Dark-haired and handsome with a boy-next-door charm, Matthew Settle was quickly touted as the "new Tom Cruise", joining the ranks of countless young actors also outfitted with the title. A relatively late entrant to the business, Settle moved from his Tennessee home to New York City at age nineteen to play in a rock band. Realizing after the band ousted him that his talents must lie elsewhere, Settle began to study acting and appeared on stage. But it wasn't until 1996 that he landed his first onscreen role, starring in the CBS Western pilot "Shaughnessy", which was not picked up to become a series. The following year he was tagged to co-star in the CBS TV-movie "What Happened to Bobby Earl?", playing a young man whose involvement with a mysterious older woman leads to the disappearance of his titular friend. That same year, the actor was featured in the ABC movie mystery "A Deadly Vision".
In 1998, Settle made his big screen debut as a college student friend of Jennifer Love Hewitt's stalked Julie who accompanies her on a resort vacation turned deadly in "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer". The actor reached a large audience with his portrayal of Will, a young man with a deadly secret, and earned himself a loyal fan base. He followed up with more TV work, playing a young Bugsy Siegel (Eric Roberts portraying the gangster later in life) in David Mamet's fact-based portrait of early organized crime figure "Lansky" (1999) and rounded out that year with a starring turn in the fact-based TV-movie "Crime in Connecticut: The Return of Alex Kelly" (CBS), portraying the titular rapist from a wealthy family who dodged authorities for eight years living a privileged life in European ski lodges. Settle managed to make the character appropriately detestable yet capable of believably projecting a charming facade, and the high-profile nature of the case and resulting interest surrounding the telepic garnered him increased visibility.
In 2000, Settle returned to the big screen with three notable film roles, beginning with a featured turn in the ensemble of the suspenseful World War II action drama "U-571", playing Ensign Larson, one of a troop of Americans on a mission to learn German war secrets who end up as stowaways on an enemy U-boat. Later that year he starred as Matt Curtis, a dashing tennis pro and member of "The In Crowd", an elite group that a mysterious newcomer will do anything to join. Settle also had a co-starring role alongside Gretchen Mol in "Stalk", an independent dark comedy about an obsessive love relationship.
Copyright © Baseline 2007.