Greg Kinnear: Keeping It Real

For his latest project, the Little Miss Sunshine star, 54, takes on Ron Hall, an international art dealer. The inspirational Same Kind of Different as Me, in theaters Oct. 20, follows the intersecting lives of three characters and the remarkable journey that results. Here are five facts about the Oscarnominated actor.

Born in Indiana, Kinnear lived in Beirut and Athens while his father worked for the State Department. He graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in broadcast journalism. He launched his career as host of E!’s Talk Soup, for which he won a Daytime Emmy in 1995.

After his audition for As Good as It Gets at Jack Nicholson’s house, Nicholson served him spaghetti and meatballs.

In addition to Ron Hall, Kinnear has played the real-life roles of actor Bob Crane in Auto Focus, John F. Kennedy in The Kennedys, Bob Kearns (the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper) in Flash of Genius and preacher Todd Burpo in Heaven Is for Real. Now that Penny Dreadful has been canceled, will Josh Hartnett be returning to movies? —Fay H., Little Rock, Ark. Yes, but Hartnett, 39, prefers going the indie route. “I’m absolutely not in the race to be the hottest actor,” he says. Watch for him in 6 Below: Miracle on the Mountain, opening Oct. 13, based on the true story of a former professional hockey player stranded by a snowstorm atop a mountain for eight days, forcing him to rediscover the power of faith to survive.