Edward Norton - Actor

Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning American film actor and director. His acting credits include roles in the films Primal Fear, American History X and Fight Club.

Early life

Norton was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Columbia, Maryland. His mother, Robin (née Rouse), an English teacher, died of a brain tumor in 1997; his father, Edward James Norton, Sr., is an environmental lawyer and conservation advocate working in Asia and former federal prosecutor under the Carter administration. His maternal grandfather was the developer James W. Rouse (also see The Rouse Company), who designed the city of Columbia, Maryland (where Norton grew up), helped develop Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Norfolk's Waterside Festival Marketplace, and Boston's Quincy Market, as well as co-founded the Enterprise Foundation with Norton's maternal step grandmother, Patricia. Norton has two younger siblings; his sister Molly Norton, who attended Washington and Lee University and his brother Jim, who attended Bowdoin College and with whom he has collaborated professionally.

Norton graduated from Wilde Lake High School in 1987, then from Yale University in 1991 with a B.A. in history. It was at Yale that Norton discovered a passion for theater, taking as many classes as he could although never majoring in drama. Actors Ron Livingston and Paul Giamatti were classmates and fellow collegiate actors. Following graduation, Norton worked in Osaka, Japan, consulting for his grandfather's company, Enterprise Foundation. He also appeared in an ESL textbook, Only in America, used by Nova, a major Japanese language school.