Australian Eric Bana graduated from success Down Under to stardom stateside after making his American film debut in director Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down in 2001. Born Aug. 9, 1968, in Melbourne, Australia, Bana worked in local pubs as a stand-up comic before being cast in the popular sketch-comedy show "Full Frontal" in 1993.Bana's impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise made him an instant hit, and he soon landed parts in Australian movies such as The Castle (1997) and Chopper (2000), the acclaimed biopic about notorious Aussie criminal Mark "Chopper" Read.
That role paved the way for Black Hawk Down, which led to major parts in big-budget American flicks, including Hulk (2003), Troy (opposite Brad Pitt) and Munich (2005), director Steven Spielberg's controversial film about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics.