Anton Eelchin

Date of Birth

11 March 1989, Leningrad, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]

Birth Name

Anton Viktorovich Yelchin

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

Anton Yelchin is an American actor best known for starring as Bobby Garfield opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), and as Tommy opposite Robin Williams in the House of D (2004).

He was born Anton Viktorovich Yelchin on March 11, 1989, in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, Soviet Union. His father, Viktor Yelchin, and his mother, Irina, were a successful pair of professional figure-skaters in Leningrad, and his grandfather was also a professional sportsman, a soccer player. Yelchin was only a 6-month-old baby when he emigrated to the United States, where his parents eventually developed coaching careers.

Young Anton Yelchin demonstrated his strong personality from the early age of 4, he declined his parent's tutelage in figure skating, because he was fond of acting, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do in his life. Since his school years, he attended acting class in Los Angeles, and eventually he was noticed by casting agents. In 2000, at the age of 10, Yelchin made his debut on television, appearing as Robbie Edelstein in _ER: Be Still My Heart (2000 TV episode)_.

At the age of 11, Yelchin shot to fame as Bobby Garfield co-starring opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), and earning himself the 2002 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film as Leading Young Actor. Over the course of his short acting career, he already played roles in more than twenty feature films and television productions. He is billed as Pavel Chekov in the latest installment of the 'Star Trek' franchise, Star Trek (2009).

Outside of his acting profession, Anton Yelchin loves reading, he is also fond of playing chess. He writes music and performs with a band where he also plays piano and guitar. He is living in Los Angeles, California.

Career

Yelchin began acting at the age of nine, in the independent film A Man is Mostly Water. His earliest roles include Jackson in A Time for Dancing, Milo in Delivering Milo, Tommy Warshaw in House of D, and "Jacob Clarke" in the miniseriesTaken. He made a guest appearance as Stewart, Cheryl David's nephew and a self-described magician(who only knows one card trick), in a season four episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and starred as Byrd Huffstodt, the fourteen year-old son of Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt( Hank Azaria) on the television series Huff, which ran from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, he also had a role on an episode ("Tru Love") of the series Law & Order:Crimical Intent, playing a boy who falls in love with his teacher, based on the real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau. His biggest film recognition came for the role of Bobby Garfield in Hearts in Atlantis(2001), for which he won Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor at the 2002 Young Artist Awards. He also appeared in the Criminal Minds episode "Sex, Birth & Death" as Nathan Harris, a boy who has fantasies about killing prostitutes.

In 2007, Yelchin starred in Alpha Dog, a crime thriller that received a U.S. release on January 12. In the film, he played Zack Mazursky, who is based on real-life kidnap and murder victim Nicholas Markowitz. USA Today's review described the performance as "heartbreakingly endearing".. After the premiere, Markowitz's mother praised his portrayal of her son. Yelchin felt awkward appearing in the swimming

pool-set sexual scene in the film, specifying that he felt "uncomfortable" for his co-stars and that he could not "imagine enjoying it or taking pleasure" in filming the scene. Fierce people, a drama co-starring Yelchin, Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland, received a limited release on September 7 of that year. Charlie Bartlett, in which Yelchin plays the title role of a wealthy teenager in a public High school, was released on February 22, 2008. Yelchin next appeared alongside the Russian Duo t.A.T.u. winners of the Best Duo and Best Pop Group of the World Music Awards in the movie You and I, which was filmed in Moscow during the summer of 2007, Middle of Nowhere, opposite Susan Sarandon andJustin Chatwin, and the eleventh Star Trek film, in which he portrayed the 17-year old navigator pavel Chekov. In February 2008, he was cast as a teenage Kyle Reese inTerminator Salvation. Yelchin will portray Charley Brewster in the remake of Night,Fright which is directed by Craig Gillespie.