Tom Berenger is an American actor, producer, and screenwriter. Winner of one Golden Globe and one Emmy Award, nominated for a number of numerous film awards. His most recognizable work on the big screen: the war films "Platoon", "Sniper", "Gettysburg", the comedy "The Guards", the series "If Tomorrow Comes" and "Hatfields and McCoys".
Biography of Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger (real name - Thomas Michael Moore) was born on May 31, 1949 in an Irish catalytic family in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
His father worked as a traveling salesman and for the Chicago Sun-Times.
The very first acquaintance of Thomas with creative activity took place in high school. He had to play a role in a school play in Spanish as part of a foreign subject. This was the teacher's initiative, because at a young age the boy was too shy.
Thomas studied journalism at the University of Missouri but moved on to another department after successfully debuting in a student theater production based on Edward Albi's classic Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? However, he had to take the pseudonym "Tom Berenger", because Tom Moore was already in the acting association.
Tom graduated from university in 1971 with a BA in speech and drama.
Tom decided to connect his future life with creative activity, so after studying in the 70s he moved to New York to study acting from the legendary actors of the old school - Uta Hagen and her husband Herbert Berghof.
Tom Berenger has appeared in off-Broadway theater productions.
Also, before making a breakthrough in his initial acting career, Tom worked in a hotel and as a flight attendant on a passenger aircraft.
Tom Berenger's career
After working in several "soap operas", and also after a short appearance in the horror film "The Sentinel", Tom got a more significant role in the big cinema, embodying the image of an attractive killer in the crime psychological drama "Finding Mr. Goodbar" (1977) where he starred with Diane Keaton and fellow rising star Richard Gere. In the future, the actor will call this image "the most slippery type" that he ever had to play. Tom Berenger even admitted that he suffered from nightmares from his role in this movie.
In 1979, the actor starred in the sports drama "Flesh and Blood", which he later considers his most favorite film in his entire career.
Tom Berenger quickly gained popularity in the film industry due to his rude attractive appearance and recognizability. In 1983, the comedy drama "Big Disappointment" was released - the story of the deceased Alex, the soul of the company, in whose honor all his childhood friends gather and arrange a "memorial party" in his memory. Here Berenger's colleagues on the set were young, at that time, actors Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Costner.
The real recognition of Berenger's talent came after the military drama "Platoon", the story of which is dedicated to military operations in Vietnam. Tom played the role of Sergeant Bob Barnes, co-starring with Charlie Sheen. For his excellent performance, Tom Berenger received a Golden Globe for his supporting image and was nominated for an Oscar. It is noteworthy that initially the role of Sergeant Barnes was offered to Mickey Rourke and Kevin Costner.
Despite the fact that Tom Berenger has already established himself in the big cinema as a successful actor, he did not leave his work in television projects and played small roles as a guest star in the series Cheers, Like in a Movie, Law and Order.
The most significant series, where Tom Berenger played the main role together with the actress Madoline Smith-Osborne, is the adventurous crime melodrama "If Tomorrow Comes" based on the work of the same name by Sidney Sheldon.
In 1988 the actor finished his work in the theater.
The actor also starred in the action adventure Fire to Kill (1988), the sports comedy Major League opposite Charlie Sheen (1989), and the biographical war drama Born on the Fourth of July (1989) with Tom Cruise in the title role.
In 1992, the action movie "The Sniper" was released, where the actor played in tandem with Bill Zane. Ten years after this premiere, two more parts "Sniper 2" and "Sniper 3" will be released.
The war drama Gettysburg in 1993, where the plot of the film takes place during the American Civil War, received special praise from film critics.
In 1993 he starred in the thriller Sliver opposite Sharon Stone and William Baldwin. Despite the fact that the film paid off almost three times at the box office, it was negatively received by film critics and was nominated for the anti-Golden Raspberry Award. The actor himself agreed that the film was a failure in his film career, justifying this by the fact that the shooting of the thriller did not work out from the very beginning. The film was accompanied by an infinite number of takes on the set and multiple rewriting of the script.
A year later, in 1994, the American comedy "The Convoyers" was released, where Tom Berenger played the main character of Chief Petty Officer Rock Reilly.
In 2012, Beredger won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in the Hatfields & McCoys Western TV series, opposite Kevin Costner.
Other best films featuring the actor include:
- crime drama "Training Day" with Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington (2001);
- mini-series "Nightmares and Fantastic Visions" based on the stories of Stephen King (2006);
- family film "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" (2007);
- a small role in the fantastic thriller "Inception" with Leonardo DiCaprio (2010).
Tom Berenger's personal life
The actor has been married several times.
The first wife was Barbara Wilson (from 1976 to 1984). From this marriage, the actor has two children: Alison (1977) and Patrick (1978).
The second chosen one was Lisa Berenger (from 1986 to 1997). The actor had three more daughters: Chelsea (1987), Chloe (1988) and Shiloh (1995). In 1988, his wife starred with the actor in the only film "The Last Ritual".
The actor divorced, and in 1998 he married for the third time to Patricia Alvaran. The marriage lasted until 2011. Tom Berenger has another daughter, Scout (1998).
Finally, since 2012, the actor has been in an official relationship with Laura Moretti.
Tom Berenger, in addition to his English, is fluent in Spanish and Italian. The actor is a big fan of history, especially during the American Civil War.
The actor founded the Tom Berenger Acting Fellowship Foundation to support students' interest in the theater scene and recognize the most talented of them.
In 2011 he was awarded the Career Achievement Award at the Tampa, Florida International Film Festival.
