Johnathon Schaech
| Johnathon Schaech | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
September 10, 1969 Edgewood, Maryland, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, writer, producer |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Spouse(s) |
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| Children | 1 |
Johnathon Schaech (pronounced Shek; born September 10, 1969) is an American actor and writer best known for his role of Jimmy Mattingly in That Thing You Do!.
Schaech was born in Edgewood, Maryland in 1969 to Joe, a Baltimore City law enforcement officer, and Joanne Schaech, a human resources executive. He was raised Roman Catholic. Schaech has a sister, Renée. He went to University of Maryland where he studied economics and took one acting class.
In 1989, dance troupe Chippendales flew Schaech out to Los Angeles and offered him a job, but his father urged him to aim higher. He signed with Wilhelmina West and survived for three years doing commercials and bit parts in movies. Schaech studied under acting teacher, Roy London, who also taught stars such as Michelle Pfeiffer, Brad Pitt and Forest Whitaker. He studied with Roy London for three and half years until London's death in 1993.
In 1991, Schaech went through a three-month audition process before he landed the lead in Franco Zeffirelli's movie El Storia de Capinera (The Sparrow), a period piece drama filmed in Sicily and Rome and also starring Angela Bettis and Vanessa Redgrave. However, Zeffirelli dubbed Schaech's entire performance. Schaech would have become a regular fixture on Fox TV's Brisco County, Jr. but he bypassed the steady work to portray drifter Xavier Red in Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation.
Schaech won a pivotal role in How to Make an American Quilt opposite Winona Ryder. He was trained with weights for the role, and was also taught to sing Latin love songs, but his singing voice met the cutting room floor. In 1996, How to Make an American Quilt received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 1995, Tom Hanks cast Schaech as the ambitious and self-absorbed lead singer of The Wonders in That Thing You Do!, Hanks' writing and directing debut. Schaech next took the male lead opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange in Tri-Star's 1998 thriller Hush. He was featured as one of the most promising leading men of tomorrow on the 1996's Vanity Fair cover alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith and Benicio del Toro.
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