Date of Birth : Nov 12th 1980
Academy Award-nominated Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in The Notebook, Half Nelson and Fracture.
Gosling was born in London, Ontario and raised in the small city of Cornwall, the son of Donna, a secretary, and Thomas Gosling, a paper mill worker. His parents, who were Mormons, divorced when he was young. He had difficulty in school and often took part in fights with fellow students. His mother withdrew him from school and taught him at home from the age of ten. Gosling did not have a religious upbringing, he was free to explore and discover his own religious beliefs. After returning to the public system he went to Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School, he ended up dropping out at the age of seventeen.
When Gosling first came to live in Los Angeles in 1997, he was given a place to stay at the West Hollywood apartment of Director Ron Oliver (Goosebumps & Breaker High).
In preparation for his role as Dan Dunne, a drug-addicted, junior high school history teacher in the 2006 film Half Nelson, Gosling moved to Brooklyn, shadowed a middle school teacher, and studied the Civil Rights Movement (a subject with which his character is fascinated). In March 2007, Gosling won the Best Actor category at the Spirit Awards (formerly known as the Independent Spirit Awards) for his role in the movie. For the same role he was nominated for an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Broadcast Film Critics Association award as best actor.
Recently Gosling has starred in the film Fracture alongside Anthony Hopkins. He was to begin filming for The Lovely Bones in October 2007, but has since been replaced by Mark Wahlberg. Director Peter Jackson subsequently said Gosling was fired two days before filming began because he was “too demanding”. In 2007, Gosling was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.