Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor and musician. Having first gained notice at the age of 12 as a mouseketeer on the variety show The Mickey Mouse Club, Gosling has built a reputation for playing misfits in independent films: a fanatic Neo-Nazi in the The Believer (2001), a drug-addicted junior high school teacher in Half Nelson (2006), a socially inept loner in Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and a frazzled husband in Blue Valentine (2010). He has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Leading Actor (for Half Nelson) and two Golden Globe Awards (for Lars and the Real Girl and Blue Valentine).
His most commercially successful movie to date is 2004's romantic drama The Notebook. 2011 was a landmark year for the actor as he appeared in three mainstream films: romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, action movie Drive and political drama The Ides of March.
Gosling dated American actress Sandra Bullock for a year from 2002 to 2003. He had a four-year relationship with Canadian actress Rachel McAdams from 2005 to 2008, after meeting in 2003 while filming The Notebook
Gosling was born in London, Ontario but grew up in Cornwall. He is the son of Donna, a secretary, and Thomas Gosling, a paper mill worker. His parents divorced when he was a child; he and his older sister were raised by their mother. He has commented, "I grew up with my mother and my sister so I've just been programmed to think like a girl. I'm attracted to films that have strong female characters because there are strong female characters in my life."
His parents were Mormons. "We were brought up pretty religious. My mother admits it: She says, you were raised by a religious zealot. She's different now, but at the time, it was a part of everything - what they ate, how they thought".
He had "no pals" as a child and was bullied in elementary school. "I hated being a kid. I didn't like being told what to do, I didn't like my body, I didn't like any of it. Being a kid and playing and all that stuff just drove me nuts." In Grade 1, having been heavily influenced by the film Rambo, he brought steak knives to school and threw them at other children during recess. This incident lead to a suspension. While attending Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School, he was diagnosed with ADHD, prescribed Ritalin and was placed in a class for special needs students. Consequently, his mother quit her job and homeschooled him for a year. Gosling has said that homeschooling gave him "a sense of autonomy that I've never really lost".
He performed from an early age. He and his older sister, Mandi, sang together at weddings; he performed with his uncle's Elvis Presley tribute act, Elvis Perry, and he was involved with a local dance company. He spent part of his childhood in Florida, USA after successfully auditioning for a part on The Mickey Mouse Club at the age of twelve.
He developed an idiosyncratic accent as a child, later explaining, "As a kid I thought having a Canadian accent didn't sound tough. I thought guys should sound like Marlon Brando. So now I have a phony accent that I can't shake, so it's not phony anymore."
Gosling first made his name as a child actor on The Mickey Mouse Club alongside fellow future stars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. He also appeared in many Canadian television series and movies including Goosebumps and Breaker High, and, in 1998, he moved to New Zealand to film the adventure series Young Hercules.
His first serious role was in 2001's controversial drama The Believer, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He has described it as "the film that kind of gift-wrapped for me the career that I have now. I suddenly found myself at Sundance, where people were asking me about my craft. So I had to pretend I had one." In 2002 and 2003, he appeared in The Slaughter Rule, Murder by Numbers and The United States of Leland.
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