Ryan Gosling is a handsome Canadian actor best known for his film roles in 'The Notebook,' 'Half Nelson' and 'Crazy, Stupid, Love.' He has a daughter with the beautiful Eva Mendes. Here are 50 fascinating facts about Ryan Gosling.
- His full name is Ryan Thomas Gosling.
- He was born in London, Ontario, Canada on November 12, 1980.
- His family was raised Mormon. Gosling once told The Guardian, "We were pretty religious, it was a part of everything - what they ate, how they thought."
- One of Sylvester Stallone's action films had a huge influence on him. "When I was in first grade I watched First Blood and I filled my Fisher-Price Houdini kit with steak knives and brought them to school and started throwing them at kids in recess," Gosling later told McLean's magazine. He was suspended for this dangerous re-enactment, but he continued to be inspired by the movies he saw.
- His parents divorced when he was a child and he was raised mostly by his mother. He has a sister named Mandi.
- He was bullied so badly in elementary school that he left, and was home-schooled until high school.
- Ryan Gosling has been a fan of motorbikes and dirt bikes since he was young. He bought his own motorbike when he was 12 years old.
- He performed in an Elvis Presley tribute band as a child.
- When he was a boy, he was obsessed with the movieDick Tracy and collected all the toys from it in Burger King.
- He feels responsible for corrupting Britney Spears on The Mickey Mouse Club. He says, "They would come and ask me questions about sex, and I just told them what I heard - like positions and stuff. All the other mothers went to Disney and told them I was corrupting their kids. I feel somewhat responsible for how sexual she is right now. When I see her with a snake around her neck, I think, 'Did I do that?'
- Ryan first broke into show business on "The Mickey Mouse Club," alongside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.
- While he was in "The All New Mickey Mouse Club" in 1993, he lived with Justin Timberlake who was also on the show. Since Ryan Gosling was originally from Canada, his parents continued to work back home and so he stayed with Timberlake's family home.
- Gosling and Justin Timberlake got up to some mischief while they worked together. They stole golf carts and drove them into MGM Studios, and Gosling even played spin the bottle with Britney Spears.
- He also appeared on TV programs such as Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Goosebumps.
- At a young age, Ryan thought having a Canadian accent didn't sound "tough enough. I thought guys should sound like Marlon Brando. So now I have a phony accent I can't shake, so it's not phony anymore."
- At age 17, Ryan dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his movie career. The first role he got in the new city was in the series "Young Hercules".
- He may have played a superhero in movies, but he also acts like one in real life. While walking on the busy streets of New York City, one woman wasn't watching where she was going and was about to step into traffic. Hundreds of people of saw, but it was Ryan Gosling who pulled her back.
- Also in New York City, he once broke up a fight between two random guys.
- Not only is he an actor, but he is also a very talented musician. He plays the jazz guitar and piano.
- He also sings in indie rock band called the Dead Man's Bones. The group released their first Music Video in December 2008 for their song, "In The Room Where You Sleep."
- He is so talented musically, that he may have even been one of the Backstreet Boys! A.J. McLean from pop boys band once offered Ryan the opportunity to audition for the band but he turned it down.
- When his movie, Blue Valentine, was threatened to receive a strict NC-17 rating, Gosling wrote to the Motion Picture Association of America and accused them of sexist double standards.
- Contrary to his famous meme, he's never said "Hey, girl."
- After filming Murder by Numbers, he purchased the Jeep Cherokee that was driven throughout the film.
- In 2005, he traveled to Chad to make a documentary on the Darfur refugees who were living there at the time.
- He also did a spot on rendition of "Everybody Dance Now."
- He dated Sandra Bullock from 2002 to 2003. She was 16 years older than him. In 2011, he said she was one of the greatest girlfriends, "I had two of the greatest girlfriends of all time. I haven't met anybody who could top them." The other girl he's referring to was Rachel McAdams.
- While filming "The Notebook," he began dating his co-star Rachel McAdams. Ironically, they were both born in the same hospital in Ontario, Canada.
- He is a real-life handyman! For the film "The Notebook," Gosling told People he had an apprenticeship with a carpenter, and ended up making the Adirondack chairs that sit in front of the house as well as a table that Noah and Allie (Rachel McAdams' character) "consummate their relationship" on.
- He once bought out an entire Girl Scout Cookie stand and handed them out to people on the street.
- He doesn't believe in the need to have muscles. After working out religiously for his part in "Crazy, Stupid, Love," Gosling said "that was a lot of work. It's such a waste of time. It takes so much time to make muscles and then they don't really do anything."
- Ryan Gosling runs a Moroccan restaurant Tagine in Beverly Hills.
- How do you get women to come to a San Diego sushi restaurant? Cover the bathroom stall in photos of Ryan Gosling of course. Check out the photos from the restaurant Bang, Bang below:
- Ryan's nickname is Opie.
- In 2012, Ryan released a documentary he both produced and narrated about youth culture called ReGENERATION.
- Ryan built the car he used in Drive. The director said, "Ryan wanted to build his own car. So the car, the Malibu, the old gray car he drives around, he built himself. He took it apart and put it back together."
- His last name means baby goose.
- Some of his favorite food includes calamari and Glosette raisins, a Canadian type of chocolate-covered raisins.
- He's an active philanthropist and activist. He has campaigned for Peta, check out a letter he sent to the National Milk Producers Federation below regarding cruelty against cows.
- After Hurricane Katrina he packed a car and headed to Mississippi to help build a monastery.
- His directorial debut Lost River, starring Iain De Caestecker and Christina Hendricks, was released in 2014.
- Ryan Gosling was supposed to play the lead in The Lovely Bones but was fired when he showed up on set weighing 210 pounds. He was cast when he weighed 150 pounds.
- Ryan made himself his own tattoo with a tattoo kit. It was supposed to be a bloody monster's hand but it looks more like a cactus.
- He began a relationship with actress Eva Mendes in 2011 and on September 12, 2014, they had a daughter together named Esmeralda.
- He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his role in The Ides of March.
- One of the funniest tribute to the actor is from a website called, F&%k Yeah! Ryan Gosling, which has photos of Ryan with silly captions that always begin with "Hey Girl."
- He is an animal lover and has a dog named George.
- Gosling says his favorite actor is 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' star Gene Wilder.
- When he received his nomination for 'Half Nelson' in 2006, he was the first Canadian to be nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award since 1943.
- His net worth is $30 million.