Family background

Hauser was born in Santa Barbara, California, son of Cass Warner, who founded the film production company Warner Sisters, and actor Wings Hauser. His paternal grandfather was Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dwight Hauser. Cole Hauser's maternal great-grandfather was famous film mogul Harry Warner, a founding partner of Warner Bros., and his maternal grandfather was Milton Sperling, a Hollywood screenwriter and independent film producer. Hauser's maternal grandmother, Betty Mae Warner, a painter, sculptor, political activist and gallery owner, is now married to Stanley Sheinbaum, a noted political activist, economist, philanthropist, and a former Los Angeles Police Department commissioner. Hauser is of Irish and German descent on his father's side and Jewish on his mother's.

Early life

Hauser's parents divorced in 1977, when he was two years old. According to him, at roughly fifteen, he first met his father after the relocation-induced years of separation. His father took him in for a year and taught him about auditioning. Prior to that, his mother had moved Hauser and his half brother and sisters from Santa Barbara to Oregon to Florida and then back to Santa Barbara within a 12-year-span. At the time, he participated heavily in sports, but half-heartedly pursued school. He was admitted to the short-listed circle of talent at a talent summer camp in New England, then won the leading role of the stage play named Dark of the Moon, which earned him standing ovations for his performance. At 16 years old he decided to leave high school to try to break into acting.

Career

Hauser made his film debut, School Ties (1992) which starred many young and up-and-coming actors such as Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell and Ben Affleck. A role in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused also starring Affleck came along subsequently. In 1995, Hauser played the role of the leader of the campus neo-Nazi skinheads in the John Singleton film Higher Learning. Hauser would later re-team with Affleck and Damon when they appeared together in Good Will Hunting (1997). In 2000 he played William J. Johns in Pitch Black and voiced the character in the prequel video game.

In 2002, he played a racist American prisoner-of-war in Hart's War with Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. Then in 2003, he played a Navy SEAL in Tears of the Sun alongside Bruce Willis. He also appeared as a mob boss in 2 Fast 2 Furious. He has since had several leading roles in Hollywood films, including the Mel Gibson-produced Paparazzi and The Cave.

In 2007, he starred with Anthony Anderson in the FOX series K-Ville. The show was canceled after ten episodes. That same year, Hauser starred in The Stone Angel adapted from a novel by Margaret Laurence. The film played in various festival circles and had a limited release in Canadian theaters in May 2008. During that same year, Cole filmed other indie productions such as Like Dandelion Dust from a novel by Karen Kingsbury, Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys and the CBS television pilot The Tower.

Personal life

Hauser's wife is former actress and photographer Cynthia Daniel, who played Elizabeth Wakefield in the TV series adaptation of Francine Pascal's hit novel series, Sweet Valley High alongside her twin sister, Brittany Daniel. Hauser and Daniel have two sons; Ryland Hauser, born in September 2004, and Colt Daniel Hauser born June 12, 2008. Their daughter Steely Rose was born in 2013.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	School Ties	Jack Connors
1993	Dazed and Confused	Benny O'Donnell
1994	Skins	Bentz
1995	Higher Learning	Scott Moss
1996	Frame-Up II: The Cover-Up	Dr. Glidden
1997	All Over Me	Mark
	Good Will Hunting	Billy McBride
1998	Scotch and Milk	Johnny
	The Hi-Lo Country	Little Boy Matson
2000	Pitch Black	William J. Johns
	A Shot at Glory	Kelsey O'Brian
	Tigerland	Staff Sgt. Cota
2002	Hart's War	Staff Sgt. Vic W. Bedford
	White Oleander	Ray Pruitt
2003	Tears of the Sun	James "Red" Atkins
	2 Fast 2 Furious	Carter Verone
2004	Paparazzi	Bo Laramie
2005	The Cave	Jack McAllister
	Dirty	Lieutenant
2006	The Break-Up	Lupus Grobowski
2007	The Stone Angel	Young Bram Shipley
2008	Tortured	Kevin Cole
	The Family That Preys	William Cartwright
2009	Like Dandelion Dust	Jack Campbell
2010	Shadows of the White Nights	Borris
2011	The Hit List	Allan Campbell
2013	Assassins Run (AKA White Swan)	Roman
	A Good Day to Die Hard	Mike Collins
	Olympus Has Fallen	Roma
2014	Transcendence	Colonel Stevens
	Jarhead 2: Field of Fire	Special Operations Senior Chief Fox

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	A Matter of Justice	Rocky Jackson	NBC TV-Movie
1996	High Incident	Officer Randy Willitz	32 episodes
2004	ER	Steve Curtis	Episode: Where There's Smoke There's Fire Episode: Just a Touch Episode: Midnight Episode: Drive
2006	Damages	Jack Shale	Unsold FOX TV-Pilot
2007-2008	K-Ville	Trevor Cobb	11 episodes
2008	The Tower	Sean Castleman	CBS TV-Pilot
2009	Washington Field	SSA Raymond Stone	CBS TV-Pilot
2010	Chase	Jimmy Godfrey	NBC - 22 episodes
2014-present	Rogue	Ethan Kelly	Audience Network - 20 episodes
2015	The Lizzie Borden Chronicles	Charles Siringo	Lifetime TV

Awards and nominations

Year	Recipient/Nominated work	Award	Result
2001	Best Supporting Male	Independent Spirit Award	Nominated for Tigerland
2003	Breakthrough Performance - Male	Young Hollywood Awards	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]