Lee Pace

Date of Birth

25 March 1979, Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA

Birth Name

Lee Grinner Pace

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In 2003, Lee Pace starred in the Sundance hit, Soldier’s Girl,  an extraordinary telefilm created for Showtime. The film was based on the true story of a transgendered nightclub performer in love with a soldier who is brutally murdered for their relationship. His breakthrough performance garnered him nominations for both the Golden Globes and the Independent Spirit Award, and he won a Gotham Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance.

Though he was born in Oklahoma,  Lee spent his early years living in the Middle East. His family eventually moved back to the States, first to New Orleans and later, Houston, Texas.

Lee attended high school in Houston, where he first began acting. He got so involved with his craft that he actually dropped out of high school to perform at the local Alley Theatre. Once he completed his final high school courses, Lee was accepted to The Juilliard School’s Drama Division in 1997.

During his time at Juilliard, Lee honed his acting skills in such classic roles as Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet”, the title role in “King Richard II” and Cassius in “Julius Caesar”, among others.

After graduating with a BFA from Juilliard, Lee starred in the critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway play, “The Credeaux Canvas”, as well as being part of the Vineyard production of “The Fourth Sister”.

In the spring of 2004, Lee starred a limited engagement of the Off-Broadway production “Small Tragedy”, and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Awards in the category of Outstanding Actor.

Lee played Aaron Tyler in the acclaimed but short-lived 2004 television series Wonderfalls” which was co-created by Bryan Fuller. Later, Fuller cast Pace in the lead role of Ned in the series Pushing Daisies”  which debuted on ABC in October 2007 and returned for its second and final season on October 1, 2008.

In addtion to television, Lee has appeared in the films “The Fall”(2006), “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” (2008), “A Single Man” (2009), “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” (2012) and “Lincoln” (2012).

On 30 April 2011, it was announced that Lee had been cast as Thranduil in Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit”.  The announcement was made by Peter Jackson himself, who revealed on his Facebook page that Pace had been his favorite for the part, ever since he saw his performance in The Fall”.

Lee spent four months filming in New Zealand, and called it a “fantastic experience.”The character appeared in the prologue of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (2012)  and will also appear in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (2013) and “The Hobbit:  There and Back Again” (2014).

In addition to “The Hobbit” films, Lee’s upcoming projects include the television show “Halt and Catch Fire” (2013) and the Marvel superhero film “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014).

 

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