Billy Crudup: The Emmy-Winning ‘Morning Show’ Star We Love, From ‘Almost Famous’ to TV Stardom

Billy Crudup is more than just a charming smile. After all, he isn’t an Emmy winner, Tony winner and Golden Globe nominee for nothing. The 56-year-old, who you might remember standing on a rooftop screaming, “I am a golden god!,” in his 2000 breakout film Almost Famou s, has had a unique career, and one that he’s been sure to assert enough control over so as not to be pigeonholed. While today he’s leaving his mark on the television scene for his role in The Morning Show (of which he recently took home an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series), several credits came before, paving the way for his current success. Here, take a look at our favorite movies and TV shows in Billy Crudup’s repertoire.

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Billy Crudup’s early roles

In the early days of Billy Crudup’s professional career, he found a home for himself on Broadway while also taking on film roles like Sleepers (1996), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Inventing the Abbotts (1997) Grind (1997) and Without Limits (1998). It was in 2000, however, that he took on what would be his breakout role in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous .

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In the film, he played Russell Hammond, lead singer of the fictional band Stillwater, who are being profiled by a young and aspiring journalist played by Patrick Fugit. Meanwhile, he is involved in a complicated relationship with one of the band’s followers, Penny Lane, played by none other than Kate Hudson.

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“ We spent five or six weeks rehearsing together,” Crudup told Entertainment Weekly of he and his fictional band Stillwater. “We would rehearse during the day, and then every night, we would have band practice and the four of us who were in Stillwater would go to this soundstage near Century City in Los Angeles, and Cameron Crowe and Peter Frampton and Nancy Wilson would teach us how to be a rock band. That was a pretty extraordinary experience.”

Life after Almost Famous

For Crudup, his role as the 70s-esque rocker was only the beginning. In 2003, he starred in Big Fish as a man who attempts to piece together the life of his dying father based on the elaborate and unbelievable stories he told him of his upbringing. He later joined films like Mission: Impossible III (2006), The Good Shepherd (2006), Eat Pray Love (2010), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), Spotlight (2015), Jackie (2016) and 20th Century Women (2016), to name a few of his more notable credits.

In 2019, he took on the role of Cory Ellison in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show . The show follows the group of people who bring a popular morning news program to life, with Crudup originating the part of the company’s president.

“ It's been a totally life-changing experience ,” he said of his widespread recognition now being a part of something so big on NPR’s Fresh Air . “Being on television, there is no more going under the radar. And I've had the experience of 25 years of being an actor, and very rarely was I stopped before, but subsequent to that, it's a pretty common occurrence.”

See Billy Crudup in The Morning Show on Apple TV+ .

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