Armie Hammer

Armand Douglas Hammer, known professionally as Armie Hammer, was born on August 28, 1986, in Santa Monica, California. His mother, Dru Ann (née Mobley), worked as a bank loan officer, and his father, Michael Armand Hammer, owned multiple businesses including Knoedler Publishing and Armand Hammer Productions. Hammer has a younger brother, Viktor, named after their great-granduncle Victor Hammer. His paternal great-grandfather was oil tycoon and philanthropist Armand Hammer, whose parents were Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. Hammer has described his own background as "half Jewish." His paternal great-grandmother was Baroness Olga Vadimovna von Root, a Russian-born actress and singer from Sevastopol and the daughter of a tsarist general. His paternal grandmother was from Texas, and his mother's family is from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hammer spent several years in Highland Park, Texas, before his family relocated to the Cayman Islands when he was seven, where they lived for five years. During that period he attended Faulkner's Academy in Governor's Harbour and Grace Christian Academy in West Bay, Grand Cayman, a school founded by his father. The family eventually settled in Los Angeles. As a teenager, Hammer attended Los Angeles Baptist High School in the San Fernando Valley, dropping out in eleventh grade to pursue acting. He subsequently took courses at UCLA. He has said his parents initially disowned him over the decision to leave school but later became supportive of his career.

Hammer began his professional acting career with guest appearances in the television series Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, Reaper, and Desperate Housewives. His early film work included a minor role in the 2006 film Flicka and a co-starring part in the 2008 psychological thriller Blackout. His first leading film role came with his portrayal of Christian evangelist Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years, which premiered in October 2008 and earned him a Grace Award nomination from Mediaguide for Most Inspiring Performance in Movie or Television. In 2007, filmmaker George Miller selected Hammer to play Batman/Bruce Wayne in the planned superhero film Justice League: Mortal, though the project was ultimately canceled due in part to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike and stalled budgetary negotiations with the Australian government. In 2009, he played Harrison Bergeron in 2081, an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's short story of the same name, which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Hammer's breakthrough came with David Fincher's 2010 film The Social Network, in which he portrayed identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, with actor Josh Pence serving as a body double whose face was replaced with Hammer's through computer-generated imagery and split-screen photography in post-production. In preparation, Hammer learned to row on both sides of a boat and underwent ten months of twin boot camp with Pence. The performance earned Hammer his first significant critical recognition, including a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor. He next appeared in Clint Eastwood's 2011 biographical drama J. Edgar, playing Clyde Tolson, the first associate director of the FBI, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Both actors received Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for their work. In 2012, Hammer co-starred with Julia Roberts and Lily Collins in Mirror Mirror, playing Prince Andrew Alcott, and that same month voiced the Winklevoss twins in the Simpsons episode "The D'oh-cial Network."

Hammer took on the title role in Disney's The Lone Ranger in 2013, appearing alongside Johnny Depp as Tonto. The film grossed $260.5 million worldwide against a reported budget of $215 million and was considered a box office failure. In 2015, he starred as Illya Kuryakin opposite Henry Cavill in Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E., a feature adaptation of the 1960s television series. In 2016, Hammer appeared in Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation, playing Sam Turner. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. His most acclaimed performance came in Luca Guadagnino's 2017 romantic drama Call Me by Your Name, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The following year, he portrayed Martin D. Ginsburg in the biopic On the Basis of Sex.

Hammer's Broadway career spanned 2018 to 2022. He starred in Straight White Men in 2018 and also appeared in The Minutes. In 2021, multiple women came forward with claims of abuse against Hammer. He denied the allegations, and the LA County District Attorney and the LAPD declined to pursue criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence. The controversy led Hammer to abandon several future projects, and he was dropped by his talent agency and publicist. He returned to acting in 2024.