Bruce Greenwood

Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor known for playing villains; but he has also attracted attention as a singer and composer. His work has encompassed the cinema, television and stage.

Stuart Bruce Greenwood was born on August 12, 1956, in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. His father was a geo-physicist and teacher, his mother a nurse. Greenwood has two younger sisters, Kelly Louise and Barbara Lynn. During his childhood the family moved several times to fit in with his father's work and study. He was notable in his youth for his love of the outdoors and of sports, hoping to become a professional skier until his training was interrupted by injury. This extra-curricular activity didn't appear to distract him from his schoolwork; a model student, Greenwood went on to pursue a degree in physics and economics at the University of British Columbia. There he took a minor course in acting because he thought it would be an easy way to get extra credit, swinging into his first stage role as Tarzan of the Apes. The acting bug bit, and after finishing his degree Greenwood moved to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Changing his career to acting worked out well for Greenwood. He found television work in Huckleberry Finn and his Friends and appeared in two films, Bear Island, with Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave, and Christopher Lee; and Rambo adventure First Blood, with Sylvester Stallone and Brian Dennehy. He then took a year out to tour the States with his rock band, before settling in Los Angeles. There Greenwood found regular work in the TV series Legmen, with John Terlesky, and subsequently in Peyton Place: The Next Generation, a hugely successful soap that dramatically raised his profile. Greenwood continued as a television actor throughout the 80s, also becoming a regular character in St. Elsewhere, alongside Byron Stewart and Herb Edelman, playing a doctor who contracted HIV from a hospital needle.

In the 1990s Greenwood began to concentrate more on film, appearing in several successful features, including Wild Orchid, with Mickey Rourke and Jacqueline Bisset; Passenger 57, with Wesley Snipes and Elizabeth Hurley; Atom Egoyan's Exotica, with Mia Kirshner and Elias Koteas; Father's Day, with Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Nastassja Kinski; and The Lost Son, with Katrin Cartlidge and Ciarán Hinds. The following decade saw him appear in blockbusters Rules of Engagement, with Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson; The Core, with Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank; and Isaac Asimov adaptation I, Robot, with Will Smith. During this period Greenwood also enjoyed regular roles in the TV series Knots Landing; Nowhere Man, which won him a cult following; and Class of the Titans.

Remarkably, alongside all this onscreen work, Greenwood has managed to keep up the stage career that he began in college. This has run from classics like Bent to original works like Cheryl Bascom's Deconstructing Romance. A trained dancer, he has toured with dance troupes despite ongoing problems with his leg. He maintains his interest in sports, particularly enjoying paragliding, sailing, and also riding his motorbike. Greenwood also plays celebrity golf for charity.

Greenwood lives in Los Angeles with his wife Susan Devlin, whom he began dating when they were both fifteen, and their child. He frequently visits Canada, which he still thinks of as home, and he hopes one day to retire there.

YUDDY