Josh Lucas

Josh Lucas was born June 20, 1971 in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of Michelle (née LeFevre), a nurse, and Don Maurer, an ER-doctor. At the time of his birth, his parents were living on an Indian reservation. Lucas grew up traveling the South with his parents (who were anti-nuclear activists) and younger siblings, two sisters and a brother; by the age of 13, he had lived in 30 different locations, including the Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. The family eventually settled in the lovely, small town of Gig Harbor, Washington. He attended Kopachuck Middle School. He later graduated from Gig Harbor High School in 1989. Lucas started acting in high school plays. He did not attend college, in order to pursue his acting career.

Career

One of Lucas' first, relatively unknown, feature roles was playing Jace "Flash" Dillon in the cinematic PC flight simulator Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. In the game, Lucas is the cocky test pilot of an experimental new starfighter. If the player challenges him to a simulated duel and wins, he joins the player's flight squadron.

Lucas gained mainstream exposure after his roles in Sweet Home Alabama, A Beautiful Mind, and as Glenn Talbot in Hulk. After displaying range, diversity, and intensity in character work for more than a decade, Josh Lucas can next be screen in Boaz Yakin’s “Death in Love.” This marks Lucas’ first feature film project since concentrating on stage, production and documentary work. Lucas will next begin production on “Management,” a biting take on the romantic comedy genre about a socially awkward man who falls hopelessly in love with an attractive but friendless woman, to be played by Jennifer Aniston. In the film, Lucas plays a former porn star who must give love advice to a socially awkward man. Additionally, Lucas will begin production on “6 Bullets from Now,” opposite Tim Roth. This film is a true story of five gunmen who stole more than $1 million in cash and jewels from New York’s Pierre Hotel on New Year’s Day in 1972—the largest hotel heist in history. Lucas recently completed his second collaboration with documentary film legend Ken Burns, after being involved in Burns’ “The War.” “The War” had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Lucas’ other recent documentary work includes the multiple award-winning “Operational Homecoming,” the much anticipated “Trumbo,” and the Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award-winning “Resolved.” Lucas has just completed his first venture into production with “The Boy in the Box,” in which he plays the single father of a mentally challenged boy.

Earlier this year, Lucas was seen on stage in the commercially and critically successful off-Broadway run of “Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell.”

Over his career, Lucas has worked with many of the film community’s greatest talents. In the last number of years, he has starred alongside Jon Voight in Jerry Bruckheimer’s “Glory Road,” for which Lucas added 40 pounds to transform himself into legendary basketball coach, Don Haskins. This film opened in the number one spot at the box office. Lucas also starred with Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss in Wolfang Petersen’s “Poseidon,” with Morgan Freeman and Robert Redford in Lasse Hallström’s “An Unfinished Life,” and opposite Jamie Bell in David Gordon Green’s “Undertow,” produced by Terrence Malick. Additionally, he starred alongside Christopher Walken in “Around the Bend,” with Jennifer Connelly and Eric Bana in Ang Lee’s “Hulk,” with Russell Crowe in Ron Howard’s Oscar-winning “A Beautiful Mind,” and opposite Reese Witherspoon in Disney’s smash hit “Sweet Home Alabama.” Other credits include “Wonderland,” “The Deep End,” “American Psycho,” “Session 9” and “You Can Count On Me.” And “Stealth” a movie where numerous co-stars mailed in their performances. Also in 2005, Lucas starred on Broadway opposite Jessica Lange in the revival of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” Other theater credits include Lucas originating the role of Judas in Terrence McNally’s “Corpus Christi” at MTC, Christopher Shinn’s “What Didn’t Happen” at the Mark Taper Forum and “The Picture of Dorian Grey” at the Los Angeles Theater Center.

Lucas makes his home in NYC.

Personal life

Lucas is a YouthAIDS Ambassador. He "first joined the YouthAIDS team when he shot the ALDO HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in April, 2005. Soon after, he officially accepted his role as a YouthAIDS Ambassador at the YouthAIDS 2005 Gala, Faces of Africa. HIV/AIDS prevention is particularly important to him as his mother "has made a career counseling young men and women with the hopes of educating them about the ravishing and often deadly effects of this too common and easily preventable disease."

Lucas has been mistaken for actor Matthew McConaughey in the past and bears also a physical similarity to Paul Newman.

Filmography

2006. Poseidon
2006. Glory Road
2005. An Unfinished Life
2005. Stealth
2004. Undertow
2004. Around the Bend
2003. Wonderland
2003. Secondhand Lions
2003. Hulk
2002. Sweeth Home Alabama
2001. A Beatiful Mind
2001. Session 9
2000. American Psycho
2000. You Cant Count on Me
1996. True Blue


Official Website.
El Criticon.