Sometimes compared to Anthony Perkins, actor Jeremy Davies fashioned for himself a career playing sensitive characters who possessed a ting of instability underneath their seemingly innocent façades. Prior to his star-making performance as the jittery scientist Daniel Faraday on the acclaimed hit Lost (ABC, 2004- ), Davies struggled in bit parts on television before gaining attention for a 1992 Subaru commercial. Hollywood agents and casting directors suddenly took notice, leading to his first feature starring role in David O. Russells indie classic, Spanking the Monkey (1994). Davies soon began to raise his stature with small, but memorable parts in blockbuster films like Twister (1996) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), which he balanced out with meatier performances in smaller films like The Million Dollar Hotel (2000), CQ (2001) and Steven Soderberghs remake of Solaris (2002). But it was his chilling and eerily accurate portrayal of murderer Charles Manson in the made-for-television movie Helter Skelter (CBS, 2004) that firmly established Davies as being one of the finest character actors of his generation.
Born Jeremy Boring in Traverse City, MI, on Oct. 8, 1969, Davies was one of four siblings born to childrens author Mel Boring. His parents separated when he was young, leaving Davies to relocate to Kansas City, MO with his mother until the mid-1970s, when she passed away due to lupus. Davies then crossed the country to live with his father and stepmother in Santa Barbara, CA, before moving back to the Midwest in 1986, where he completed high school. Davies, however, returned to California to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena. Having been bitten by the acting bug, he began landing small roles on television in the early nineties, including a pair of episodes of The Wonder Years (ABC, 1988-1993) and a small role in a made-for-cable thriller called Guncrazy (1992), starring Drew Barrymore, with whom he was later romantically connected. The following year, Davies earned a great deal of attention and notoriety for a high-energy performance in a Subaru ad, in which he compared the car to punk rock for its ability to buck long-standing trends. Though pilloried by pop culture writers, Davies caught the attention of casting agents across Hollywood, and was soon courted for edgy, independent fare.
His breakthrough feature came in 1994 with David O. Russells dark comedy Spanking the Monkey, in which he played a confused young man who is drawn into an incestuous relationship by his manipulative mother. Davies fearless performance in this complicated role earned him critical praise, as well as a 1994 nomination for an Independent Spirit Award. The film also ushered him into major motion pictures like Nell (1994), with Jodie Foster, and Twister (1996), as a nervous tornado photographer on Helen Hunts storm-chasing team. Davies returned to independent features twice in 1997 once as a tormented young man in The Locusts, and later, as a shy serviceman struggling with his emotions in the underrated 1950s-set drama, Going All The Way. The following year, Davies made an impression on moviegoers as a terrified linguist recruited by Tom Hanks to rescue a missing GI in Steven Spielbergs Saving Private Ryan. Davies was honored along with his Ryan castmates with a 1999 Screen Actors Guild nomination, as well as took home a Best Supporting Actor award from the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award.
However, Davies kept his distance from mainstream projects after Ryan, preferring to delve into independent features which offered layered characters, if little opportunity for widespread appeal. He was top-billed in The Florentine (1999), an examination of life in a small-town waterhole that was produced by Francis Ford Coppola, and played the nervous soldier once again in Antonia Birds offbeat horror-drama Ravenous (1999), about a Civil War-era investigation into cannibalism at a remote outpost. He was the lead in Wim Wenders typically complex The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) about a naïve young man who falls for a femme fatale (Milla Jovovich, whom Davies also dated) and falls afoul of a tough cop (Mel Gibson). Davies also made an impression as an Austrian refugee championed by Kristin Scott Thomas in Phillip Haas Up at the Villa (2000), and as a young American filmmaker overwhelmed by both the French science fiction film he has been hired to direct, and the alluring star of the film (Angela Lindvall), in Roman Coppolas visually delightful CQ (2001).
Davies captured a Satellite Award nomination for his role as conflicted college acting student Jedidiah Schultz in the HBO adaptation of The Laramie Project (2002). This was followed by no less than four films, including Secretary, as the confused boyfriend of new S&M convert Maggie Gyllenhaal, and the disappointing George Clooney sci-fi thriller, Solaris. Davies gave a believably compelling performance as hillbilly cult leader Charles Manson in a respectable TV remake of Helter Skelter (2004) before collaborating with maverick director Lars von Trier on his controversial experimental film Dogville (2003) and its sequel, 2005s Manderlay.
Not one to shy from difficult projects, he then moved on to an even more challenging project tempestuous director Werner Herzogs Rescue Dawn (2007), for which he dropped significant weight to play a Vietnam War POW. As if his slate was not full enough, in August of 2007, ABC announced that Davies would be joining the cast of its juggernaut hit series Lost (2004- ) in 2008, though few details about his role on the program were given at the time. Regardless, his role on the immensely popular series promised to bring the actor a whole new level of fame that he had yet to achieve on the small screen.
Copyright © Baseline 2009.