Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is a New Zealand–born actor and film director. His work on screen has earned him various accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globes. Crowe moved to Australia at the age of four and began residing there permanently by the age of 21. He began acting in Australia and had his breakthrough role in Romper Stomper (1992), for which he won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He gained international recognition in the late 1990s for his starring roles in L.A. Confidential (1997) and The Insider (1999), the latter of which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Crowe gained wider stardom for playing the title role of Gladiator (2000), which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor, and for portraying real-life mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. in A Beautiful Mind (2001), which saw him nominated for another Academy Award. Other films he starred in include Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Cinderella Man (2005), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), American Gangster (2007), Robin Hood (2010), Les Misérables (2012), Man of Steel (2013), Noah (2014), The Nice Guys (2016), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), The Pope's Exorcist (2023) and Nuremberg (2025). In 2014, he made his directorial debut with the drama The Water Diviner, in which he also starred. Crowe has been the co-owner of the National Rugby League (NRL) team South Sydney Rabbitohs