From landing a role on a school trip to winning an Oscar: Russell Crowe's life and career in photos

Once a Hollywood heartthrob, now the prolific co-owner of one of Sydney's premier NRL teams, Russell Crowe has lived a lot of lives in his 60 years.

From getting his start on a show his granddad was producing, to starring in a Coca-Cola ad, then winning his first Oscar, there's much more to his life and career than his starring role in Gladiator.

Keep reading to learn more about Russell Crowe's life and career as he prepares to host the 2025 AACTA Awards.

Born Russell Ira Crowe on April 7, 1964, Crowe grew up in Wellington, New Zealand and spent his formative years on TV and movie sets, where both his parents worked as caterers.

He got his start as an actor shortly after his family moved to Australia in the late 1960s, snagging a role with just one line of dialogue in a single episode of the Australian TV series Spyforce.

Cinema was in his blood, as his maternal grandfather had also been a cinematographer (and happened to be the producer of Spyforce), and Crowe continued taking small acting roles through his youth.

Here, he's pictured in the series The Young Doctors, a role he snagged after bumping into an actor he knew and the show's casting director during a school trip to a TV studio.

Crowe attended Vaucluse Public School and Sydney Boys High School before returning to New Zealand with his family in 1978, when he was 14.

There he continued his studies at Auckland Grammar School for a while before dropping out at age 16 to seriously pursue an acting career.

When that didn't take off, he turned his focus to building a music career as 'Russ Le Roq' and released several singles, before moving back to Sydney when he was 21.

He originally hoped to get formal acting training at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and even starred in a Coca-Cola commercial in the late 80s, pictured above.

He never ended up going to NIDA because a theatre worker told him it would be "a waste of time", so instead Crowe took a string of theatre roles in New Zealand and Australia during the '80s.

He finally got his foot in the door when he starred on Neighbours in 1987 (pictured), then landed his first films in 1990 called The Crossing and Blood Oath.

But his breakout role was still to come.

In 1992, Crowe starred in Romper Stomper, a confronting film in which he played a racist skinhead in suburban Melbourne.

His performance won him an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for Best Actor, propelling him on to bigger roles in Canada and then the US.

Crowe appeared in Virtuosity and The Quick and the Dead in 1995, scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role in The Insider in 2000, then snagged the coveted award a year later for what has come to be known as his best (or at least most recognisable) performance of his career.

Today you can’t mention Crowe’s name without bringing up his leading role in Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic Gladiator.

Initially, Crowe was nervous about the film's "rubbish" script and told Vanity Fair: "I did think, a couple times, maybe my best option is just to get on a plane and get out of here, you know?"

But Scott was willing to workshop it with the young actor and together they created a film that has well and truly earned a place of honour in cinema history.

Crowe dominated the screen as Maximus Decimus Meridius, cemented his status as a true Hollywood star, and won his first and only Academy Award along the way.

Accepting the trophy at the 2001 ceremony, Crowe gave a surprisingly personal speech.

"My grandfather's name was Stan Wemyss. He was a cinematographer in the second World War," he told the crowd of A-list stars, directors, and Hollywood heavyweights.

"My uncle David, David William Crowe, he died last year at the age of 66.

"I'd like to thank the Academy for something which is pretty surprising and dedicate it to two men who still continue to inspire me."

He went on to thank his parents, the Gladiator cast and crew, and issue a poignant message: "And for anybody who's on the down side of advantage and relying purely on courage, it's possible."

Now a certified star, Crowe dated actress Meg Ryan for a while after working on the 2000 flick Proof of Life together.

Their romance was quite scandalous, as it coincided with Ryan's divorce from fellow actor Dennis Quaid, sparking rumours Crowe had played some role in the A-list couple's marriage breakdown.

Ryan made it clear the rumours weren't true, telling InStyle, "I think he took a big hit. But Russell didn't break up the marriage."InSty"I think he took a big hit. But Russell didn't break up the marriage," Ryan once told

"He was definitely there at the end, but it wasn't his fault. I was a mess. I hurt him, too, at the end. I couldn't be in another long relationship, it wasn't the time for that. So I got out."

She and Crowe split after less than a year together.

Professionally, Crowe was thriving.

He earned another Oscar nod for his portrayal of American mathematician John Nash in the 2001 drama A Beautiful Mind and even toured the US with his band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (TOFOG) that same year.

The band, which Crowe and several of his mates had formed in 1992, had two full-length records to its name at the time and benefitted hugely from Crowe's rise to fame as an actor.

After releasing another record in 2003, the group dissolved in 2005 and Crowe pursued a new sound with his new band The Ordinary Fear of God, which kept the same acronym and included a few members of the original TOFOG lineup.

Though music was one of Crowe's passions, his focus in the 2000s was largely on his acting career.

He starred in a string of hugely successful projects, from Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World in 2003, to Cinderella Man in 2005, American Gangster in 2007, and Body of Lies in 2008.

Not all of his films could be hits and there were a few flops in the mix, like his 2008 version of Robin Hood, but Crowe was still widely considered an A-list star.

When he wasn't perfoming in front of the camera or on stage at a concert, Crowe was dedicated to his young family with Australian singer Danielle Spencer.

The couple first met in 1989, when they both worked on The Crossing, and had an on-and-off romance through the '90s before Crowe started dating Meg Ryan.

He and Spencer reunited in 2001, after he split from the actress, and they tied the knot on Crowe's birthday in April 2003.

The wedding was held at Crowe's cattle property in Nana Glen, New South Wales, and the newlyweds welcomed their first child together before the end of the year - a baby boy named Charles Spencer Crowe.

Their second son, Tennyson Spencer Crowe, arrived in 2006.

Unfortunately, Crowe was involved in several unflattering incidents at the height of his fame as well.

In 1999, he was involved in an altercation at a hotel in Coffs Harbour. Three years later in 2002, he was involved in a fiery argument with a producer at the BAFTA Awards when his appearance was cut short.

"What I said to him may have been a little bit more passionate than now, in the cold light of day, I would have liked it to have been," Crowe later said in an apology.

That same year he was allegedly involved in a brawl in a London restaurant, then in 2005 he was arrested in New York on assault and weapons charges. Crowe plead guilty and called the incident "possibly the most shameful situation that I've ever gotten myself in".

In 2010, Crowe was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and his wife and sons were right there to cheer him on.

By that time he'd taken a step back from his music career to focus on fatherhood and being present in his son's childhoods.

"I really wanted to be dad," he revealed on Heart Evenings with Dev Griffin.

"That didn't stop me writing songs, recording and doing some shows. And now the amazing thing is, is my eldest son actually gets to travel with me," 

But family life became more challenging in 2012 when he and wife Spencer separated. They divorced in 2018.

Crowe's acting career started to slow down in the 2010s as he tried to focus on things that were important to him closer to home.

One such thing was his beloved NRL team the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which he's co-owned since 2006, as well as his relationship with his sons who were growing up fast.

"I look back, and I think I should have given more time [to my children]. It's tricky. I have this big job, and my entire work life takes place overseas," he told The Kyle and Jackie O Show in 2020.

"I can't cover the holes I made then, but I can certainly work on having less distance in the future."

Over the years, there's been plenty of speculation of a relationship between Crowe and Terri Irwin.

Terri has shut down the longstanding rumour several times.

In 2017, she said Crowe and her late husband Steve Irwin had become friends years earlier.

"After Steve passed, you find out who your true friends are. And Russell has been very loyal as a great friend," she said.

Her son Robert Irwin also hosed down the whispers in a 2024 radio interview.

"Mum has been linked to something like 30 people," Robert told Kyle Sandilands.

"I mean, it was King Charles, it was Russell, it was everyone."



Crowe is now in a relationship with Britney Theriot, a former actress who became a personal assistant to the star.

They reportedly first met on the set of the film Broken City in 2013, as castmates.

They've been an item since 2020 but largely stay out the spotlight, aside from the odd red carpet appearance.