Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Roberts is an Academy Award nominee for his role in Runaway Train, and a three-time Golden Globe nominee for Runaway Train, Star 80, and King of the Gypsies.



In addition, Roberts received acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival for his role in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and It's My Party. He also starred in La Cucaracha, which won Best Film at the Austin Film Festival, and for which Roberts won Best Actor at the New York Independent Film Festival that same year. Other notable performances include his roles in The Dark Knight, Final Analysis, and Paul Thoman Anderson's Inherent Vice for Warner Bros., Millennium Films' Lovelace and The Expendables for Lionsgate.



On television, Roberts' memorable recurring roles include USA's Suits, CSI and Code Black for CBS, NBC's Heroes, and Crash for Starz. He has appeared in guest star roles on ABC's Greys Anatomy, NBC's Will & Grace, Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, CBS' Hawaii Five-O, HBO's Entourage, and so much more.



Upcoming, Roberts plays Matt Dillon's doctor in Head Full of Honey, a Warner Bros. Germany production that is directed by Til Schweiger. Emily Mortimer and Nick Nolte also star. He also has a supporting role in the independent Hard Luck Love Song directed by Justin Corsbie. Roberts will play "Skip," a grizzled doorman whom offers advice to characters played by Michael Dorman and Sophia Bush. The film also stars Dermott Mulroney, and American rapper, RZA. Finally, Roberts is set to recur as DEA boss "Erick Sheldon" in La Reina del Sur for Telemundo Global Studio and Netflix.



Roberts was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, and grew up in and around the Atlanta area. He began his career in theatre in New York City where he won the Theatre World Award for his role on Broadway in Burn This.



He resides in Los Angeles with his wife of 26 years and brood of felines.



Roberts is represented by Sovereign Talent Group, Cultivate Entertainment, and Miles Anthony Associates in the UK.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (3)

Frequently plays villains



Gravelly smoke burnished voice



Hollywood Legend



Trivia (38)

In 1981, he was seriously injured in a car accident and spent three days in a coma.





He became a father for the 1st time at age 34 when his [now ex] girlfriend Kelly Cunningham gave birth to their daughter Emma Rose Roberts, aka Emma Roberts , on February 10, 1991.

He attended Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia.



His left hand ring finger is permanently disfigured, as a result of a 1980s car accident.





He has a niece named Hazel Moder (aka Hazel Patricia Moder) and nephews Finn Moder (aka Phinnaeus Walter Moder) and Henry Daniel Moder.



Some of Eric Roberts' boxing moves were once choreographed by actor Danny Trejo



He was listed as a potential nominee on the 2008 Razzie Award nominating ballot. He was suggested in the Worst Supporting Actor category for his performance in the film DOA: Dead or Alive (2006), he failed to receive a nomination however.



As a child he was inspired to become an actor after watching Robert Donat 's performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).

He was trained in Tae Kwon Do and Jujitsu for a short time.



To date, he has filmed movies in over 17 countries (2010).





He is good friends with Stone Cold Steve Austin



From 1980 to 1985, he lived with Sandy Dennis



Roberts and his stepson Keaton Simons had not spoken to each other for 16 years following a violent argument. They reunited in 2010 on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (2008). He entered the reality TV rehabilitation clinic in an attempt to combat a marijuana addiction.



From playing the Master in Doctor Who (1996), which was failed attempt to relaunch Doctor Who (1963) as an ongoing series (it was a ratings hit in the UK but flopped in America), he nevertheless achieved a unique place in the history of the series for several reasons. He is the only non-British actor to play the Master, the only Oscar-nominated actor to play the Master and the only actor to play a villain in both the Batman and Doctor Who franchises.

The only actor to play a villain in both the Batman and Doctor Who franchises.





He played the villain in the music video for Mr. Brightside by The Killers

He quit drinking alcohol in 1995.





He was nominated for "Best Supporting Actor" in Abstraction (2013) at the 2013 Action On Film International Film Festival.

He has English, German, Swedish, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry.



He has played a Cop in the music video B... Better have my money from the singer Rihanna.(2015).



He and his wife have five cats. One of them is blind.



In film Blood Red (1989) with his sister Julia.



He came to fame with the film The King of the Gypsies (1978).



Is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do & is also a practitioner of Shotokan, Kyokushin, Hapkido & Shaolin Kung Fu.



Was Janet Tamaro's original choice for the role of Vince Korsak in Rizzoli & Isles (2010) but declined & the role was given to Bruce McGill instead.



Alumnus of the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Class of 1977.



He is a vegan and Animal Rights activist.



Personal Quotes (21)

I do like the idea of putting something comical into an intense drama, and being intense in absurd circumstances within a comedy.



My life is going to kill me. We all get angry when we realize that. But the anger is fear.



I've had people say to me, "It's such a shame what happened to your career." I just smile and say I've had a blast. I really have.





I had a perfect track record up to Rude Awakening (1989). Then the track record goes bumpy, then it goes bad and I'm ruining myself with B movies. I've done a lot of shit. But I have reinstated myself.



This past 15 years, I made 120 movies, and I probably haven't seen 60 of them. But I've had a great time. I also don't have to die for my work anymore. I have never been more miserable or unhappy as when I shot Star 80 (1983) - as a person, just because of where I had to go every day. [2008]

I'm not going to be the next thing. I don't have hope, I just have patience. [2008]





[on working with Sterling Hayden on King of the Gypsies (1978)] It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life because it became a relationship. We became very good friends, and we stayed friends right up until his death. Sterling was just a winner as a human being. He loved you if you were whatever you were. And if you pretended to be whatever you were, he had nothing for you. I'd already been shooting on the film for about three weeks, and we went into night shoots in the fourth week. My first night working with him was his first day on the film. I'm in my trailer and I get a knock on the door and the second assistant director says, "Mr Hayden would like to meet you and talk to you about the scene tonight." I'm like, "Cool! I can't wait!" So I go over to his trailer and knock on the door, and I hear him say, "Come in, come in!" I open the door and - whoosh! - big cloud of hashish! He says, "Have a seat, young man!" I have a seat. He asks me if I want to get high. I say, "No, because I can't talk when I get high and I have to act tonight." He goes, "Okay, okay. So let's talk about what we're doing tonight! What are we shooting?" I said, "That would be scene 87, sir." He goes, "Oh I know the number. But what the fuck happens?" And it's a very pivotal scene. I've run away, and he comes and nabs me off the street and takes me home, blah, blah, blah. It's a big-deal scene. So I told him that and he goes, "How are you at improvisation, young man?" I said, "I'm okay with it." He said, "Okay, 'cause that's what we're doing tonight." So all our stuff together is all improv, and it's all extraordinary, because he was extraordinary.



[on Star 80 (1983)] I discovered what I thought was the core of his ( Paul Snider ) kind of energy, by my talking with people who liked, and also disliked, him. Also, through photographs - how he stood, whether his shoulders were up or down, and stuff like that. Small stuff, which I could see through pictures of when he was at the Playboy Mansion. I realized that he was wound very tightly, and he was very self-conscious, and he was very....from another era, almost. Once I got that, that was the core of his physicality, I just had to find his morality. And once I had that, I had this very pathetic man, and I popped him out there. I went to a screening at a regular movie theatre and I was on my way out and, of course, everybody knew who I was, because I didn't look that different in the movie, and somebody said, "God, what an awful man!" It was such an awful story that people got me confused with the character. It was a bomb in movie theaters because it was so dark and so real. Bob Fosse was one of the greatest filmmakers ever and he made everybody who watched the movie have to go through that experience, and it was hard. Obviously it was a big loss financially because it should've been a mega-hit, but it was ahead of its time. It has since become a cult classic so I am satisfied by that, but Bob Fosse never saw that. He died. And I love him like I love my life. He became my second father, and he was great to me. We had a great relationship, and we spent a lot of time on the road together, doing press, and we bonded.



[on The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)] The greatest acting experience of my life, as far as character work. I took every chance an actor could, and I think I made him work. I'm very proud of that piece. Mickey Rourke and I became lifelong friends. I love him. It was probably the most fun I've ever had playing a character... Yeah, they offered me that part. After Tennessee Williams died, I was in Hartford doing a production of The Glass Menagerie, playing Tom Wingfield, and I get this script called The Pope Of Greenwich Village, based on the book. I read it, and... my character was a tough guy. He's a not-too-smart, not-too-educated tough guy. A badass. You don't want to mess with him, because he wasn't very smart, and he might hit you. And I realize, "Hmm, that character has been portrayed like that in a thousand movies. I've done it five times already myself! I have to approach it differently." Since I was up there doing the play, I had lots of time to think about it, lots of time to read and re-read it, and I finally realized, "Ah, here's what I'll do! I'll play a mama's boy who wants to be a tough guy but isn't." So I used all the same dialogue. I didn't change any of the dialogue. I just changed how he dressed, how he looked, how he talked, and how he walked. And I permed my hair and lost 30 pounds, so I'd be a string-bean walking spaz attack. And the result was one of the most satisfying experiences of my career.



[on The Ambulance (1990)] That was... I put myself in Larry Cohen's hands for that, because I liked the script. It was kind of like The Whole Truth, actually, because I said, "Since this is kind of an action-comedy, I need you to guide me. And I'm gonna do what you tell me and how you tell me to do it, so if there are any mistakes, they're gonna be yours." And he goes, "Okay, here we go!" So he just told me what he wanted, where he wanted it, and how he wanted it, and we had a great time making that movie. That movie was a huge hit in France. It made a lot of money in France. It, uh, didn't do well in the U.S., though. Not until it had been out on DVD for about five years, at which point it became kind of a cult classic.



[on The Specialist (1994)] That was just pure, unadulterated fun. I got to play a badass, I got to work with Rod Steiger as my father, I got to work with Sylvester Stallone , and it was really cool. Sly says to me one day, "Hey, Eric, I realized we don't have a scene together in this!" I say, "Yeah." He says, "Okay, I'm gonna write a scene. How 'bout this? It's gonna be a scene about a knife. You're gonna put a knife to my eye." I said, "Cool, dude!" He wrote that scene overnight, and we shot it the next day, just out of the blue. It was just... I mean, who wouldn't want to have a scene written by Rocky with Rocky right there? And that's what happened. I was in heaven.



[2013, on The Dark Knight (2008)] That was a dream come true. I'm the only actor in that movie who's in a main part who had to audition. I auditioned for Chris Nolan, and then two months later I get a call. I thought I didn't get the part, 'cause it took two months to hear from him, but he calls me and tells me he wants me in his movie, and it was a dream come true. I got to work at Pinewood Studios, which I'd always wanted to go to, and we shot the exteriors in Chicago. It was just such a groovy experience. Gary Oldman and I are old, dear friends, and I love him dearly. He's one of my three favorite actors in this planet. I just love him.



[2013, on Best of the Best trilogy] That was maybe the most fun physically I've ever had making movies. It was like boys' camp. I got to go work out the body at the gym every morning, then you'd go do the goju and get ready for the moves of the day, and then you'd go to the set and shoot a karate movie. It ended up being a wonderful movie about triumph. And I'm very proud of that first film, Best of the Best (1989). It's a really good movie... The only thing I was really sad about was Best Of The Best 3 and 4. They're like home movies. They're really bad. We had a really good franchise going. I would've loved to have stayed with the kind of quality we had on the first film... and a little bit on the second film. I wish we could've stayed up there.



[2013, on Sharktopus (2010)] I was offered that script, and from the title alone, I said, "I'm not even gonna read it. Are you kidding?" And they said, "But you said you always wanted to work for this man ( Roger Corman )!" And I said, "Yes, but I'm not gonna make something quite this bad!" And then he called me, and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse and, believe me, it was not money. He does not give money. Corman said to me, "How many friends do you have?" I said, "I dunno, half a dozen." "How many family members do you got?" "I don't know, 10." "Okay, they can all bring a friend, and they can all stay in Puerto Vallarta while you make this movie for a month. Everybody's free while you're down there working." So I brought everybody I ever met, everybody I've ever been related to, and we all had a great time in Puerto Vallarta while I made a bad movie. That's the long and short of it.



[on Star 80 (1983)] That was the most difficult experience of my acting life. I went out for that part because Bob Fosse and Hal Ashby were my idols, so I really went after that because I wanted to work with Bob Fosse. And after half a dozen auditions, he says to me, "Will you walk around the room for me?" So I walked around the room. I said, "What's up with that?" He said, "I was told you were a cripple." I said, "Who would've told you that?" He goes, "Well, I heard that's why you dropped out of the Broadway production of Mass Appeal you were doing." I said, "No, I dropped out because of artistic differences." He said, "Oh, well, they're saying you're a cripple. Since you're not, though, you wanna play this part?" "Yeah, dude!" So after six auditions and a walk around the room to apparently prove I could walk, he gave me that part. And it was probably the hardest, most intense, most emotional, most strenuous, most satisfying experience of my life.



Heaven's Prisoners (1996) was probably one of the best location shoots I've ever had because it was down in New Orleans, and we were down there for probably 10 or 12 weeks, and it was just a blast. Oh, and one little story that people might like: It was my first night there, I wasn't shooting but I was on the set to say hello to Phil Joanou , our director. Alec (Baldwin) had this scene where he had to jump into the water-pond, really-and swim across it. They're getting ready, they're all set up, Phil says, "Here we go! Alec, you ready?" "Yeah!" And suddenly alligator eyes appear on the water. Everybody freezes. "There's a gator! Oh, my God!" Alec says, "It's cool. I'm going in." The stuntman goes, "You're not going in!" Alec says, "Roll the camera!" They roll the camera, Alec jumps in, crosses the pond, gets out. "Okay, we got the shot?" And we moved on. I couldn't believe it. He's got the balls of a dinosaur, dude. It was wild. True story! He really did that. It was cool!



[2013, on Entourage (2004)] Well, you know, I played myself only by name. That's hardly me. And I've never sold mushrooms. But how I got on Entourage is a great story. I loved that show, and I watched that show, and after about the fourth time I heard them say my name on the show, I called my lawyer, who handles all those writers, and I said, "If they're gonna talk about me all the time, have them write me in the show!" And he called back in five minutes and said, "They want you on the show! But there's one hitch." "What?" "Will you sell mushrooms?" "That's not a hitch! I'll sell mushrooms!" So that's how it came about.



[on It's My Party (1996)] The performance was heralded, which was certainly great, but the movie wasn't a big-enough hit for my tastes. I thought It's My Party was what Philadelphia (1993) should've been. Now, that's not positive-sounding, I realize, and I'm not knocking down Philadelphia. I am, however, saying that It's My Party is better than Philadelphia, in that... it doesn't deal with the issue in a drastic visual way, like with sores on my skin. It deals with the issue emotionally, and it deals with it in a way that everyone can relate to and everybody can understand. You know, we're only here once, and we're only here for a minute, and if you have to go, you might as well celebrate it. I was so proud to be in that movie because of all the great actors in the cast. I mean, Lee Grant playing my mother? Oh, my God, she was perfect. As an actor, for me to have her play my mother, that was an event. And for her to be brilliant playing my mother, it was a gift. And I will love her 'til my last breath.



[2013, on making Cecil B. Demented (2000)] Well, that was just having fun as an actor. That's all that was... You know, it was not weird, weirdly enough. It was very cut and dried, very 9 to 5 and "let's go to work and knock it out." It was not very odd or peculiar or even particularly unique. It was a day's work, but it was a blast.