Age, Biography and Wiki
Peter Sarsgaard, born John Peter Sarsgaard, is 54 years old. He was born in Belleville, Illinois, USA. Sarsgaard's career has been marked by significant roles in films like Shattered Glass, Kinsey, and Green Lantern. His performances have earned him numerous awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination and several critics' awards. For more details, his biography can be found on Wikipedia.
| Occupation | Stage Actor |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 7 March 1971 |
| Age | 54 Years |
| Birth Place | St. Clair County, Illinois, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Pisces |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Peter Sarsgaard stands at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 meters) tall. However, specific details about his weight and other measurements are not prominently available.
| Height | 5 feet 11 inches |
| Weight | |
| Body Measurements | |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Sarsgaard is married to actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, whom he wed in 2009. They have two daughters together, Ramona and Gloria Ray.
Clair County, Illinois, on March 7, 1971, the son of Judy Lea (née Reinhardt) and John Dale Sarsgaard. His father was an Air Force engineer and later worked for Monsanto and IBM. His surname originates in Denmark, where his paternal great-great-grandparents were born; it is pronounced in Danish.
Sarsgaard was raised a Catholic and served as an altar boy. His family moved more than 12 times during his childhood, following his father's job. At the age of 7, Sarsgaard originally wanted to become a soccer player and took up ballet to help improve his coordination. After suffering several concussions while playing soccer, he gave up the sport and became interested in writing and theater. He attended Fairfield College Preparatory School, a private Jesuit boys' school in Connecticut, where he became interested in film.
In 2009, Sarsgaard starred alongside Jon Foster and Sienna Miller in the drama The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. It is an adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel of the same name. In the movie, Sarsgaard plays Cleveland, the rebellious bisexual boyfriend of Miller's character. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. His next film appearance was in the thriller Orphan, where he and Vera Farmiga play a married couple who lose a baby and adopt a nine-year-old girl, who is not as innocent as she claims to be. Furthermore, in the same year, Sarsgaard starred as David in Lone Scherfig's coming of age film An Education. The role required Sarsgaard to speak in a British accent. An Education drew favorable reviews from critics. According to Variety, "Sarsgaard ... marvelously expresses the savoir faire that has such an impact on Jenny [Carey Mulligan]." Sarsgaard played Mikhail Lvovich Astrov, a country doctor and philosopher, in the Classic Stage Company's 2009 off-Broadway production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in New York City. The cast also included Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mamie Gummer, Denis O'Hare, and George Morfogen. The production, directed by Austin Pendleton, began previews on January 17 and ended its limited run on March 1. Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News gave the production one out of four stars, but complimented his performance, writing that Sarsgaard does a "credible job as the doctor". In the Bloomberg review of Uncle Vanya, John Simon, wrote: "Sarsgaard can't find the right tempi or emphases: shuttling between colorless rattle and silence-studded rallentandos, he fails at both infectious enthusiasm and self-effacing charm."
Sarsgaard played a federal agent in the action comedy film Knight and Day, released in June 2010, in which he appeared alongside Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. In May 2010, it was reported that Sarsgaard would star in Chekhov's play Three Sisters. The production began in January 2011, and Sarsgaard was reunited with Uncle Vanya director Austin Pendleton. In February 2010, it was announced that Sarsgaard had been cast as villain Hector Hammond in the superhero film Green Lantern. The film was released in 2011. He played a supporting role in Woody Allen's drama Blue Jasmine (2013). Sarsgaard also appeared in the American TV series The Killing (2013) as a man on death row perhaps wrongfully convicted for the brutal murder of his wife, a performance which he said included "some of the best acting I have ever done in my life." Sarsgaard appeared in a 2015 Classic Stage Company production of Hamlet in the title role. He portrayed Robert F. Kennedy in Pablo Larraín's Jackie (2016).
Sarsgaard then took a role as Martin Schmidt in the Hulu limited series The Looming Tower (2018), earning a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries. He returned to television in another Hulu miniseries Dopesick (2021) playing Rick Mountcastle, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nomination. Sarsgaard appeared in The Lost Daughter (2021), directed by his wife Maggie Gyllenhaal, and the following year played the role of District Attorney Gil Colson in The Batman (2022). In 2023, he starred opposite Jessica Chastain in the Michel Franco film Memory which premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. Sarsgaard portrayed a man riddled with dementia. He stated, "A lot of time when we see dementia in movies, it's the most extreme stage at the very end and it paralyses us all with fear, and I really didn't want to depict that." For his performance he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor.
Sarsgaard began a romantic relationship with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, the sister of his close friend Jake Gyllenhaal, in 2002. In April 2006, they announced their engagement, and on May 2, 2009, they married in a small ceremony in Brindisi, Italy. They have two daughters, born in October 2006 and April 2012.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Maggie Gyllenhaal (m. 2009) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Peter Sarsgaard's net worth is not explicitly stated in the search results, but his income comes from his successful film and television career. He has appeared in numerous films and series, contributing significantly to his earnings.
Career, Business and Investments
Sarsgaard's career spans over two decades, with notable roles in Shattered Glass (2003), Kinsey (2004), Garden State (2004), and The Looming Tower (2018). He has also appeared in television series like The Killing and Wormwood. There is no specific mention of his business or investment ventures beyond his acting career.
2003 marked a significant turning point in Sarsgaard's career when he starred in the feature film Shattered Glass. He depicted journalist Charles Lane, the lead editor of The New Republic. Shattered Glass is based on the real events of journalist Stephen Glass' career at The New Republic during the mid-1990s and his fall when his widespread journalistic fraud is exposed. During the film's promotion, Sarsgaard noted his portrayal of Lane: "I just wanted to get his perspective on the actual events. [...] I think that I tried to have some respect for myself and that way you're respecting the real person you're playing. I've done it a number of times. And it's always a little bit confusing. The best thing to do is just to ignore the fact, I think, that you're playing somebody who is a real-life character." According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Peter Sarsgaard is appealingly level, a stolid straight-shooter as Lane". A reviewer from the Chicago Tribune noted that Sarsgaard plays Lane with "great subtlety and grace". The newspaper concluded with, "The character doesn't seethe with personal resentment; when he does a slow burn, he conveys a much deeper sense of a man's value system being violated past the breaking point." Sarsgaard's performance in the film earned him his first Golden Globe Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Sarsgaard hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) on January 21, 2006. In his introductory monolog, he tried to point out that he was a nice guy despite his sometimes macabre roles. Video clips were then played of Sarsgaard scaring the SNL cast. One sketch featured the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) global scare, which was still fresh in many minds, and one of the skits included a promotion for the Peter Sarsgaard "SARS-Guard", a reference to facemasks.
Among his most notable romantic relationships, Sarsgaard dated burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese and model and actress Shalom Harlow. Early in his film career, he dated photographer Malerie Marder, a close friend from his days attending Bard College, who had featured Sarsgaard in some of her early work.
Social Network
While Sarsgaard's personal social media presence is not detailed, he is well-known for his work in the entertainment industry, which often involves social media engagement through his projects and public appearances.
In 1999, Sarsgaard earned critical recognition in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry, where he was cast as notorious killer John Lotter. The film is based on the real-life story of Brandon Teena, who was raped and murdered in 1993 by Lotter and Tom Nissen after they found out that he was a trans man. Boys Don't Cry received overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics, and his performance was critically well received. According to The Boston Globe, "Peter Sarsgaard ... makes the killer's terrible trajectory not only believable, but grounded in the most mundane clodhopper behavior. He isn't a drooling monster, he's a guy you wouldn't look twice at a bar or a convenience store." A contributor from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote "It's a marvelous performance supported ably by ... Sarsgaard as the unpredictable, sociopathic Lotter." The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. In regards to his character, as how Sarsgaard made him "likeable, sympathetic even" was because he wanted the audience "to understand why they would hang out with me. If my character wasn't necessarily likable, I wanted him to be charismatic enough that you weren't going to have a dull time if you were with him." In another interview, Sarsgaard said he felt "empowered" by playing Lotter.
His first leading role was in the 2001 feature The Center of the World, where he plays Richard Longman, a lonely young entrepreneur who skips out on his company's big initial public offering and pays a stripper (Molly Parker) $10,000 to fly to Las Vegas with him. The film received average reviews, however, A.O. Scott of the New York Times, reported that the performances by both Sarsgaard and Parker "provide a rough grain of authenticity, capturing the blunted affect and aimless neediness of people in their 20s struggling to navigate a world of material abundance and impoverished emotional possibility." Scott concluded in his recap that Sarsgaard made his character "seem like a genuinely nice guy, too innocent to grasp the sleaziness of his bargain with Florence."
Following the success of Shattered Glass, Sarsgaard starred in several roles. In 2004, he starred in the comedy-drama Garden State, where he played Mark, the sarcastic best friend to Zach Braff's character. In the same year, Sarsgaard portrayed Clyde Martin, in the biographical film Kinsey, a movie about the life of Alfred Kinsey, played by Liam Neeson. Kinsey was Sarsgaard's first film role which featured full frontal nudity. Paul Clinton of CNN reported that Sarsgaard's Clyde Martin "stands out" and "confirms that he's without doubt one of the best character actors of his generation." When asked about his kissing scenes with Neeson in Kinsey, Sarsgaard said: It wasn't as hard as, say, running around with all my gear on in Jarhead. I'd rather go for an awkward moment than physical exertion any day. The only thing that I think [male actors] get freaked out about when they have to do something like kiss a guy in a movie—when to their knowledge they're straight—is that they're afraid they're going to be turned on. And if you're not afraid that you're going to be turned on—meaning that you know what you like—then really it's not that hard.
In 2005, Sarsgaard starred in the drama The Dying Gaul, where he plays Robert Sandrich, a struggling screenwriter who has written a serious love story about a man and his terminally ill partner. The film received favorable reviews. In an interview, Sarsgaard said, he felt like he was playing a character based on Craig Lucas, the director, whom he describes as "elitist in a fun way". Because his character, a screenwriter, is also "elitist," when he sells his soul by compromising his artistic vision, "...the conflict seems bigger. Anyone can sell their soul. Even people with integrity. There's always that temptation to guard against. Which is why it's best to keep as much as possible hidden."
In an interview with The New York Times, Sarsgaard stated that he followed Catholicism, saying: "I like the death-cult aspect of Catholicism. Every religion is interested in death, but Catholicism takes it to a particularly high level. [...] Seriously, in Catholicism, you're supposed to love your enemy. That really impressed me as a kid, and it has helped me as an actor. [...] The way that I view the characters I play is part of my religious upbringing. To abandon curiosity in all personalities, good or bad, is to give up hope in humanity."
Education
Sarsgaard attended Bard College at Simon's Rock in Massachusetts and later transferred to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history and literature.
Overall, Peter Sarsgaard's career demonstrates his talent and versatility as an actor, contributing to his net worth through his extensive work in film and television.
Sarsgaard has acted in films, such as Garden State, Kinsey (both 2004), Jarhead, Flightplan (both 2005), Elegy (2008), An Education, Orphan (both 2009), Lovelace, Blue Jasmine (both 2013), Black Mass (2015), Jackie (2016), and The Lost Daughter (2021). He is also known for acting in blockbuster films, such as Knight and Day (2010), Green Lantern (2011), The Magnificent Seven (2016), and The Batman (2022). Sarsgaard is also known for his television roles including in the AMC/Netflix crime series The Killing (2013) and the Hulu limited series The Looming Tower (2018) and Dopesick (2021), the latter of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Sarsgaard made his Broadway debut portraying Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin in the revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (2008).
Following his graduation from Fairfield Prep in 1989, he attended Bard College in New York for two years before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) in 1991, where he co-founded an improvisational comedy troupe "Mama's Pot Roast". While at WashU, Sarsgaard began performing in plays in an offshoot of New York's Actors Studio; His first role was as the servant Laurent in Molière's Tartuffe. In 1993, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in history and moved to New York.
