As a Golden Globe and Emmy award winner, Jason Bateman has enjoyed an enviable career on the big and small screens. Throughout his career, he has also endured many lows but did where did his life story begin?
Jason Bateman isn’t Canadian, he’s American, born in Rye, New York in 1969 before moving to Salt Lake City and then to California as a child. His father, Kent Bateman, was an American who worked in TV and movies as an actor, director, and writer. His mother, Victoria Elizabeth, was born in England and worked for Pan Am as a flight attendant.
To learn more about Jason Bateman’s early life on both coasts of America and the highs and lows of his career, read on.
Early Years
Jason Kent Bateman was born on January 14 1969 in Rye, New York.
His father, Kent Bateman, was an American film producer for Ealing Films in the 1960s and 70s, based in Newton, Massachusetts. Kent also worked as an occasional writer and actor on a few films.
His mother, Victoria Elizabeth, was originally from Shrewsbury in England and worked as a flight attendant for Pan Am before relocating to the US.
According to Bateman, he did not have a great relationship with his parents, saying that he considers them to be like friends rather than parents. He hasn’t elaborated on what he means by this, beyond saying that his home life wasn’t a “healthy situation” in his youth.
He and his actor sister, Justine Bateman, were able to help support their family financially with paychecks from roles on “Little House on the Prairie” and “Family Ties” respectively.
He says that this dynamic, with the children providing the bulk of the family’s income, is a major reason for the complicated relationship he had with his parents, though he believes he later turned it into a positive.
Bateman didn’t graduate from high school, missing his finals while filming “Teen Wolf Too”, but his successful acting career has lessened the impact of his lack of academic qualifications.
He was managed by his father in the early years of his career but ended their professional relationship at the age of 20.
Lows and Highs
After a strong start to his career with his role in “Silver Spoons” and parts in several 80s and 90s sitcoms, Batman struggled to find work around the turn of the millennium.
He has spoken about how he was unprepared for life as an unemployed actor, as he received his first recurring acting role at the early age of 12 and continued to work as an actor regularly throughout his teens.
He is very open about his battles with alcohol and drug addiction in the 90s, eventually attending an AA meeting after spending Christmas Day alone.
He enjoyed a career resurgence when he landed the leading role in “Arrested Development” in 2003 and grabbed the opportunity for a second chance with both hands. Despite the show struggling in the ratings, it was critically acclaimed and even survived its 2006 cancellation by Fox to be revived on Netflix in 2013 by popular demand.
The show was a strong reminder of his considerable talents and led to major roles in movies such as “Juno”, “Horrible Bosses”, “Game Night” and even lending his voice to animated movie “Zootopia”.
More recently, he has won significant critical acclaim for his work both in front and behind of the camera on crime drama “Ozark”, winning an Emmy in 2019 for his directorial work on an episode.
After enduring difficult times and personal lows, Jason Bateman is now enjoying some of his most successful years as an actor, in addition to his work behind the scenes.
However many twists and turns his career has taken, one thing is certain: he is not Canadian.