Born on April 18, 1956 in Biloxi, Mississippi, Eric Roberts is a film and stage actor best known for his roles in Runaway Train, his numerous guest appearances on a string of television shows, and being the brother of Julia Roberts. The son of a real estate agent and a vacuum cleaner salesman, Roberts’ parents were both actors and playwrights, who co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta, George. The two divorced in 1971. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and attended Grady High School.
Roberts was first nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985 in the film Runaway Train. In theater, meanwhile, he won the Theater World Award for his Broadway debut in Burn This. His other film credits include King of the Gypsies, Raggedy Man, Star 80, Best of the Best, Rude Awakening, The Specialist, Purgatory, and the Doctor Who TV movie. He also appeared as a panelist on Hollywood Squares, The L Word, CSI: Miami, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, a two-part miniseries called Pandemic, Heroes, and on the sitcom Less Than Perfect. H is other films include A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and DOA: Dead or Alive. As for music videos, he has appeared on The Killers’ Mr. Brightside, Mariah Carey’s We Belong Together and It’s Like That, Akon’s Smack That, and Godhead’s Hey You.
Roberts has a daughter with then-girlfriend Kelly Cunningham. When the relationship ended, he married Eliza Garret in 1992. Three years later, he would be arrested for allegedly shoving his wife into a wall, although she would refuse to press charges. His daughter Emma Roberts is the lead in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous and has appeared in several movies. He and his sister Julia were estranged for several years because of Eric’s past drug abuse, but the two reconciled when he went to visit her after she gave birth to twins in 2004.