Born Joshua Daniel Hartnett on July 21, 1978, in San Francisco, California. With a string of big-budget titles to his credit, Hartnett has emerged from the crowded ranks of late-90s teen heartthrobs to become a sought after leading man.
Although born in California, Hartnett was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his first passion was football. After a knee injury sidelined the tall, clean-cut teenager, he was encouraged by his aunt to take up acting. Despite an acting resume that included only local theater productions and a lone commercial, Hartnett took off for Los Angeles shortly after graduating from high school.
With unprecedented speed he landed his first job, a part in the television series Cracker (1997). Although the show was short-lived, the exposure resulted in his first feature role. Playing Jamie Lee Curtis’ son in the popular horror film Halloween H20 (1998), Hartnett struck gold with the teen demographic. Soon after, he appeared in The Faculty (1998), yet another blood-and-guts thriller that played on his all-American good looks.
But in a surprising departure from such increasingly lucrative teen fare, Hartnett appeared in Sophia Coppola’s decidedly adult exploration of teenage sexuality The Virgin Suicides (1999). His nuanced portrayal of Troy, a sexually precocious 1970s seducer attracted critical notice. It was also noticed by director Michael Bay, who then cast Hartnett opposite Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale in his $135 million WWII epic Pearl Harbor (2001). Although the flashy, special-effects driven film received only a lukewarm critical reception, Hartnett soon found himself in more military fare, this time in Black Hawk Down (2001), Ridley Scott’s controversial portrayal of U.S. involvement in Somalia.
