ÉLETÚT: Paul Rudd

“I treasure laughs more than anything, they’ve helped me in life the most”

Paul Rudd is a popular American actor, with a superhero role as Ant-Man in the Marvel Universe, comedies such as Anchorman and cult TV show Friends. This year Rudd will be in another iconic franchise with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie, and later the follow-up to Ghostbusters Afterlife. Rudd’s appeal is relatable, he’s sweet and funny, and he could be your best friend – with charm, charisma, boyish good looks which never seem to age, and a fan favourite worldwide.

Background

Paul Stephen Rudd was born on April 6^th, 1969, in New Jersey USA. His parents were English-Jewish, both from London – Michael Rudd, now deceased, was a history tour guide and former vice president of airline TWA and his mother Gloria a sales manager at a TV station. Rudd has a younger sister. Rudd’s parents were second cousins, both descended from Jewish immigrants who moved to England, with the original surname Rudnitsky. Rudd loved reading British Beano and Dandy comics as a youngster which he was sent by his uncle from the UK.

Rudd has said that he used humour to fit in, joking about himself, as he wasn’t very cool at school. When he was 10 the family moved to Kansas where he went to high school before going on to the University of Kansas to study theatre. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and also spent three months studying drama in Oxford, England. To earn money, he worked as a DJ and had a few odd jobs.

Acting career

Rudd’s acting work has been in movies, TV and theatre. In the early days, Rudd started out in an advert for Super Nintendo and had TV work in the drama Sisters and Wild Oats.

In the nineties, Rudd had his first major role in the movie Clueless with Alicia Silverstone which made him a teen idol, and then followed movies such as Halloween: The Cure of Michael Myers, The Object of My Affection and The Cider House Rules. A classically trained actor, he was in theatre, appearing in Broadway plays such as The Twelfth Night.

In 2000 he had a role in the film Gen-Y Cops, and it was in 2002 that he became Phoebe’s love interest and future husband Mike Hannigan in the huge hit TV show Friends. Other TV shows included Reno 911! and Veronica Mars, later on, a recurring role in Parks and Recreations.

In 2004 a special long-term working relationship began for Rudd with director/producer Judd Apatow, bringing Rudd many hit movies such as Anchorman, The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, This is 40, and Wanderlust.

Rudd had lead roles in romantic comedies including Admission alongside Tina Fey and They Came Together with Amy Poehler.

It was 2015 that saw Rudd join the big-budget superhero universe, taking on the lead role as Marvel Comics Scott Lang aka Ant-Man. Rudd’s character Lang is a one-time cat burglar thief who tries on a suit that makes him shrink to the size of an ant – but with superhero abilities. Sequels followed with Ant-Man and the Wasp, Marvel films Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame; and most recently in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania.

Rudd showed his softer side in the Netflix movie The Fundamentals of Caring, as a carer to a boy with muscular dystrophy, and in Ideal Home, as part of a gay couple adapting to the surprise introduction of a child into their lives. The following year in Netflix’s Living with Yourself, playing both a depressed man and a clone who emerges following an experimental therapy treatment.

In 2021 Rudd starred in Apple TV Plus’s limited series The Shrink Next Door alongside old friend Will Ferrell.

2023 sees Rudd take roles in the anticipated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot and the sequel to Ghostbusters Afterlife.

Personal life

Rudd is married to Julie Yaeger, a screenwriter and producer and they live in New York with their two children. Cherishing his private life Rudd is not on social media.

Rudd is a sports fan and supporter of the Kansas City Royals and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.

Rudd cites Paul Newman as a role model, for the way that Newman conducted himself and his charitable work. Rudd’s charity work includes marine life conservation support, the Stuttering Association for the Young (SAY) and the celebrity sports event The Big Slick for Kansas City Children’s Hospital.

Rudd may have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but he is also, along with fellow actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, a co-owner of Samuel’s Sweet Shop, a candy store in New York that they saved from closing when their friend and the previous owner died unexpectedly in 2014. Over time Rudd has worked with actors, many times. To name but a few long-term friends – Jon Hamm, Jennifer Aniston, Seth Rogen, and he recently supported old friend Ryan Reynolds by visiting his Wrexham football team.