Yeah! Billy Crudup!
Actor to receive theater's award
The Herald-Sun
Sep 22, 2008
CHAPEL HILL -- Tony Award-winning theater and film star
Billy Crudup will receive this year's PlayMaker Distinguished Achievement Award
on Nov. 1 at the 21st annual PlayMakers Ball at the
A 1990 Carolina alumnus, Crudup played alongside Robert
DeNiro, Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in "The Good Shepherd" (2006).
He also was in "Mission Impossible: III" (2006) and "Big
Fish" (2003).
He won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Performance by a
Featured Actor for his role on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of
Utopia."
The ball, held at the historic Carolina Inn, is the annual
fundraising gala for PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional theatre in
residence in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences. The 2008 theme is
"Anything Goes! A Tribute to the Great American Songbook."
A black-tie affair, the ball features the award ceremony
followed by dining and dancing to the music of the Peter Duchin Orchestra.
Proceeds from the event underwrite production costs and artist salaries for the
nonprofit theatre.
At UNC, Crudup's passion for acting was nurtured by
Lab!Theatre, an undergraduate acting company in the dramatic art department. He
went on to earn a master's degree in fine arts from the Tisch School of the
Arts at New York University.
Crudup earned a Best Actor Award from the Paris Film
Festival for his performance in the critically acclaimed movie "Jesus'
Son" (1999), and he had a major part as a rock guitarist in the Academy
Award-winning film "Almost Famous" (2000) with Frances McDormand and
Kate Hudson.
He will portray J. Edgar Hoover in the upcoming film
"Public Enemies," directed by Michael Mann, and appear as iconic
superhero Dr. Manhattan in the film version of the graphic novel
"Watchmen."
Crudup played the leading role in the 1998 film
"Without Limits," the story of long-distance runner Steven
Prefontaine. For that role, Crudup won the National Board of Review Award for
"Breakthrough Performance of the Year."
He received Tony nominations for "Best Actor" for
"The Pillowman" (2005) and "The Elephant Man" (2002).
Crudup made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Stoppard's
"Arcadia," which won him honors including the Outer Critics Circle
Award for Outstanding Debut of an Actor.
Past winners of the PlayMaker Award include actors Louise
Fletcher, Jack Palance, Eva Marie Saint, Faye Dunaway and Hume Cronyn; New York
Times critic Frank Rich; costume designer William Ivey Long; director Gene
Saks; and Broadway composer and lyricist Richard Adler.
For tickets to the ball, contact Lenore Field at (919)
452-8417 or lenore.field@gmail.com.
Area designers decorating rooms for the ball will include
McKay Coble of PlayMakers; Mark Day of Mark Day Catering and Event Planning in
Chapel Hill; Barrie Gibby of barrettdesign events in Burlington; Bitty Holton
of Chapel Hill and J.W. Walton of The Catering Company in Chapel Hill.
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