Actors - Hayden Christensen

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Hayden Christensen

	Actors - Hayden Christensen

Hayden Christensen (born April 19, 1981) is a Golden Globe-nominated Canadian actor. He gained international fame playing the young adult Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars films, a role previously played by Sebastian Shaw and Jake Lloyd.

Early life

Christensen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to David Christensen (a Canadian software programmer of Danish and English descent) and Alie Nelson (an American corporate speechwriter of Swedish and Italian descent). He has one brother and two sisters: Tove, Hejsa and Kaylen. Raised outside Toronto, Ontario, Hayden attended Baythorn Public School for his public schooling as well as Unionville High School in Unionville, Ontario, Canada. He was "discovered" when his older sister Hejsa, a former trampoline champion, was shopping around for an agent after she landed a Pringles commercial.

He appeared in Canadian television programs when he was young, then diversified into American television in the late 1990s. He acquired his initial fame while starring in Fox's Family Network TV series, Higher Ground (2000), showing off his acting talents as a teen who was sexually molested by his stepmother, then turning to drugs in his despair. He also appeared in Goosebumps, most noticeably in the two-part episode "Night of the Living Dummy III", where he played 12-year-old Zane.

Film career

While Christensen's critically acclaimed portrayal of a misunderstood teenager in Life as a House
(2001) earned him Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations as well as the National Board of Review's award for Breakthrough Performance of the Year, the performance didn't receive widespread public notice. His star-making role in Attack of the Clones (2002) made him an A-list star although his performance was widely panned as "painfully stilted...awful" by critics and fans. Subsequently, he garnered good reviews as journalist Stephen Glass in 2003's Shattered Glass
. He received more favorable critical response to his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in the final Star Wars film Revenge of the Sith (2005), where he played a more mature, insecure Anakin, who gradually converted to the Dark Side, finally sent off the edge by the lies of Emperor Palpatine. Christensen also reprised the role of Anakin Skywalker for the controversial 2004 DVD release of Return of the Jedi: Special Edition, where he replaced actor Sebastian Shaw as the Jedi spirit of Anakin Skywalker.

Personal life

Christensen played competitive AAA hockey and tennis in Canada before giving both up for acting. The 6'1" actor loves architecture, lasagna, pizza and is allergic to bees.

He was named one of People Magazine's 50 hottest bachelors" of 2005 and was chosen by Teen People as one of the 25 hottest stars under 25 in 2002 and 2005.

Love Life

Since Attack of the Clones, he has been persistently dogged by rumors and tabloid speculations. He has repeatedly denied that he was romantically involved with co-star Natalie Portman and is notoriously protective of his private life.

Currently, Christensen is thought to be dating with Sienna Miller, his Factory Girl
co-star. Although they both still deny these allegations.

Partial filmography

Poker Night (pre-production) (2007)
Crash Bandits (pre-production) (2006)
Factory Girl
(post-production) (2006)
Awake
(post-production) (2006)
Decameron: Angels & Virgins (post-production) (2006)
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (2004 DVD release)
Shattered Glass
(2003)
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Life as a House
(2001)
The Virgin Suicides
(1999
)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Hayden Christensen ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Hayden Christensen; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.