Biography
Onscreen from the late '80s, actor Peter Berg first made a memorable impression in
A Midnight Clear (1992), playing one of a group of soldiers stationed in Germany during World War II. The muscular, strong-jawed actor had his real screen breakthrough with
John Dahl's critically acclaimed
The Last Seduction (1994), a neo-noir that cast him as
Linda Fiorentino's unwitting, hormonally misguided accomplice. Berg's subsequent roles tended to be in films of middling quality, and it was for his work on the popular TV series Chicago Hope that he received the most recognition.
In 1998, Berg made his feature directorial debut with
Very Bad Things, a black comedy starring
Jon Favreau,
Christian Slater,
Jeremy Piven,
Daniel Stern, and Leland Orser as a group of men behaving badly. The film, which was shown at the Toronto and San Sebastian Film Festivals, received a fairly mixed critical reception. Nonetheless, Berg continued to be a presence behind the camera. In 2000, he created
Wonderland, an edgy dramatic television series set in an asylum. While the ABC show recieved rave reviews and garnered a cult following, it failed to deliver ratings and was quickly cancelled.
Berg finally found himself with a hit on his hands in 2003 with
The Rundown. Starring
The Rock and
Seann William Scott, the Berg-helmed action comedy was well-received by critics and managed to score well at the box-office. In 2004, Berg began work on his third directorial effort,
Friday Night Lights, a football film he also scripted. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide