Successfully shifted himself from an accomplished comedic performer to a respected Hollywood actor, Eric Bana has certainly made an achievement that few other thespians could hardly match. A unique blend of German and Croatian origin who was born on August 9, 1968 in Melbourne, Australia with the name Eric Banadinovich, this dark-haired guy had shown his interest in performing at a young age as he really enjoyed entertaining either his friends and family with impressions and jokes. Even so, the thought of turning this hobby to a professional career did not really come to his mind until he was persuaded to try stand-up comedy while working as a barman at Melbourne's Castle Hotel in 1991. From this point, he gradually flourished a deep fondness in acting and since then began to look for a way to establish a good career in entertainment industry.

Luckily, Eric did not have to wait long enough to encounter a promising opportunity for he later was offered to join Australia's popular TV comedy sketch, "Full Frontal" (1993), after he satisfyingly made his way to appear in "Tonight Live with Steve Vizard" (1990-1993). Already garnered numerous experience by the time he left the program in 1996, this tall actor recklessly created his own solo special entitled "Eric" in the same year, followed by "The Eric Bana Show Live" (1997) which he also wrote and produced just like his previous show. Although it was not extended to the second season, Eric had delightfully gained sufficient attention that needed to see himself landing a film role in "The Castle" (1997) then in "Chopper" (2000), a biopic of Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read, one of the most notorious criminals in the country.

The decision to give him that part was such a daring risk since it was really doubtful to let a comedian portrays the title character of a drama feature, even its director, Andrew Dominik, had formerly opposed this idea. However, Eric brilliantly displayed a convincing enactment in this picture through both his transformed physical appearance and fine acting skills, leading him to receive huge praise from either critics or audience, including Roger Ebert who lauded him for his top-notch performing quality. This subsequently propelled him to widespread recognition that enabled him to enter Hollywood film industry, earning a major part in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" (2001) which amazingly became a box office hit as it managed to collect nearly 173 million U.S. dollar worldwide.

Looking on this great result, many assumed that Eric would prefer to keep being involved in Hollywood productions, but he humbly returned to his homeland to film "The Nugget" (2002) though there was an offer to be the lead role in Rob Cohen's "XXX" (2002). Back to U.S., this brown-eyed hunk wonderfully continued to score success with "Hulk" (2003) and "Troy" (2004) when both collected tremendous domestic income of more than $132 million. Next starred alongside Daniel Craig and Geoffrey Rush in Steven Spielberg's ambitious project of "Munich" (2005), he proceeded to hone his craft, this time in drama genre through "Lucky You" also "Romulus, My Father", both released in 2007.

Hectic schedule kept marking Eric's path in Hollywood film industry afterwards as he got busily attached to at least four film productions slated to come up in 2008, all would see him enact different role each. In "The Time Traveler's Wife", he becomes a dashing librarian afflicted with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel while "The Other Boleyn Girl" finds him filling in the role of King Henry VIII, whose love the Boleyn sisters are competing to gain. Drastic turn was made in hugely-anticipated sci-fi flick "Star Trek" for he decides to go antagonistic by playing a character named Nero before going in action in crime thriller "Factor X" alongside Terrence Howard. Concerning his private life, Eric has been happily married since 1997 to a former publicist named Rebecca Gleeson who then gave him two lovely children, Klaus and Sophie, born in August 1999 and April 2002, respectively.