Birth Name : Wesley Cook Bentley
Date of birth (location) : 4 September 1978, Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA
Arkansas native Wes Bentley solidified his reputation as a rising star with a galvanizing performance as Ricky Fitts, the drug-dealing videographer who romances his neighbor’s daughter, in the highly-acclaimed “American Beauty” (1999). While in person the young actor tries to downplay his looks, on screen, the combination of his dark hair, piercing blue eyes and handsome features clearly sets him as a future leading man.
Born in Jonesboro and raised in Little Rock, this self-called “pretty boy” participated in sports in an effort to counteract the teasing and abuse he faced from his classmates over his countenance. Simultaneously, Bentley also acted in school plays and local competitions in what he described to Erik Himmelsbach in Time Out New York, September 9-16, 1999) was an effort “that was my need to prove to people that I was better than what they thought of me, or what I THOUGHT they thought of me.” At his mother’s suggestion, he applied for and was accepted by Juilliard where he was cast in stage productions.
Roles in independent films like “Three Below Zero” (1998) soon followed, as did a small part in “Beloved” (also 1998). While waiting on line at an open call for the musical “Rent", Bentley was spotted by a casting agent who asked him to read for a movie. After seven callbacks, he landed the job, although he declines to identify which film it was, merely stating “I don’t know WHERE the movie is now.” (Vanity Fair, October 1999).