BRUCE GREENWOOD (Lord Charles)

Bruce Greenwood earned rave reviews for his dazzling portrayal of John F. Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis drama THIRTEEN DAYS. The 2001 film also brought him the unsought-after media attention that his subtle and beautifully detailed heroes and villains - the comic, the romantic, the bruised and the beaten, the mysterious and the evil - have long deserved. He is ambivalent about this limelight. Certainly it offers great opportunity, but it can be a too-bright place for one so essentially private. In interviews Greenwood is masterly as he charms, entertains and provokes, somehow managing to deflect personal attention.

There is this much: After an accident shattered both his knee and his dream of skiing professionally, he enrolled at the University of British Columbia, where he discovered and fell in love with acting. His decision to carve a career from this passion was followed, expectedly, by a period of benign poverty and an array of odd and occasionally dangerous jobs. That changed in the mid-'80s when, as Dr. Seth Griffith of the acclaimed St. Elsewhere, he established himself as a leading man. During the next ten years he worked constantly, starring in television movies and series including the short-lived, deeply revered Nowhere Man (1995-96). Since 1997, Greenwood has focused his considerable energy on feature films, creating a staggering range of characters. Until THIRTEEN DAYS, he was best known to moviegoers as the husband-victim-villain in DOUBLE JEOPARDY with Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd. But his greatest acclaim had come from his work in independent film: as the grieving father in Atom Egoyan's searing THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997), for which he received a Genie nomination as Best Actor, and for his star turn in Egoyan's earlier EXOTICA (1994).

In demand by studios and independent filmmakers, he continues to work for both. In the past two years he has starred in the supernatural thriller BELOW for Miramax; taken on featured roles in ARARAT, his third film with Egoyan, and Madonna's SWEPT AWAY; and co-starred in Paramount's adventure THE CORE and opposite Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett in HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE. He recently commuted between Vancouver and Budapest in order to finish I ROBOT with Will Smith and BEING JULIA opposite Annette Bening, and recently finished shooting RACING STRIPES in South Africa. His independent film REPUBLIC OF LOVE, shot last fall in Toronto, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and opened in theatres recently.

Bruce also received a Genie nomination for his performance in Exotica.