Nick Stahl Movies
Wide-eyed young actor
Nick Stahl made his feature debut opposite
Mel Gibson and courted the late-'90s teen crowd with a role in the thriller
Disturbing Behavior (1998), but a number of his movies have not been the average box-office fluff.
Raised in Dallas,
Stahl began acting at the age of four in commercials and local theater. After his first TV movie,
Stranger at My Door (1991),
Stahl soon moved to feature films with a starring role as the boy tutored by
Mel Gibson's deformed recluse in the
Gibson-directed drama
The Man Without a Face (1993). Continuing to work with Hollywood heavyweights,
Stahl played one of
Susan Sarandon's sons in
Safe Passage (1994) and acted with
Walter Matthau in the TV film
Incident in a Small Town (1994). After the young teen starred in the Disney film
Tall Tale (1994),
Stahl was back to TV movies with family drama
Blue River (1995).
Alternating between mainstream fare and more challenging work,
Stahl began to aim for a slightly older audience with a role in the independent rural crime drama and Sundance Film Festival entrant
Eye of God (1997). Though
Stahl joined the late-'90s teen movie brigade co-starring alongside
Katie Holmes in the thriller
Disturbing Behavior (1998), he also appeared that same year as a Charlie Company soldier who dies too young in
Terrence Malick's hypnotic anti-war anti-epic
The Thin Red Line (1998).
Stahl began 2001 with roles in two Sundance Film Festival critical favorites,
Todd Field's family drama
In the Bedroom (2001) and iconoclast
Christopher Munch's
The Sleepy Time Gal (2001). On his way to becoming an indie fixture,
Stahl then took on the unappealing role of the doomed titular character in controversial photographer-turned-director
Larry Clark's exploration of true-life violent teen anomie,
Bully (2001).
Stahl, however, finished 2001 on the critical high note with which it began when
In the Bedroom, featuring
Stahl as
Sissy Spacek and
Tom Wilkinson's son, earned raves and prizes as one of the best films of the year.
Though to this point
Stahl's film roles had consisted of mainly low-budget and independent fare, all of this would change with the release of
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003. Rumored to have taken over the role of John Conner following original star
Edward Furlong's much publicized bout with drug abuse,
Stahl eagerly stepped up to the role. The summer of 2003 also found
Stahl gearing up for the premier of his the new HBO series Carnivàle. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi