Former teen idol Josh Hartnett is currently transitioning from a late 90s horror flick hunk into a full-blown film star, and with his impressive list of credits it’s doubtful that success will elude him. The talented Minnesota native recently added another strong performance to his resumé with Brian De Palma’s eagerly awaited “The Black Dahlia”, which also featured Aaron Eckhart and Hartnett’s rumored on/off girlfriend Scarlett Johansson.
Hartnett was born in San Francisco on July 21, 1978, and grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He began acting while in junior high, starring as Huck Finn in a school play and working with the Youth Performance Company of Minneapolis. After graduating from South High School, Hartnett attended SUNY Purchase before being cast in the failed 1997 U.S. version of the popular British crime series “Cracker”. Roles came quickly for the sexy, enigmatic 19-year old, and 1998 saw him in two popular teen horror films – “Halloween H20” (as the son of Jamie Lee Curtis) and the star-studded Robert Rodriguez-directed “The Faculty”. Hartnett was quickly showing an extraordinarily confident on-screen swagger, and he proved his acting chops with an impressive turn in Sofia Coppola’s debut feature, 1999’s “The Virgin Suicides”.
After appearing in “Here on Earth”, “Blow Dry”, and the notorious flop “Town & Country”, Hartnett’s star went through the roof with “Pearl Harbor”. Playing opposite then-megastar Ben Affleck, the popular historical epic gave Hartnett the opportunity to exhibit his talents as a romantic leading man. In the same year, he starred in the mildly controversial Shakespeare adaptation “O” and in Ridley Scott’s violent Gulf War drama “Black Hawk Down”. The next couple years saw Hartnett diversify his genre choices with the hit romantic comedy “40 Days and 40 Nights”, the cop thriller “Hollywood Homicide” with Harrison Ford, and the drama “Wicker Park”.
Perhaps accidentally, Hartnett is currently in a neo-noir phase after a sizzling role in the stylish “Sin City” and 2006’s crime drama “Lucky Number Slevin”. As sexy detective Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert in “The Black Dahlia”, Hartnett continued his streak of performances as razor-sharp Bogart types - roles that are fitting him like his finely-tailored costumes. Upcoming projects for the rising superstar include the drama “Resurrecting the Champ”, the vampire flick “30 Days of Night”, and as the star of “The Prince of Cool”, a biopic of trumpeter Chet Baker.