Peter Sarsgaard life and biography

John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor.
A graduate of St. Louis' Washington University, where he was a co-founder of the improvisational group Mama's Pot Roast, Sarsgaard studied at the Actors' Studio in New York.
After he completed his studies, he was cast in the off-Broadway production of Horton Foote's Laura Dennis, and, as a member of Douglas Carter Beane's Drama Department, he appeared in John Cameron Mitchell's off-Broadway production of Kingdom of Earth.
Sarsgaard made his screen debut in Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking (1995) but had his first substantial role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), which cast him as the ill-fated son of John Malkovich's dueling Muskateer.
He then appeared in a series of largely unseen independent features, including Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise and Morgan J. Freeman's Desert Blue (both 1998). In 1999, Sarsgaard broke out of obscurity with his role in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry. Cast as a violent yet charismatic ex-con, the actor managed to stand out in a film saturated with strong performances, and the film's unanticipated success provided him with an introduction to a wide audience.
His increased profile was reflected in the number of projects he was involved with the following year, including P.J. Hogan's Unconditional Love, a drama about a woman ( Kathy Bates) who joins forces with the lover of a dead pop star to track down the star's murderer.

Sarsgaard reached a new level of critical acclaim with his supporting performances in two little-seen but highly praised features: 2003's journalist drama Shattered Glass and 2004's biopic Kinsey.
In the former, he played dedicated, soft-spoken New Republic editor Chuck Lane, who becomes increasingly more agitated as he catches hotshot reporter Steven Glass fabricating stories.
Racking up scores of Best Supporting Actor nods from critics' groups and the Golden Globes, it seemed inevitable that the Academy would recognize Sarsgaard, but he was passed over.
A similar fate occurred with Kinsey, in which the actor convincingly played the curious, bisexual assistant - and occasional lover - of the sex researcher.
Though ignored by the Oscars, Sarsgaard found his profile rising with powerful casting directors, and in turn, the public.
After memorably essaying the role of a stoner gravedigger in the popular 2004 indie Garden State, the actor broke through to mass audiences in 2005 with a trio supporting performances in big-budget genre films: the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key, the blockbuster Flighplan, and the war memoir Jarhead.

In 2007, he starred in supporting roles in Year of the Dog and Rendition. Year of the Dog is a dark comedy about a lonely middle-aged woman, played by Molly Shannon, who finds that animals are the only beings she can truly rely on. Sarsgaard plays Newt, an androgynous dog trainer, and love interest for Shannon's character.
He starred alongside Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Reese Witherspoon, and Jake Gyllenhaal in Rendition, a Gavin Hood-directed political thriller about the US policy of extraordinary rendition.
Viewed as a sex symbol, Sarsgaard was named one of Salon.com's Sexiest Man Living in 2007.
2008 saw Sarsgaard star in the drama Elegy,based on a Phillip Roth novel, The Dying Animal. The film received favorable good reception amongst critics.

In 2009, Sarsgaard starred alongside Jon Foster and Sienna Miller in the drama The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.
His next film appearance was in the thriller Orphan, where he and Vera Farmiga play a married couple who lose a baby and adopt a nine-year-old girl, who is not as innocent as she claims to be.
Furthermore in the same year, Sarsgaard starred as David in Lone Scherfig's coming of age film An Education. The role required Sarsgaard to speak in a British accent. An Education drew favorable reviews from critics.
According to Variety, "Sarsgaard ... marvelously expresses the savoir faire that has such an impact on Jenny [Carey Mulligan]."
Sarsgaard played a federal agent in the action comedy film Knight and Day, released in June 2010, in which he appeared alongside Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.
In February 2010, it was announced that Sarsgaard had been cast as villain Hector Hammond in the superhero film Green Lantern. The film was released in 2011.

Sarsgaard dated burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese and model and actress Shalom Harlow. Early in his film career, he dated photographer Malerie Marder, a close friend from his days attending Bard College, who had featured Sarsgaard in some of her early work.

Sarsgaard has been in a relationship with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, and is a close friend of her brother Jake Gyllenhaal, since 2002. In April 2006 they announced their engagement and on May 2, 2009, they married in a small ceremony in Brindisi, Italy.
They have a daughter Ramona, born October 3, 2006,and they live in Brooklyn, New York.

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