“At my signal, unleash Hell”: with this phrase Russel Crowe consigned General Massimo Decimo Meridio to the history of Rome in the famous 2000 film directed by Ridley Scott. A role that not only gave him fame and popularity, but which in 2001 also gave him the Oscar for best leading actor (5 collected by the film).
The quote, also taken up today in the form of a “meme”, is used in the film to urge the Roman army to fight before the start of the battle against the Germanic enemies.
In the memory of those who have seen the film, there remains an extraordinary face, his, which even without doing anything remains imprinted on you, that of an actor considered among the best on an international level.
Sign Aries, height 1.82 m, Russel Crowe – massive physique only a little heavy with age – will turn 60 tomorrow. An important milestone in a life marked by success: son of Alex and Jocelyn, catering service workers on film sets, the star was born on 7 April 1964 in Strathmore Park, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. The maternal great-grandmother was Maori (Polynesian people, widespread mainly in the north of New Zealand), while the grandfather – Stanley Wemyss – was a film operator of Welsh origins who, during the Second World War, was awarded the honor of Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth, for services rendered to her country.
Married in 2003 to the Australian singer Danielle Spencer, from whom he divorced in 2018, Russel has two children with his wife: Tennyson Spencer and Charles Spencer.
His long and successful film career has won 5 awards and 12 nominations in 33 years: in addition to 'Gladiator', fans remember films such as 'American Gangster', an 'Excellent Year', 'A Beautiful Mind', just to name a few.
With his usual skill and friendliness, Russel Crowe – also a lover of rock music – reappeared this year in Sanremo with his band «The Gentlemen Barbers» and next July 30th, after various dates around Italy – 15 in total in places of great beauty, from the Aosta Valley to Sicily – he is expected at the 56th La Spezia Jazz Festival.
A strong bond, that of the actor with Italy, also due to the blood that flows in his veins and which would bear traces of Italian DNA, dating back to an ancestor from Ascoli Piceno.
So Russel Crowe is originally from Ascoli? «I already knew it, because he told me while speaking a couple of years ago – Luca Ward, the voice actor of Gladiator, the film that made the actor famous, recalled in a recent interview with «Il Resto del Carlino» – when he told me, I replied: “Russell, of course you're from Ascoli, otherwise you couldn't have done the gladiator.”