Ryan Gosling: Hollywood's Finest

A biography of the acclaimed, enigmatic actor who is poised to become a major movie star

Acclaimed for his good looks as much as his searing acting ability, Canadian actor Ryan Gosling first came to public attention at the age of 12 after beating 15,000 hopefuls to become a Mouseketeer in Disney's Mickey Mouse Club. He spent his teenage years acting in nearly 200 television episodes before landing the lead role in the TV show Young Hercules, then moved into film with Remember the Titans. He found acclaim in the controversial independent film The Believer, which opened the door to a major role alongside Sandra Bullock in the thriller Murder by Numbers. Everything clicked with the 2004 box office hit The Notebook. The film turned Ryan into a Hollywood pin-up, and in the wake of its success he famously spent six months working in a Los Angeles sandwich shop to regain a sense of perspective. Since then, he has played one challenging role after another, including a suicidal young man (Stay), a drug-addicted school teacher (Half Nelson), and an alienated man whose only meaningful relationship is with a blow-up doll (Lars and the Real Girl), while inching towards mainstream success with acclaimed performances in films like Blue Valentine, Drive, Crazy Stupid Love, and Gangster Squad. Enigmatic and humble, with a legendary compulsion to lose himself in every role he takes on, this is the story of an actor who is incredibly close to his mother, plays in a band, co-owns a Moroccan restaurant in Beverly Hills, laughs off those who tag him a sex symbol, and shrugs at the widespread conviction that he's this generation's Marlon Brando.