Liev Schreiber

American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer, who received rave reviews for his work in a 1998 stage production of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline," his portrayal of Laertes in "Hamlet" in 2000 and his leading performance in "Henry IV" in 2003. He won a Tony for best actor in a featured role for his 2005 portrayal of Richard Roma in David Mamet's play "Glengarry Glen Ross." His movie roles have been primarily in independent films. One of his more well-received fllms was "The Painted Veil" in 2006 in which he starred with the mother of his two children, Naomi Watts.

Screiber had an unusual and somewhat lonely upbringing. His parents divorced when he was young and he moved several times. His mother, an eccentric who seems to have suffered from a bad LSD experience and perhaps subsequent mental illness,, admits that she was "kind of strange." His father, from a wealthy family, was an actor and teacher and kidnapped young Liev at age 3 from the commune where his mother had fled. The custody battle over Lievs care was fierce and he ended up livng with his mother in a run-down apartment in New York where his mother became a garbage picker and used candles instead of lights. She admits that she loved poverty, thinking the rich were shameful.. His maternal grandfather was the dominant male role in his life. Despite her outlandish views and lifestyle, she loved music and literature. As she practiced a vegetarian regime and recited Hindu scripture, he did as well. She prohibited him from watching movies in color and black-and-white films were what he watched until he was 10 when he saw "Star Wars" in color. He felt alone and alienated from the other kids in school who seemed to live a more "normal" lifestyle. He turned to petty thievery and con-artistry. And in his solitude he learned to be sensitive to others, to understand human behavior. He says "“I was incredibly good at analyzing behavior. I knew what people were after. I loved to give them what they wanted.