BILLY CRUDUP (Russell Hammond) starred this summer in the critically acclaimed independent film "Jesus' Son," for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Paris Film Festival. He was also recently seen in Keith Gordon's widely praised drama "Waking the Dead." Crudup made his feature film debut in 1996 in Barry Levinson's "Sleepers," starring Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt, and was then featured in Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You." He subsequently starred in "Inventing the Abbotts," opposite Liv Tyler and Joaquin Phoenix. In 1998, he starred in "Without Limits," directed by Robert Towne and produced by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Crudup's portrayal of legendary long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine brought him the National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance of the Year. He went on to star in Stephen Frears'"The Hi-Lo Country," with Woody Harrelson and Patricia Arquette, and also lent his voice to the animated "Princess Mononoke." An award-winning stage actor, Crudup holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University. His Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" earned him an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Clarence Derwent Award and a Theater World Award. He has since returned to the Broadway stage in William Inge's "Bus Stop" and Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters," for which he garnered a Drama Desk Award. He was most recently seen on stage in the off-Broadway production of "Oedipus," opposite his "Almost Famous" castmate Frances McDormand.