Patrick Fugit Movies
Patrick Fugit landed squarely on top of the Hollywood heap when, for the actor's big-screen debut, writer/director
Cameron Crowe tapped him to play the lead, William Miller (
Crowe's onscreen teenage alter-ego), in the smash film à clef
Almost Famous (2000). The high profile of the role and the movie's success ensured continued stardom for the then-17-year-old, who had forged a path to stardom by discovering a rudimentary love of acting in seventh grade and asking his mother to help him sign with an agent. After the
Crowe assignment,
Fugit essayed a series of roles over the next several years that typically found him playing a hunky boyfriend -- as in
White Oleander (2002) and the teen-oriented religious farce
Saved! (2003). Unfortunately --
Famous and
Saved aside --
Fugit's subsequent role choice often left something to be desired, witness his involvement in the dumb-dumb monster movie
Dead Birds (2004) and the barely released comedy
Bickford Schmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006). In 2007,
Fugit signed to play opposite screen heavy
Dennis Quaid in the psychological thriller
Horsemen (2008). He appeared in 2009's Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. He reteamed with Cameron Crowe playing a zookeeper in 2011's We Bought a Zoo, and had a role as the independent-minded son in the HBO docudrama Cinema Verite. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi