Ryan Reynolds

Early life

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976, in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father, James Chester "Jim" Reynolds (1941–2015), was a food wholesaler, and his mother, Tammy, a retail salesperson. He is of Irish ancestry and was raised as a Roman Catholic. The youngest of four brothers, he graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver in 1994. He attended Kwantlen Polytechnic University, also in Vancouver, until dropping out. Two of his elder brothers work as police officers in British Columbia, one of whom is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police member.

1991–2004

Reynolds' career began in 1991, when he starred as Billy Simpson in the Canadian-produced teen soap Hillside, distributed in the United States by Nickelodeon as Fifteen. In 1996, he co-starred with Melissa Joan Hart in the TV movie Sabrina the Teenage Witch. As an adult, Reynolds starred in the American television series Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place, playing medical student Michael "Berg" Bergen, and in the National Lampoon movie Van Wilder. In 1993–94 he had a recurring role in The Odyssey as Macro. He also cameoed in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle as a nurse, appeared in The In-Laws with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, as well as in the Canadian production Foolproof.

2005–2015

In 2005, he played a waiter named Monty in Waiting..., and as music executive Chris Brander in the romantic comedy Just Friends alongside Amy Smart and Anna Faris. Reynolds played the protagonist in the 2008 film Definitely, Maybe. He has also appeared in the second season finale of the television series Scrubs. In 2007, Reynolds guest-starred as Brendan's friend Hams in the episode "Douchebag in the City" of the TBS sitcom My Boys. In 2009, he portrayed Andrew Paxton, starring opposite Sandra Bullock, in The Proposal, and Mike Connell in Adventureland.

Although he has performed primarily in comedies, Reynolds underwent intense physical training to play an action role as the character of Hannibal King in the 2004 film Blade: Trinity. Reynolds played George Lutz in the 2005 remake of the 1979 horror film The Amityville Horror. Additionally, he played an FBI agent alongside Ray Liotta in the 2006 crime action film Smokin' Aces.

In a March 2005 interview, Reynolds spoke of his interest and involvement in a possible film adaptation of Deadpool with screenwriter David S. Goyer, as well as the possibility of playing the incarnation of The Flash known as Wally West in an adaption of the popular DC Comics character in an upcoming movie project. Reynolds portrayed Wade Wilson / Weapon XI in a supporting role in the prequel X-Men film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009); a role that he would later reprise in a spin-off feature film based on the character released in 2016.

In 2010, Reynolds starred in the Spanish and American thriller Buried, which screened at the Sundance film festival. In June 2010, Reynolds was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Reynolds portrayed the Hal Jordan version of superhero Green Lantern in Warner Bros.' film Green Lantern, released on June 17, 2011 in 3D. Though the film didn't fare well both financially and critically, this role made him one of the few actors to headline in films based on both Marvel and DC characters. In 2011 he co-starred in the comedy, The Change-Up, as well as being the narrator for the documentary film The Whale. In 2012, he portrayed an agent in Safe House, alongside Denzel Washington. He then had starring roles in two Dreamworks Animation feature films; The Croods and Turbo, both released in 2013. His next role was in portraying Nick Walker in the Universal Pictures film adaptation of Dark Horse Comics' R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department), which was released in 2013. Reynolds went on to star in low-budget films, The Voices (2014), The Captive (2014), and Mississippi Grind (2015); before having a supporting role in the financially successful biographical film, Woman in Gold (2015). Reynolds returned to the thriller genre with Self/Less (2015) where he played a dual role (something he had done before in his career).

2016–present

In 2016, Reynolds found critical and commercial success with Deadpool, a movie that had been in development as early as 2000. After portraying Wade Wilson / Weapon XI, without the name Deadpool, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he became heavily involved in the development of a Deadpool film. Deadpool featured a reboot of the character, ignoring the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and establishing a new backstory for the character that was closer to the Marvel Comics source material. The film takes place within the larger X-Men film universe, being made possible by the reset timeline in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Deadpool made several box-office records, including: a worldwide opening of $264.9 million from 62 markets, which is the biggest of 2016, the biggest for an R-rated film, and the second biggest for Fox, only behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith ($303.9 million). It also recorded the biggest IMAX 2D worldwide opening of all time with $27.4 million from 606 IMAX theatres, eclipsing The Dark Knight Rises ($23.8 million). The film's financial and critical success led the studio to move forward with a sequel. Also that year, Reynolds had a supporting role in the Ariel Vromen-directed thriller Criminal.

On December 15, 2016, Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard. Reynolds co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson in the science fiction thriller Life (2017), which reunited him with Safe House director Daniel Espinosa.

Reynolds began filming Deadpool 2 in June 2017, which is set to premiere June 1, 2018.

In the media

In October 2008, Reynolds wrote for The Huffington Post regarding his plan to run the New York City Marathon for his father who, at the time, suffered from Parkinson's disease. Reynolds appeared in People's Sexiest Man Alive lists in 2008 and 2009, and was awarded the top honour in 2010.

On February 12, 2012, Reynolds appeared on the BBC's Top Gear as the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car. He posted a time of 1:43.7.

Personal life

In 2002, Reynolds began dating Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. They announced their engagement in June 2004. In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had mutually decided to end their engagement. Morissette said her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the break-up. The song "Torch" was written about Reynolds.

Soon after the end of his relationship with Morissette in 2007, Reynolds began dating American actress Scarlett Johansson. The couple announced their engagement in May 2008, and married on September 27, 2008, in a quiet ceremony near Tofino, British Columbia. On December 14, 2010, Reynolds and Johansson announced that they had separated. Reynolds filed for divorce in Los Angeles on December 23, 2010; Johansson filed her response simultaneously. The divorce was finalized on July 1, 2011.

Reynolds first met his Green Lantern co-star Blake Lively while filming in early 2010. In October 2011, Hollyscoop reported they were dating. The couple married on September 9, 2012, at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. They have two daughters: James (born 2014) and Ines (born 2016).