Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor. He began his career in the 1980s, and has since become best known for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 2002 - 2007 Spider-Man films
Maguire was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Wendy , 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, deciding to focus himself on his blossoming acting career. By 2000, Maguire had obtained his GED to officially graduate from high school, noting that during his high school days, he'd reached a point where "I wasn't doing school. I was showing up, but...not really giving myself."
n 2002, Maguire shot to superstardom as the web-slinging superhero Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, based on the popular Marvel comic book character. He reprised his role in the sequels Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007) and has vocally reprised his role as Spider-Man in the video game adaptations of the films.
Maguire solidified his stardom in 2003 with a leading role as the jockey John M. "Red" Pollard in the acclaimed film Seabiscuit, about the famous racehorse Seabiscuit. In 2006, Maguire starred in his first villainous role as Corporal Patrick Tully opposite George Clooney and Cate Blanchett in Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, based on the Joseph Kanon novel of the same name.
