Lee Grinner Pace (born March 25, 1979) is the son of a school teacher and an engineer. He was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, but lived in Saudi Arabia for several years while his father worked in the oil business. After that, they moved to Houston and Lee took up acting, temporarily dropping out of high school to work at the Alley Theatre in Houston, and his career was born.
Pace's first role on the big screen was in 2003, playing the real-life trans woman Calpernia Addams in the movie Soldier's Girl, which described her relationship with the late Barry Winchell.
Pace is also known for his roles as Roy Walker, Ned the Piemaker, Rep. Fernando Wood, and most recently, the Elvenking Thranduil and Ronan the Accuser.
Selected filmography:
- Soldier's Girl (2003) as Calpernia Addams
- Wonderfalls (2004) as Aaron Tyler
- The Fall (2006) as Roy Walker
- The Good Shepherd (2006) as Richard Hayes
- Pushing Daisies (2007 — 2009) as Ned
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) as Michael Pardew
- A Single Man (2009) as Grant
- When in Rome (2010) as Brady Sacks
- Marmaduke (2010) as Phil Winslow
- The The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 (2012) as Garrett
- Lincoln (2012) as Fernando Wood
- The Hobbit trilogy (2012 — 2014) as Thranduil:
- Halt and Catch Fire (2014 — 2017) as Joe MacMillan
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (2014, 2019) as Ronan the Accuser:
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Captain Marvel (2019)
- The Book of Henry (2017) as David Daniels
- Weathering With You (2019) as Keisuke Suga (English dub)
- Foundation (2021) as Brother Day
- Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) as Greg
Associated Tropes:
- Angrish: Roy's freak-out in the hospital in The Fall and scream-crying in the finale of Soldier's Girl were fueled by Pace's actual frustration and anger. Both scenes took all day to shoot, and Pace was fed up with all the fragmented takes they kept on remaking.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: Had no interest in doing TV until he saw the script for Pushing Daisies and "knew it was going to be great."
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: His most distinguishing quality.
- Creator Backlash: Claims he gave himself "a hard time" over doing Marmaduke until numerous children came up to him and said they watched it over and over again.
- Dyeing for Your Art: To play a trans woman in Soldier's Girl, he lost twenty-five pounds.
- Fake Brit: In Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,Ceremony, and (albeit via The Queen's Latin) The Hobbit. Many assumed he actually was English for a while, if this interview is anything to go by.
- Jerkass: Aside from Ned, many of his most notable roles have him playing characters who are incredibly cold, arrogant, rude and generally unpleasant.
- Method Acting: One of the best examples — his character Roy Walker in The Fall was bedridden and possibly paralyzed. He pretended to be a paraplegic and answered to the name "Roy" for the first 12 weeks of filming so his six-year-old fellow costar Catinca Untaru would act believably. Almost everyone on set thought he had lost the use of his legs in an accident, which the director encouraged. A lot of people were ticked when they found out the truth. A make-up artist apparently fainted with shock when she saw him standing up.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He stands at 6'5 and is definitely a looker.
