Born in South East London, Law attended a local comprehensive school
before later moving to a private school. He dropped out of school aged
17 to appear in the daytime soap Families (1990), thereafter he dedicated
himself mostly to the theatre. Law's film career began with the dismal
Shopping (1994), panned by critics on release; it was a clichéd
portrayal of youth alienation. Regarded as the archetypal pretty boy
actor, but with talent to boot, Law redeemed his reputation with an
acclaimed performance as 'Bosie' in Brian Gilbert's biopic Wilde
(1997).
Law then moved to Hollywood and made his first major impact opposite
Uma Thurman as alcoholic paraplegic Jerome in Gattaca (1997). He quickly
followed this with another fine performance in a sci-fi film, that of
Ted Pikul in David Cronenberg's offbeat eXistenZ (1999). Anthony
Minghella's box office hit The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) rocketed
Law to mainstream international stardom for his role as decadent playboy
Dickie Greenleaf. Along with Ewan McGregor,
Sean Pertwee, Jonny Lee Miller and Law's wife, Sadie Frost, they set
up the production company, Natural Nylon.
After appearing in the unexceptional British gangster flick Love,
Honour And Obey (2000), Law turned in an Oscar-nominated performance
as a gigolo robot in Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence
(2001), a project he'd inherited from the late Stanley
Kubrick. After this came Sam Mendes' Road To Perdition (2002).
