Sam Worthington Biography

Samuel Henry John "Sam" Worthington (born 2 August 1976) is an English-born Australian actor, best known for the portrayals of Jake Sully in Avatar, Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation, Perseus in Clash of the Titans and its sequel, Wrath of the Titans, and Alex Mason in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops and its sequel Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

In 2004, Worthington received Australia's highest film award for his lead performance in Somersault. He performed predominantly in leading roles in a variety of low-budget films before moving to major studio films, ranging from romantic drama and comedy-drama to science fiction and action.

Early life

Worthington was born to English parents in Godalming, Surrey, in southeastern England, and moved to Perth, Western Australia when he was six months old. He grew up in Warnbro, a suburb of Rockingham. His mother, Jeanne J. (née Martyn), a housewife, raised him and his sister Lucinda, and his father, Ronald W. Worthington, was a power plant employee. He attended John Curtin College of the Arts, a school specialising in the dramatic arts, located in Fremantle, Western Australia, where he studied drama but didn't graduate. When he left the college, his father gave him $400 and sent him on a one-way trip to Cairns, Queensland, telling him to "work his way home". He began working on construction and odd jobs, eventually settling in Sydney, New South Wales. At 19, while working as a bricklayer, he auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and was accepted with a scholarship.

Career

2004"08

Worthington had a major role in Somersault (2004) and played the lead in a modern Australian retelling of Macbeth (2006). He won the AFI Award for Best Lead Actor for his role in Somersault. He was well known in Australia for his role as Howard in the acclaimed Australian TV series Love My Way, in which he played the main love interest of the female lead.

Worthington's international film career began with a series of small roles in Hollywood production The Great Raid (2005), which was filmed in Australia. He auditioned for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale but lost the role to Daniel Craig. He starred in the Australian creature-feature film Rogue (2007), as a man named Neil, which gained a 100% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

2009"present

In Terminator Salvation, Worthington plays cyborg Marcus Wright who assists the humans despite their suspicions of him.

Shot prior to the release of Terminator Salvation, the James Cameron-directed science-fiction film Avatar was Worthington's next project. In the film, he played Jake Sully, a paraplegic US Marine who, assigned to control an alien body called an avatar through a neural link, finds himself at the center of a war between his own species and the indigenous Na'vi people of the moon Pandora. The film went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing more than US$2.730 billion ($}} billion adjusted for inflation) in box-office receipts worldwide. In November 2010, Worthington told GQ Australia that he went to audition, but wasn't told what it was for and got annoyed. So he did his part, left, forgot about it "? and was called back. "I was a bit pissed off, and I think that came across," he says. "I think Jim saw a spark and liked it because that's Sully's character "? a guy who doesn't like to be bullied and a guy who just wants to set things right."

He provided voice work for Captain Alex Mason, the protagonist character in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops. Some gamers criticised Worthington's inability to mask his Australian accent, as in Avatar. In November 2010 The Hollywood Reporter named Worthington as one of the young male actors who are "pushing " or being pushed" into taking over Hollywood as the new "A-List".

He was selected as one of the entrants to the Who's Who in Australia 2011 edition.

In November 2011, Worthington along with Jonah Hill and Dwight Howard starred in commercials for the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

In 2012, Worthington starred in the sequel to Clash of the Titans, called Wrath of the Titans, alongside Liam Neeson. As in the first film, Worthington played the demigod and son of Zeus, Perseus. He also reprised his role as Alex Mason in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Personal life

Worthington has said that when he was about 30, he sold most of his possessions and ended up with around $2,000 to his name. He says he bought a car with the proceeds and was living in it before he successfully auditioned for his role in film Avatar. He then found a place to live.

On 18 October 2013, Worthington had confirmed the rumours of a relationship between fellow Australian model, Lara Bingle, and himself.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Bootmen	Mitchell Okden
2001	'	Our Hero	short film
2002	Hart's War	Cpl. B.J. "Depot" Guidry
2002	Dirty Deeds	Darcy
2003	Gettin' Square	Barry "Wattsy" Wirth
2004	Somersault	Joe
2004	Thunderstruck	Ronnie
2004	Blue Poles	Miles	Short
2005	'	Pfc. Lucas
2005	Fink!	Able
2006	Macbeth	Macbeth
2007	Rogue	Neil
2009	Terminator Salvation	Marcus Wright
2009	Avatar	Jake Sully/Tom Sully
2010	Clash of the Titans	Perseus
2010	Last Night	Michael Reed
2010	Love & Distrust	Miles	Segment: Blue Poles by Darcy Yuille
2011	'	Young David
2011	Texas Killing Fields	Detective Mike Sounder
2012	Man on a Ledge	Nick Cassidy
2012	Wrath of the Titans	Perseus
2013	Drift	JB
2014	Sabotage	Monster	Post-production
2014	The Keeping Room		Post-production
2014	For the Dogs	Stephen Lucas	Pre-production
2015	Thunder Run	Col. David Perkins
2016	Avatar 2	Jake Sully

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	JAG	Dunsmore	Episode: "Boomerang: Part 1"
2000	Water Rats	Phillip Champion	Episode: "Able to Leap Tall Buildings"
2000	Blue Heelers	Shane Donovan	Episode: "Bloodlines"
2004	Love My Way	Howard Light	10 episodes
2005	'	Dr. Sam Dash	8 episodes
2006	Two Twisted	Gus Rogers	Episode: "Delivery Man"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Call of Duty: Black Ops	Alex Mason
2012	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	Alex Mason

Writer

Year	Title	Notes
2004	Enzo

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title	Result
2000	AFI Award	Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role	Bootmen
2002	FCCA Award	Best Supporting Actor " Male	Dirty Deeds
2004	AFI Award	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Somersault
2004	FCCA Award	Best Actor " Male	Somersault
2004	IF Award	Best Actor	Somersault
2009	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Fresh Face Male	Terminator Salvation
2009	Australians in Film Breakthrough Award	Australians in Film	Avatar
2010	Saturn Award	Best Actor	Avatar
2010	International Award	Best Actor	Avatar
2010	Empire Award	Best Actor	Avatar
2010	Giffoni Award
2010	Blimp Award	Cutest Couple (shared with Zoe Saldana)	Avatar
2010	MTV Movie Award	Best Fight (shared with Stephen Lang)	Avatar
2010	MTV Movie Award	Best Kiss (shared with Zoe Saldana)	Avatar
2010	ShoWest Award	Male Star of the Year
2010	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie: Fight (shared with Stephen Lang)	Avatar
2010	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Actor: Sci-Fi	Avatar