Actor Spotlight: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT

This is the 3rd in a series of Actor Spotlights. To read about the aptly titled The Life Before Her Eyes, starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood, or to check out the decidedly Joseph Gordon-Levitt less clunker Never Back Down, click here.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is only 27, but he has transformed himself through a lifetime's worth of roles. As a child he flapped his arms for a last place baseball team. As a teenager he was an elderly information officer for a group of clueless aliens. As a formidable adult, he had become the prince of mentally damaged and deficient independent film characters. In 2009, he rises to the top of the box office in the unusual role of 'Cobra Commander' for the G.I. Joe screen treatment. Yes, at 27, Levitt has come full circle, if in the form of a jagged oval.

But don't let his double surname and road through art houses across America fool you, Levitt is up for anything that gives him a challenge. He's remarked several times about the integrity and longevity of his career in the face of some of his less-successful childhood peers.

"Success is not important to me, nor are power or money. If the script feels good, then I'm in. It's that simple."

Born Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt on February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, Levitt started in local stage productions at age four. From there talent agents booked him in commercials, including Saturday morning staples as Cocoa Puffs and Pop-Tarts. Progressing as a normal late 1980's child actor should, he picked up a dearth of roles in made for television movies, including a Dark Shadows remake in 1990, which was picked up for a 12 episode series.

After popping up in guest appearances on Family Ties and Murder, She Wrote, Levitt debuted in theatres in 1992 with a background role in Beethoven and a minor role in A River Runs Through It. Also in that year he was a regular on his second short-lived television series, the NBC situation comedy The Powers That Be, the creators of which would go on to develop Friends, and co-starring future Fraiser star David Hyde Pierce. Levitt himself would return to NBC in 4 years.

As the typical child actor of his generation went, while recurring on Roseanne, Gordon-Levitt snagged two lead roles in 1994. In Holy Matrimony, a one-joke plot about a reckless Patricia Arquette marrying a young Canadian Hutterite, Levitt plays Ezekiel, the young man who must step in and marry Arquette's character when his older brother dies. Hilarity ensues.

The more widely seen role that year however came in the form of the summer remake of Angels In The Outfield. Replacing the Pittsburgh Pirates of the original with the titular team from Los Angeles (nee California), and packing it with family friendly special effects, Outfield was a hit. Packed with stars and future stars of the time including Danny Glover, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Matthew McConaughey, and Adrian Brody, Outfield pushed Levitt into the A-list of adolescent actors.

Gordon-Levitt appeared as Demi Moore's son in The Juror, a big budget crime thriller co-starring Alec Baldwin, Anne Heche, and pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini. But it was his third television pilot, third with NBC, that gave him stability.

For six seasons Gordon-Levitt co-starred as 'Tommy Solomon' in 3rd Rock From The Sun, an absurdist situation comedy about a group of aliens who descend to Earth to learn about the culture, only to be stuck there. The show was very much a vehicle for John Lithgow, with a breakout role of sorts for French Stewart, but along with Kristen Johnston, Levitt rounded out the foursome of characters in a way that made a far-fetched plot marginally work for an amazing 6 years.

While in the employ of NBC, Levitt appeared in a couple of hit films during the late 1990s. Halloween H2O saw the return of series original Jamie Lee Curtis, while 10 Things I Hate About You was a teen cult favorite starring heartthrobs Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, meant to be a companion piece to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. This would be the last mainstream role Levitt would appear in for quite some time.

After leaving 3rd Rock as a regular in it's last season in 2000, Levitt attended Columbia University and took an interest in French studies and the arts. It wasn't until late 2001 that he decided to get back into acting. But if he was to do it, he wanted roles that were interesting to play, not ones that would make him a star.

"The whole concept of celebrity pisses me off. While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors."

Aside from voicing the main role of Jim Hawkins in one of Disney's last hand-drawn efforts Treasure Island in 2002, what came forth has been a string of gritty independent film that for the most part has been critically lauded.

Starting in 2001, Levitt got his 'disturbed man' chops in Manic, co-starring Don Cheadle and Zooey Deschanel. His portrayal of an unbalanced teen in a juvenile psychiatric ward earned rave reviews from the festival circuit. By the time it was released in 2003, Levitt was already appearing in the gay Mormon film Latter Days and filming the Anne Hathaway drama Havoc, about hip-hop influenced suburbanites who get caught up with real inner-city gangsters.

2004 saw perhaps his most controversial role, that of child abuse victim and gay prostitute Neil McCormick in Mysterious Skin. It was here that Levitt began to get noticed as an all-out independent film risk-taker.

With Brick in 2006, Levitt earned his most critical reviews to date as Brendan Frye, a teenage detective of sorts who must weave through the corruption that has embodied the cliques at his high school. With old school dialogue, a winning script and all the style of a classic film noir, Brick showed Levitt to be capable of taking a dramatic lead and nailing it on its head wonderfully.

2007 saw more of the same with a similar smaller budget crime thriller The Lookout. Going back to the mentally polluted origins of Manic, Levitt quietly helmed the story of a young man with brain damage and short-term memory loss who gets taken in by criminals who use him to rob the bank he works at.

After his Elmore Leonard adaptation Killshot, co-starring Diane Lane, Thomas Jane and Rosario Dawson, got shelved after two years of release date limbo, Levitt appeared in the MTV film Stop-Loss. Again playing a man with mental problems, this time because of his service in the Iraq War, Stop-Loss received mixed reviews and an even worse fate at the box office.

But for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it's far from a downslope in his career. Ascending into a more sizable spotlight, he has 6 projects awaiting release or is in production. The first of these is the highly anticipated and possibly award-aspiring Spike Lee directed The Miracle Of St. Anna. As a modern day news reporter interested in the story of four African American soldiers in Italy during World War II, his role isn't large, but it's certainly an integral part of the film.

Later in the year should come two independent romances. The comedy 500 Days of Summer, reuniting Levitt's Manic co-star Zooey Deschanel. In it, Levitt plays a hopeless romantic who falls in love with Deschanel, a scorned woman after years of broken hearts. The drama Uncertainty pits him with Olivia Thirlby (Juno, Snow Angels).

2009 may be the year he breaks out, at least as a mainstream actor. Despite an aversion for celebrity, he will be the titular villain boss and commander of the Cobras in the August 9th, 2009 release of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, co-starring friend and frequent collaborator Channing Tatum among many others. While most of the stars have had pictures of their characters released, Levitt's is kept under wraps. It's a highly visible role, but Levitt is playing it for other reasons.

"What attracted me to being in G.I. Joe was when they showed me the drawings of the character that I was going to get to play. I love the idea of just getting to play something way, way larger and huger than life. G.I. Joe is not layered or profound at all; it's just a big thrill ride."

Also a cause for excitement is Akira, a live action imagining of the influential 1988 Japanese manga, rumored to be co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The scripting was derailed at first because of the writer's strike and the possible actor's strike may delay it further, but it could have a late 2009/2010 release. Gordon-Levitt also was in talks to star in a romantic comedy titled The Frog King, but as of this writing the project is not in production.

From a kid shilling toaster pastries to wearing a hooded mask in next summer's largest spectacle, with all of his gritty, spirited roles in between, Gordon Levitt has continually been acclaimed one of America's best young actors. At 27, and with an unconventional head on his shoulders, it's only expected of him to produce more films of the ilk for many years to come.

The Prezzies' Top 5 Joseph Gordon-Levitt Performances
1. Brick
2. The Lookout
3. Manic
4. Stop-Loss
5. Angels In The Outfield