Crowe was born on 7 April 1964 in
Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Jocelyn
Yvonne (née Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe, both of whom were movie set
caterers; his father also managed a hotel. Crowe’s maternal grandfather, Stan
Wemyss, was a cinematographer who was named an MBE for filming footage
of World War II. Crowe’s maternal great-great-grandmother was Māori,
and his paternal grandfather was from Wrexham, Wales; Crowe also has
and German
ancestry. His cousins, Martin and Jeff Crowe,
are former New Zealand cricket captains.
When Crowe was four years old,
his family moved to Australia, where his parents pursued a career in film set
catering. The producer of the Australian TV series Spyforce
was his mother’s godfather, and Crowe at age five or six was hired for a line
of dialogue in one episode, opposite series star Jack Thompson (in 1994 Thompson played
Crowe’s father in The Sum of Us). Crowe also appeared briefly in
serial The Young Doctors.
He was educated at the Sydney Boys High School. When he was
fourteen, Crowe’s family moved back to New Zealand, where he (along with his
brother Terry) attended Auckland Grammar School with cousins Martin
Crowe and Jeff Crowe. He then continued his secondary education at
Mount Roskill Grammar School, which he
left at the age sixteen to pursue his ambitions and childhood dreams of
becoming a successful actor.
