apprentice monk, and they investigated a series of murders at a Benedictine abbey. In contrast to its box office success in Europe, The Name of the Rose was only moderately successful in the USA.
Christian Slater moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue a further acting career after dropping out of high school. Slater next played Junior Tucker in Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Coppola, 1988), starring Jeff Bridges. He had his breakthrough as a murderous high school student, Jason 'J.D.' Dean, in the black comedy Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988), with Winona Ryder.
Further teenage roles followed. He played a young gunslinger in Young Guns 2 (Geoff Murphy, 1990) opposite Emilio Estevez and a cynical pirate radio host in Pump Up the Volume (Allan Moyle, 1990) with Samantha Mathis.
In the cult film True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), based on a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, he and Patricia Arquette played the lead roles of a newlywed couple on the run from the mafia. Privately, he became somewhat known as the Hollywood bad boy, having many run-ins with the law. He dated stars such as Christina Applegate, Samantha Mathis and was engaged to actress/model Nina Huang.
Spanish postcard by Memory Card, no. 87. Image: lobby card with Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993). The Spanish title is Amor a quemarropa.
Spanish postcard by Memory Card, no. 88. Image: lobby card with Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993). The Spanish title is Amor a quemarropa.
One of the major A-list stars of the 1990s
Christian Slater's career reached its peak when he appeared as Will Scarlet in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991), starring Kevin Costner. The film was a commercial success, taking US$390 million worldwide, and Slater became one of the major A-list stars of the 1990s.
He played leading roles or larger supporting roles in big-budget Hollywood films such as Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994), Broken Arrow (John Woo, 1996), and Hard Rain (Mikael Salomon, 1998). In 2000, he married Ryan Haddon, the daughter of 1970s model Dayle Haddon. The couple had two children, Jaden Christopher (1999) and Eliana Sophia (2001). They divorced in 2006.
His reputation clearly suffered from negative publicity surrounding his personal life with substance abuse and some poorly received films, such as Windtalkers (John Woo, 2002) and Mindhunters (Renny Harlin, 2004). From then on, his films were almost exclusively direct-to-video. He eventually turned to television.
In 2002, he had a three-episode guest appearance in the popular series The West Wing. He subsequently played leading roles in the television series My Own Worst Enemy (2008), The Forgotten (2009–2010), Breaking In (2011–2012), and Mind Games (2014), all of which were cancelled after the first season. From 2015 to 2019, Slater played the title role, a computer hacker, in the series Mr. Robot, for which he received a Golden Globe Award. The series with Rami Malek ran for four seasons.
In the cinema, he played several character roles. He was the father of Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in Lars von Trier's controversial drama Nymphomaniac (2013). He also played gay porn producer Bryan Kocis in King Cobra (Justin Kelly, 2016) and a curious journalist alongside Glenn Close in The Wife (Björn Runge, 2017). In 2013, he married Brittany Lopez, with whom he has two children. For his role as Mulgarath in the fantasy series The Spiderwick Chronicles (2024), Slater received the Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Performer.
French poster card by Editions Avant Garde, no. P1239. Poster: Morgan Creek Entertainment / 20th Century Fox. Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips and Christian Slater in Young Guns II (Geoff Murphy, 1990). Caption: The West just got wilder.
Dutch postcard by Four Corners. Photo: Wild Bunch. Christian Slater in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (Lars von Trier, 2013). Caption: Forget about love.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment