Tobey Maguire BiographyTobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has since become famous for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.
Maguire was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Wendy (née Brown), a secretary turned screenwriter and producer, and Vincent Maguire, a construction worker and cook. He has four half-brothers. His parents, 18 and 20 years old, were unmarried at the time of his birth; the two married and subsequently divorced when Maguire was two. Maguire spent much of his childhood moving from town to town, living with each parent and other family members. During his childhood, Maguire entertained the idea of becoming a chef and to that end wanted to enroll in a home economics class as a sixth grader. His mother offered him US$100 to take a drama class instead, and Tobey agreed.
The nomadic nature of his school-age years began to take a toll on Maguire emotionally, and finally, after a relocation to yet another school, Maguire dropped out of high school his freshman year and never returned so he could focus on his acting career. By 2000, Maguire had obtained his GED to officially graduate from high school, noting that during his school days as a child, he'd reached a point where "I wasn't doing school. I was showing up, but...not really giving myself."
Maguire has been a vegetarian since 1992 and in 2009 became a vegan. He frequently makes changes in his diet to either gain or lose weight for movie roles; for example, he dramatically decreased his calorie intake for Seabiscuit followed by a rapid increase to regain weight for Spider-Man 2.
In an article for Premiere magazine, Sam Raimi confirmed the long-standing rumor that Maguire and his Spider-Man co-star Kirsten Dunst had "a thing" going on during the 2001 shooting of the first film. As Raimi explained for the article, "I'm so dumb, because I met with them for dinner one night during the shooting to talk about the next day's scenes. And I go, 'Okay, well, that's it for the meeting.' And then I ask Kirsten, 'Can I drive you home?' And they look at each other and she goes, 'No, no, I'm going to play a game of Touch 10 with Tobey.' I don't know, it was some game. I thought, 'That's weird. She's got to work tomorrow.'"
Maguire met Jennifer Meyer in 2003 while he was shooting the movie Seabiscuit at Universal Studios, and became engaged in April 2006. Their daughter Ruby Sweetheart Maguire was born November 10, 2006. Ruby's middle name comes from a childhood nickname of Meyer's given to her by her grandmother, who died a few months before Ruby's birth. The couple married on September 3, 2007, in Kona, Hawaii. Their second child, son Otis Tobias Maguire, was born on May 8, 2009.
In 2004, Maguire took up tournament poker. He has finished in the money in several events and has been tutored by poker professional Daniel Negreanu. Maguire can be seen on ESPN's coverage of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship. Moreover, professional poker player Phil Hellmuth said during the June 28, 2007, episode of Poker After Dark that Tobey has won $10 million by playing poker in Hollywood. Maguire played in the 2007 World Series of Poker. He survived days 1a, 2a and 3 but was eliminated in 292nd place on the fourth day, taking $39,445 in prize money.
Maguire loves playing basketball; he often plays pick-up games with friends and organizes a weekly game on Saturdays when he is both in Los Angeles and not filming a movie that day. He also enjoys watching basketball games, especially the Los Angeles Lakers and can often be seen with wife Jennifer Meyer at courtside for Laker home games. As a baby gift, comedienne Ellen DeGeneres gave Maguire a special basketball motif stroller with Lexan dome to protect Ruby from errant basketballs so that the new family could enjoy the Lakers together.
