May 5, 1979

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Vincent Kartheiser made a name for himself in the late '90s by choosing unlikely fare for an actor who, at the time, had just earned the right to drink legally. Making his screen debut in a bit role in the 1993 tearjerker Untamed Heart, opposite Marisa Tomei and Christian Slater, the blue-eyed, brown-haired Kartheiser subsequently found himself being cast in family fare, most memorably the action-adventure drama Alaska, in which he starred opposite Thora Birch and Charlton Heston (whose son dire... ... (read more...) cted the film). The film led to the leading role in the kiddie tech thriller Masterminds, which featured the young actor as a whiz kid who takes on an evil private-school headmaster, played by Patrick Stewart. Kartheiser's next role, however, would be his most defining in terms of establishing his range and presence. Tapped to play Bobby, a drug-addled, homeless street urchin in Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise, a gritty look at the lives of a pseudo-family immersed in crime, Kartheiser rose to the challenge with a fearless, powerful performance, acting with such established pros as James Woods and Melanie Griffith. The film earned many accolades for the young actor, who then appeared in Strike! (later retitled All I Wanna Do), a barely released comedy set in a 1960s female boarding school. The film featured contemporaries Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, and Monica Keena, the last of whom was co-star of Kartheiser's next project, Crime and Punishment in Suburbia. After a few little-seen films, Kartheiser next turned up on the supernatural drama series Angel in 2002. In a truly original role, he played Connor, the miraculous human son of vampires Darla (Julie Benz) and the titular Angel (David Boreanaz).