Aaron Eckhart

Actor

Aaron Eckhart is a square-jawed movie actor whose Hollywood breakthrough came as the kindly biker boyfriend of Julia Roberts in 2000's Erin Brockovich. Eckhart has played a variety of leading and supporting roles since the mid-1990s, first gaining notice as the charming and savage ladykiller of 1997's In the Company of Men, directed by Eckhart's former Brigham Young University pal, Neil LaBute. Eckhart went on to appear in several of LaBute's films, including Nurse Betty (2000, starring Renee Zellweger) and Possession (2002, with Gwyneth Paltrow). He also took roles in big-budget Hollywood productions like The Core and Paycheck (both 2003), but it was his turn as a cynical tobacco lobbyist in the satire Thank You For Smoking (2005) that earned him high praise as a leading man. With his Kirk Douglas-like chin, Eckhart is reminiscent of the stars of old Hollywood: he is both a sturdy supporting player and a leading man adept at romantic comedy parts (such as in 2007's No Reservations, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones) as well as larger-than-life roles in movies like The Dark Knight (2008, the Batman movie starring Christian Bale).