Eric Stoltz

Eric Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, and has appeared in a wide variety of films from mainstream fare like Some Kind of Wonderful to independent films like Pulp Fiction, Killing Zoe, and Kicking and Screaming. He recently portrayed Daniel Graystone in the science fiction television series Caprica, and became a regular director on the television series, Glee. --- Stoltz was born in Whittier, California, the son of Evelyn B. (née Vawter), a violinist and schoolteacher who died in 1994, and Jack Stoltz, an elementary school teacher. He has two sisters, mezzo soprano Catherine Stoltz and writer Susan R. Stoltz. He was raised in both American Samoa and Santa Barbara, California, where as a child, he once earned money playing piano for local musical theatre productions. He attended the University of Southern California, but dropped out after his junior year. When he moved to New York for his studies in 1981, he met Stella Adler and Peggy Feury. In the 1970s Stoltz joined a repertory company that performed ten plays at the Edinburgh Festival. He returned to the United States in 1979, when he entered USC as a drama student, but subsequently dropped out to pursue film and TV roles. In 1978, he was cast as Steve Benson in the TV adaptation of Erma Bombeck's The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank. Director Cameron Crowe and Stoltz became friends while making Stoltz's first feature film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). According to Stoltz, Crowe promised Stoltz a role in all of his future films. He appeared in each of Crowe's next four films, The Wild Life, Say Anything..., Singles, and Jerry Maguire. Originally cast as Marty McFly for Back to the Future in 1985, he was replaced after five weeks of filming, when Michael J. Fox (the director's first choice for the role) agreed to divide time between the movie and his television sitcom, Family Ties. The director, Robert Zemeckis, said that while Stoltz provided an admirable performance, it lacked the precise comedic sense that Zemeckis was seeking. Some of the original footage, where Stoltz does not appear but was on set, was used in the film. This was referenced in a 2010 episode of Fringe where, in an alternate universe, a theater marquee reads "Back to the Future starring Eric Stoltz". In 1985, Stoltz garnered attention with a Golden Globe nomination starring as Rocky Dennis in Mask. Among other roles in the 1980s, he appeared in the 1987 hit, John Hughes's Some Kind of Wonderful.