Vincent Kartheiser Biography

Biography

Birth Name
Vincent Paul Kartheiser
Date of birth (location)
5 May 1979
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

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Lanky, dark-haired Vincent Kartheiser began his acting career with roles in children's features, quickly graduating to work in films exploring life's darker side. After small roles in the Minneapolis filmed productions "Untamed Heart" (1993) and "Little Big League" (1994), the Minnesota native broke through with a featured part in "The Indian in the Cupboard" (1995). Starring roles in "Alaska" (1996) and "Masterminds" (1997) followed, both adventures targeted to family viewers. In "Alaska", Kartheiser starred along with Thora
Birch as a brother and sister on a rescue mission to save their stranded father in the Alaskan wilderness. "Masterminds" saw the young actor playing a prep school computer hacker who faces off against terrorist Patrick Stewart in an effort to set his fellow students free. These roles exposed him to an audience that gladly embraced his long hair, sexually nonspecific good looks and rebellious swagger, making him an instant pre-teen pinup favorite.

Similarly adventurous, but clearly not children's fare, was Larry Clark's "Another Day in Paradise" (1998), in which Kartheiser starred along with Melanie Griffith, James Woods and Natasha Gregson Wagner as drug-addled criminals. He was cast as the particularly cocky Bobbie, a small time hood who hooks up with Woods' old timer Mel and Griffith's motherly Sid after running into a bit of trouble during a vending machine robbery. His fiery performance proved he was ready to tackle more adult roles. Next the young actor could be seen in "Ricky Six" (lensed 1998), based on a true story of drugs, Satanism and teen murder in affluent Northport, New York.

On television, Kartheiser appeared in a 1995 episode of "Sweet Justice", playing a 14-year-old boy with a fatal disease who refuses the medication that keeps him alive but debilitated.

Eventually he got a break when he landed the role of Connor in the series "Angel". Most recently, Vincent finished filming for the 2006 movie "Alpha Dog."