Tobey Maguire
 

Tobey Maguire is looking super hot still pumped up from Spider-Man 2 which opens this week across the country.  The young star shed all of his bulk from Spidey 1 to play a jockey in "Seabiscuit," only to work like mad to put it all back for the Spider sequel.  

Maguire may not be the classic teen heartthrob, but then I suspect he wouldn’t want to be. Nevertheless, added muscle coupled with a geeky sort of charm makes him intriguing to say the least.

Tobey has carved out a career for himself with wonderfully earnest and genuine performances in character driven films.

He  was born to Vincent and Wendy, a young unmarried couple, in June of 1975. Wendy was just 18 when Tobey was born, and working as a secretary to support her son. The couple split early on, and Tobey made a grand tour of the west coast, after being carted to California, Oregon, and Washington. School wasn't a big thing for Tobey, and he dropped out before he got to the 10th grade, hoping to find roles in Hollywood.

Tobey's move to acting is a highly publicized story. While still in high school, Tobey had aspirations to be a chef, following in the footsteps of his father. He enrolled in a home ec class, but his mother had other plans. She offered him a hundred bucks to take acting instead, and just like any other 9th grader in the same situation would, Tobey took the money and ran.

After a short stint on the television series Great Scott!, he made his move to the big screen in the critically acclaimed, This Boy's Life. The film launched the career of another prominent young actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, while Tobey settled for a smaller role. Still, he and DiCaprio became fast friends and remain so today. 

Maguire continued to add up more small roles in youth oriented films, without ever breaking out. His nondescript and offbeat appearances didn't have any lasting impact on the young audience, who were too busy staring at the stars.

Then, finally, Tobey Maguire hit upon something. He landed some roles which allowed him to be his awkward self, and it worked. He grabbed everyone's attention in The Ice Storm, as the shy and oddball youth growing up in the sexual revolution of the 1970s. He and co-stars Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood all came away from the film with much broader fan bases. 

A role in a Woody Allen film, Deconstructing Harry, also helped Tobey Maguire stretch his acting chops. His role in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, one of the most anticipated movies of 1998, increased his appeal to audiences and gave him much better name recognition. Maguire seems to finally be on a roll.

A bit of bad publicity can sometimes help a career. In 1998, he and friend Leo sued filmmaker and former friend, R.D. Robb, when the director attempted to release Don's Plum. 

The two young stars claimed that they had helped Robb out with a short film that was never meant to be released at feature length. Apparently, Don's Plum featured a group of young actors hanging out at the title bar, just talking. Much of it was ad-lib and spontaneous chatter about sexuality, women, drugs and a lot of other "uncomfortable" topics.

Apparently, Leo and Tobey were being themselves in the film and said some things that might tarnish their public images. Some critics charged that Maguire, who had initially launched the suit, brought in Leo (in post-Titanic popularity) in order to help the case - and it's worked so far. The scandal served to put Tobey Maguire in the headlines, and it also linked him with DiCaprio for his multitude of fans.

Maguire appeared in his first lead role opposite Reese Witherspoon, in Pleasantville, a comedy about two modern day youths who get trapped in a 1950s family sitcom. He next appeared in Ang Lee’s civil war epic, Ride With the Devil, which received a mixed reaction from critics and audiences alike. Tobey’s following film was The Cider House Rules, an Oscar sleeper that put up a good fight before losing out to American Beauty. Tobey was overlooked for an Oscar nomination, despite the fact that his presence truly drove the movie’s drama. But it may have been Maguire's strong work as the troubled but brilliant young writer in Wonder Boys (2000) that helped him to win the attention of director Sam Raimi, who eventually cast the actor in the role of Peter Parker, the awkward teenager who becomes the eponymous, web-spinning hero of Spider-Man.