Gerard Butler

Gerard James Butler was in born 13 November 1969 in Paisley, Scotland, the youngest of three children of Margaret and Edward Butler, a bookie.  He was brought up in a strict Roman Catholic family.  Butler spent the first few years of his life in Montreal, Quebec,  before the family returned to live in Scotland. He studied law at the University of Glasgow, and became the president of the Law Society, a position Butler later said he "kind of blagged my way into".  Before his final year of law school, Butler took a year off to live in California. He mostly lived in Venice Beach, working at different jobs, traveling often, and, according to him, drinking heavily, at one point being arrested for alcohol-related disorderly conduct.  Butler later described this year as, "I was out of control, and justifying it with this idea that I'm young, this is life. This is me just being boisterous". After his time off in America, he returned to Scotland to finish his final year at university. After graduating, Butler got a job as a trainee lawyer, but was fired soon thereafter, which Butler later said made him "quite infamous in Scottish legal circles", due to the rarity of trainee lawyers being fired . A week before being fired, in 1995, Butler had been inspired to try acting, after seeing a stage production of Trai.

Gerard James Butler is a Scottish actor, who has appeared on film, stage, and television. A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in the American miniseries Attila (2001). He garnered critical acclaim for his breakthrough work as the lead in Joel Schumacher's 2004 film adaptation of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. In 2007, Butler gained worldwide recognition through his portrayal of King Leonidas in the film 300. Since then, he has appeared in projects including P.S. I Love You (2007), Nim's Island (2008), Rockn Rolla (2008), The Ugly Truth (2009), Gamer (2009), Law Abiding Citizen (2009), and The Bounty Hunter (2010), and How to Train Your Dragon (2010). He was recently in Belgrade filming Coriolanus.

In London, Butler held a series of odd jobs until being cast by actor and director Steven Berk off (who later appeared alongside him in Attila(2001)) in a stage production of Coriolanus. He was cast as Ewan Mc Gregor's character Renton in the stage adaptation of Trainspotting, the same play that had inspired him to become an actor. His film debut was as Billy Connolly's character's younger brother in Mrs. Brown (1997). In 2000, Butler was cast in two breakthrough roles, the first being Attila the Hun in USA film Attila (2001/I) (TV). The film's producers wanted a known actor to play the part but kept coming back to Butler's screen tests and decided he was their man. He was cast as Dracula in Dracula 2000 (2000). He then appeared in Reign of Fire (2002) as Creedy and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) as Terry Sheridan, alongside Angelina Jolie. In the role of Andre Marek in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel Timeline (2003), Butler played an archaeologist who was sent back in time with a team of students to rescue a colleague. Katherine Heigl. Gerard Butler has been in the news lately as the tabloid press started to speculation that he is dating The Bounty co-star actress Jennifer Aniston after pictures of them strolling on a beach were taken. On October 15 and 16, 2010, thanks to the popularity of his role as Spartan King Leonidas and the use of his lines during athletic events at Michigan State University, he was a guest at their Midnight Madness and homecoming football game, respectively.