Chris Pine
Birthdate: Aug 26, 1980
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
Chris Pine (birthname: Christopher Whitelaw Pine), is known for his (younger than Shatner) Capt. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise has quietly built a sustained career as a solid, attractive leading man over more than a decade. His feature debut was a supporting role in Disney’s The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), with Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway, grossing $135 million globally. After a few negligible studio rom-coms, Pine landed a role in the cult hit, Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces (2006), with Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Andy Garcia, Common, Ray Liotta, and Alica Keys.
2009 was the breakthrough year for Chris Pine, as he was cast by producer-director J.J. Abrams as Capt. Kirk in Star Trek, with John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Zachary Quinto, and Winona Ryder. It was the first of three Star Trek movies in which Pine starred, including J. J. Abrams's Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond (2016), grossing worldwide a combined total of $1.197 billion. Pine was able to translate his new Trekkie stardom into a co-starring role with Denzel Washington in Tony Scott’s propulsive thriller, Unstoppable (2010), with Rosario Dawson.
After co-starring with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy in the McG-directed dud, This Means War (2012), Pine headed the cast of Star Trek writer Alex Kurtzman’s directing debut, Disney’s People Like Us (2012), with Elizabeth Banks, Jon Favreau, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Olivia Wilde. Pine also headed a voice cast around the same time (including Jude Law, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, and Isla Fisher) for the DreamWorks Animation production, Rise of the Guardians (2012), grossing $307 million worldwide.
The second franchise starring Pine was the Kenneth Branagh-directed Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), the fifth film in the Ryan franchise based on Tom Clancy’s character, and co-starring Kevin Costner, Branagh, and Keira Knightley. After co-starring with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, and Christoph Waltz in writer-director Sean Anders’ sequel, Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), Pine did his first movie musical as Cinderella’s Prince under Rob Marshall’s direction in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods (2014), with Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Johnny Depp, and Tracey Ullman.
Although it made little money, the interesting Craig Zobel western, Z for Zachariah (2015), with Margot Robbie and Chiwetel Ejiofor, provided Chris Pine the chance for an impressive performance. Pine starred in the much more expensively produced Disney thriller-adventure, The Finest Hours (2016), with Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, and Eric Bana. Pine did his first collaboration with director David Mackenzie and writer Taylor Sheridan in the excellent western, Hell or High Water (2016), with Jeff Bridges and Foster, earning four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Chris Pine’s third franchise project was the Patty Jenkins-directed DC Comics adventure, Wonder Woman (2017), with Gal Gadot, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, and David Thewlis. Pine joined director Ava DuVernay for her adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time (2018), with Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, followed by Mackenzie’s Netflix-released epic about Robert the Bruce, Outlaw King, which provided Pine the chance to play a historical character.
Pine voiced Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the acclaimed animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), and then returned to his previous superhero project as Steve in Patty Jenkins’ sequel, Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), with Gal Gadot. Pine fully embraced the action hero mode in Paramount’s The Contractor (2022), with Foster, Eddie Marsan, and Kiefer Sutherland, then shifting to spy thriller mode for Amazon Studios’ twisty All the Old Knives (2022), with Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, and Jonathan Pryce.
Director-actor Olivia Wilde cast Pine opposite Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in the paranoid thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, released by Warners in the fall of 2022. Pine heads the cast of Paramount’s live-action Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), co-starring Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant. In his filmmaking debut, Pine co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the indie film, Poolman (date to be announced), with Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Ariana DeBose, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Personal Details
Parents Robert Pine, a veteran television actor, psychotherapist, and former actor Gwynne Gilford raised Los Angeles-born Chris Pine. His older sister is Katherine, also an actor. Pine comes from a family of actors, including grandmother Anne Gwynne. Pine attended and graduated from Oakwood School and then the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied drama at the UC Berkeley Theater Department, where he performed in everything from Caryl Churchill to Shakespeare and Greek drama.
Pine was a one-year exchange student at the University of Leeds in the U.K. Post-graduation. Pine furthered his drama studies at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. Pine was in a four-year relationship with actor Annabelle Wallis from 2018 to 2022.
Awards
Nominee, Best Character Voice-Over Performance, Emmy Awards (2016); Winner, Male Star of the Year, CinemaCon (2013); Winner, International Man of the Year, GQ Men of the Year Awards (2016); Winner, Males Star of Tomorrow, ShoWest Convention (2009).
Primetime Emmy
Primetime Emmy Awards
Filmography
actor
Previous (39)
- 2024 |
- 2023 | Robot Chickenas Robot Chicken
- 2023 |
- 2023 | Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among ThievesasEdgin
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.
- 2022 | All the Old Knivesas Henry Pelham
- 2022 | Doula
- 2022 | Don’t Worry DarlingasFrank
Don’t Worry Darling
While her husband leaves home everyday to work in a top secret facility, a young 1950s housewife begins to question her life when she notices strange behavior from the other wives in the neighborhood.
- 2022 | The ContractorasJames
The Contractor
A discharged U.S. Special Forces sergeant, James Harper, risks everything for his family when he joins a private contracting organization.
- 2020 | Untitled Star Trek: Beyond Sequelas Captain James T. Kirk
- 2020 | Wonder Woman 1984asSteve Trevor
Wonder Woman 1984
Diana must contend with a work colleague, and with a businessman whose desire for extreme wealth sends the world down a path of destruction, after an ancient artifact that grants wishes goes missing.
- 2020 | Wonder Woman: 2020 Re-releaseasSteve Trevor
Wonder Woman: 2020 Re-release
When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, Diana, an Amazonian warrior in training, leaves home to fight a war, discovering her full powers and true destiny.
- 2018 | Newsflashas Walter Cronkite
- 2018 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseasPeter Parker
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Teen Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his universe and must join with five spider-powered individuals from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.
- 2018 | UnstoppableasWill
Unstoppable
Dong-Chul (Don Lee) and Ji-Soo (Song Ji-Hyo) are a happily married couple. One day, Dong-Chul comes home to find his house in disarray and his wife is missing.
- 2018 | Outlaw KingasRobert Bruce, Earl of Carrick
Outlaw King
After being crowned King of Scotland, legendary warrior Robert the Bruce is forced into exile by the English and leads a band of outlaws to help him reclaim the throne.
- 2018 | A Wrinkle in TimeasMr. Murry
A Wrinkle in Time
After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings send Meg, her brother, and her friend to space in order to find him.
- 2017 | Wonder WomanasSteve Trevor
Wonder Woman
When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, Diana, an Amazonian warrior in training, leaves home to fight a war, discovering her full powers and true destiny.
- 2016 | For the Love of Spock
- 2016 | Hell or High Wateras Toby Howard
- 2016 | Hell or High WaterasToby Howard
Hell or High Water
Toby is a divorced father who's trying to make a better life. His brother is an ex-con with a short temper and a loose trigger finger. Together, they plan a series of heists against the bank that's about to foreclose on their fami...
- 2016 | Star Trek BeyondasCaptain James T. Kirk
Star Trek Beyond
The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.
- 2016 | The Finest HoursasBernie Webber
The Finest Hours
The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.
- 2015 | Figures of Speechas Narrator
- 2015 | Z for Zachariahas Caleb
- 2014 | Into the WoodsasCinderella's Prince
Into the Woods
A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree.
- 2014 | Jack Ryan: Shadow RecruitasJack Ryan
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Jack Ryan, as a young covert C.I.A. analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.
- 2013 | Star Trek Into DarknessasKirk
Star Trek Into Darkness
After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.
- 2012 | Rise of the GuardiansasJack Frost
Rise of the Guardians
When the evil spirit Pitch launches an assault on Earth, the Immortal Guardians team up to protect the innocence of children all around the world.
- 2012 | People Like UsasSam
People Like Us
While settling his recently deceased father's estate, a salesman discovers he has a sister whom he never knew about, leading both siblings to re-examine their perceptions about family and life choices.
- 2012 | This Means WarasFDR Foster
This Means War
C.I.A. operatives wage an epic battle on each other when they discover they are dating the same woman.
- 2010 | Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odysseyas Dave
- 2010 | Small Town Saturday Nightas Rhett Ryan
- 2009 | Carriersas Brian
- 2009 | Star Trekas Kirk
- 2008 | Bottle Shockas Bo Barrett
- 2006 | Blind Datingas Danny
- 2006 | Just My Luckas Jake Hardin
- 2005 | Confessionas Luther Scott
- 2000 | Mantivities
Some Facts About Chris Pine
Don’t Talk Religion or Politics?: Not Chris Pine, who has stated that he’s “probably agnostic,” and describes himself as politically left-liberal, helping to organize “Trek Against Trump” (pairing up his fellow Star Trek cast and creators against Donald Trump) and campaigning for the Presidential election of Joe Biden.
AKA: Pine’s affectionate nickname is “Pine Nuts.”
High Praise: Of Chris Pine’s generation of stars, Quentin Tarantino has named him to be the best-of-class.
Theater Man: An alum of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the American Conservatory Theatre, Pine was awarded Best Actor by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle in 2011 for his performance in the Mark Taper Forum production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
