Sam Worthington biography
Date of birth : 1976-08-02
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Godalming, Surrey, England
Nationality : English
Category : Arts and Entertainment
Last modified : 2011-10-24
Credited as : Avatar, Terminator Salvation, Call of Duty: Black Ops
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In 2004, Worthington received Australia's highest film award for his lead performance in Somersault. He performed predominantly in leading roles in a variety of low-budget films before transitioning to major studio films, ranging from romantic drama and comedy-drama to science fiction and action.
Sam was born to English parents in southeastern England, and moved to Perth, Western Australia when he was six months old. He grew up in Warnbro, a suburb of Rockingham. His mother, Jeanne J., a homemaker, raised him and his sister Lucinda, and his father, Ronald W. Worthington, was a power plant employee.
He attended John Curtin College of the Arts, a school specialising in the dramatic arts located in Fremantle, Western Australia, where he studied drama but failed to graduate and dropped out. His father also sent him on a one-way trip to Cairns on the northeast coast of Australia and told him to "work his way home".
He began working on construction and odd jobs, eventually settling in Sydney. At 19, he worked as a bricklayer when he auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and was accepted with scholarship.
In 2000, Worthington made his film debut in the Australian film Bootmen. He was featured in a leading role as Mitchell Okden. Worthington was nominated for Best Lead Actor by the Australian Film Institute (AFI) for his performance. The same year, he guest starred in television series: JAG, Water Rats and Blue Heelers.
Sam went on to act in a number of Australian movies and TV series; including leading roles in Dirty Deeds (2002) and Gettin' Square (2003). He also appeared in Hart's War (2002). Dirty Deeds was a critical and financial success, earning A$5,034,142 at the box office in Australia.
Sam played the lead characters in Somersault (2004) and in a modern Australian retelling of Macbeth (2006). Worthington won the AFI Award for Best Lead Actor for his role in Somersault. He is well known in Australia for his role as Howard in the acclaimed Australian TV series Love My Way, where he played the main love interest of the female lead.
His international film career began with a series of small roles in Hollywood production The Great Raid (2005), which was filmed in Australia. He auditioned for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale but lost the role to Daniel Craig. He stars in the Australian creature-feature film Rogue (2007) as a man named Neil. It is a creature-feature film with a 100% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes.
In Terminator Salvation, Worthington plays cyborg Marcus Wright who assists the humans despite their suspicions of him.
Shot prior to the release of Terminator Salvation, the James Cameron-directed science-fiction film Avatar was Worthington's next project. In the film, he played Jake Sully, a paraplegic US Marine who, assigned to control an alien body called an avatar through a neural link, finds himself at the center of a war between his own species and the indigenous Na'vi people of the moon Pandora.
The film went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing more than US$2.730 billion ($2.8 billion adjusted for inflation) in box-office receipts worldwide. He has also signed on for two sequels in Avatar franchise.
He provided voice work for Captain Alex Mason, the most significant character in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops. Some gamers cited Worthington's inability to mask his Australian accent, as was the case in Avatar.
He was selected as one of the entrants to the Who's Who in Australia 2011 edition.
Worthington says that when he was about 30, he sold most of his possessions and ended up with around $2000 to his name. He says he bought a car with the proceeds and was living in it before he successfully auditioned for his role in Avatar. He then found a place to live.
