Ashton Holmes Bio - Biography

Name Ashton Holmes
Height 5' 8½"
Naionality American
Date of Birth 17 February 1978
Place of Birth Albany, New York, USA
Famous for
Born in Albany, New York, Holmes was struck by the magic of theater and film at age 4 when his mother took him to see "Peter Pan", and it was clinched by a desire to play Luke Skywalker when he saw Star Wars. He subsequently took acting lessons at age 6 and began appearing in community theater. He also attended the Albany Academy.Bitten by the acting bug at age 4 after watching a production of "Peter Pan" with his mother, Ashton Holmes, who dreamed of playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, began taking acting classes at age 6 and went on to perform in local theaters. During his studies at the Albany Academy, he appeared in a production of Frank Loesser's musical "Guys and Dolls." He was also credited in the staging of "Hippolytus" and William Shakespeare's tragic-comedic play "Measure for Measure" at the Albany Arts Centre.

After sharpening his skills at the New York State Theatre Institute, Ashton moved to Los Angeles and landed his first on-screen acting role as Greg (2002-2003) on ABC's long-running soap opera "One Life to Live" (OLTL). He subsequently played guest roles in an episode of NBC’s police drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," CBS' drama "Cold Case" and CBS' supernatural drama "Ghost Whisperer." He also appeared in Wendy Chan's coming-of-age 22-minute film A Million Miles to Sunshine (2004).

"He’s amazing. Before I met David and started working with him, I had seen some of his movies, and I was like ‘what’s this guy gonna be like?’ You know, his movies are so perverse and dark. And you meet him and he’s this lovable family guy who comes to the set and greets you with a hug and a kiss and he’s just very playful and treats everyone on his set like they’re a part of his family. He always hires back the same crew and he loves to work the same people for years- down to the set maker, and I think that’s apart of the reason why he’s so successful. People just want to see him succeed and they want to win for him." Ashton Holmes talks about working with David Cronenberg, the director of A History of Violence (2005).

In 2005, Ashton made his feature length debut in A History of Violence, director David Cronenberg's adaptation of John Wagner's 1997 graphic novel with the same name. In the film, Ashton co-starred as Jack Stall, the teenaged son of Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello's characters. He recalled, "It was my first movie so I felt… it was really hard to watch myself. I had to kind of watch it through my fingers, you know. I think that’s how I’m gonna be in my career. I really don’t like to watch dailies and I don’t like to watch the playback, I just like to experience the moment when I’m in it, and not later. I’m very critical of my own work. ‘History’ was an amazing experience. Those were some of my heroes that I got to work with."

The next year, Ashton returned to the small screen to play Scott Little in five episodes of ABC's Emmy and Golden Globe-winning legal drama "Boston Legal." He also supported Scott Mechlowicz and Nick Nolte in Peaceful Warrior, Victor Salva's film version of Millman's most famous fictionalized autobiography, “Way of the Peaceful Warrior."

Ashton just completed writer-director Beth Schacter's dark comedy film Normal Adolescent Behavior, in which he co-stars as Sean, the young man who steals the heart of Amber Tamblyn's character. He has also wrapped up the George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh produced film Wind Chill. In the horror/thriller, helmed by Gregory Jacobs, Ashton co-stars with Emily Blunt as two college students terrorized by ghosts on a deserted stretch of a snowy road on Christmas Eve. The film will be opened in limited distribution on April 27, 2007.

“I’m a college student and he majors in philosophy. I think my character’s university is the majority of the ‘cool’ student body who’s made up of the fraternity guys and those are the guys who get all the girls. And my character is more isolated and to himself, so he’s not really a part of that cool crowd. But I think he’s a really passive guy and if these girls were to get to know him and give him a chance, I think they’d see he’s really a wonderful guy. He just never gets that opportunity.” Ashton Holmes (on his character in Wind Chill (2007)

Additionally, Ashton has finished What We Do is Secret (starring Shane West and Bijou Phillips), a biopic helmed by Rodger Grossman about punk legend and Germs singer Darby Crash. He is currently filming Noam Murro's romantic drama comedy Smart People, in which he co-stars as the young son of an intellectual bully father played by Dennis Quaid.

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