Biography
After coming of age in New Zealand and working very briefly in the Australian and Canadian film industries, Kiwi actor-turned-Hollywood hunk Daniel Gillies reportedly moved to Los Angeles with only 100 dollars in his pocket and began landing coveted A-list roles in seemingly no time at all; these included John Jameson -- Mary Jane's (
Kirsten Dunst) love interest and Peter Parker's (
Tobey Maguire) romantic rival -- in
Spider-Man 2 (2004); and British vagabond Johnny Wickham in Gurinder Chadha's musical romance adaptation of Jane Austen, Bride & Prejudice (2004). Gillies also played Ethan Biggs in
Into the West (2005),
Steven Spielberg's miniseries about Manifest Destiny. In a much-publicized event, Gillies married
Into the West co-star
Rachael Leigh Cook that same year. In 2007, Gillies tackled dual roles within the horror genre. In Norio Tsuruta's Masters of Horror: Dream Cruise, Gillies played Jack, an American attorney stationed in Tokyo who embarks on a quick trip to a watery grave. In
Roland Joffé's slasher movie
Captivity, Gillies played a young man who blacks out and awakens alongside his girlfriend (
Elisha Cuthbert), trapped in the basement of a torture-happy psychopath. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide