Eric Stoltz

Eric Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, and has appeared in a wide variety of films from mainstream fare like Some Kind of Wonderful to independent films like Pulp Fiction, Killing Zoe, and Kicking and Screaming. In 2010, he portrayed Daniel Graystone in the science fiction television series Caprica and became a regular director on the television series Glee. 2Early life Stoltz was born in Whittier, California, the son of Evelyn B. (née Vawter), a violinist and schoolteacher who died in 1994, and Jack Stoltz, an elementary school teacher. He has two sisters, mezzo-soprano Catherine Stoltz and writer Susan R. Stoltz. He was raised in both American Samoa and Santa Barbara, California, where as a child he once earned money playing piano for local musical theatre productions. He attended the University of Southern California, but dropped out after his junior year. When he moved to New York for his studies in 1981, he met Stella Adler and Peggy Feury. 2Career 31978–1999 In the 1970s Stoltz joined a repertory company that performed ten plays at the Edinburgh Festival. He returned to the United States in 1979, when he entered USC as a drama student, but subsequently dropped out to pursue film and TV role