Vincent Kartheiser

[LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE]

Vincent Paul Kartheiser^[1] (born May 5, 1979) is an American actor.

Personal lifeKartheiser was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Janet Marie (née Gruyé) and James Ralph Kartheiser.^[2] The youngest of six children, he has four sisters, Andrea, Colette, Elise and Theresa, and a brother, Nathan.^[3] Kartheiser lives ascetically: he eschews car ownership, instead walking or taking mass transit; he currently lives in a bungalow he describes as a "wooden box" with no mirror or toilet; and he has been selling or giving away everything he owns.^[4]

Career

Kartheiser made his screen debut with a bit role in the 1993 film Untamed Heart, opposite Marisa Tomei and Christian Slater. Kartheiser found himself cast in mostly family fare, including The Indian in the Cupboard and most notably the action-adventure drama Alaska, in which he starred opposite Thora Birch and Charlton Heston, whose son, Fraser Clarke Heston, directed the film. The film led to Kartheiser getting the lead role in Masterminds, playing opposite Patrick Stewart.

Kartheiser next portrayed Bobby, a drug-addicted, homeless street urchin in Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise. Among his castmates were James Woods and Melanie Griffith. He also had two explicit sex scenes with Natasha Gregson, one of which was cut from the film in order to avoid an NC-17 rating. The film earned the young actor significant accolades, and he went on to appear in Strike! (later retitled All I Wanna Do), opposite Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, and Monica Keena, the last of whom co-starred with him again in his next project, Crime and Punishment in Suburbia.

Screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, Crime and Punishment in Suburbia was a moody, updated take on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, set in a modern high school. Kartheiser later landed a regular role on the supernatural drama series Angel in 2002. He played Connor, the son of two vampires, Darla (Julie Benz) and the titular Angel (David Boreanaz). Upon returning to Los Angeles, Connor's gradually unraveling mental state was among the main focuses of the show's fourth season; he would make two more appearances during its final season.

Returning to film work, Kartheiser starred in the well-received coming-of-age drama Dandelion, which was shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Since its 2007 debut, he has played the role of ambitious young ad man Pete Campbell in the television series Mad Men, on AMC.

Along with the rest of the cast of Mad Men, Kartheiser won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2009.^[5]

Kartheiser completed filming his role as Fielding in the BBC's two-part adaptation of Martin Amis' novel Money in the winter of 2009. The adaptation stars Nick Frost and began airing on BBC Two on the 23rd of May, 2010.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes1993Untamed HeartOrphan Boy1994Heaven SentEddie ChandlerLittle Big LeagueJamesSweet JusticeNicholasEpisode: "Story of My Life"1995The Indian in the CupboardGillon1996AlaskaSean Barnes1997MastermindsOswald Paxton1998The Hairy BirdSnakeAKA, Strike!Another Day in ParadiseBobbie1999ERJesse KeenanEpisode: "Truth & Consequences"2000Crime and Punishment in SuburbiaVincentPreston TylkDillonRicky 6Ricky CowenLuckytownColonel2001The UnsaidThomas Caffey2002AngelConnor2002-2004 (28 episodes)2004DandelionMason Mullich2005Shakespeare's SonnetsSebastian2006Alpha DogPick GiaimoWaning MoonMichael2007Killing Zelda SparksCraig BlackshearMad MenPete Campbell2007-present (52+ episodes)2010Elektra LuxxThe American ExperienceThomas NickersonEpisode: "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World"MoneyFielding GoodneyTV miniseries

[LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE]

photographed by Scott Pommier

[LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE]