Tobias Vincent Maguire was born on June 27, 1975, in Santa Monica, California. Maguire?s father, Vincent, and mother, Wendy, were young and unwed when he was born. Although they married soon after the birth, their relationship was short-lived and Maguire spent much of his early childhood shuttling between households in California, Washington and Oregon. Maguire?s mother, a secretary, encouraged her son to take acting lessons and soon she was escorting him through the standard circuit of Hollywood auditions. Maguire managed to cadge one- and two-line roles in such sitcoms as Roseanne and Blossom. Maguire left school in the ninth grade to devote himself to acting. He eventually landed a lead role in FOX?s ill-fated Great Scott! which got cancelled in 1992 after nine weeks.

In 1995, Maguire auditioned for the lead in the Generation X comedy Empire Records. After a brief sabbatical from the audition circuit, later that year he appeared in Duke of Groove, a short-film which received an Oscar nomination. He then leveraged a role in Woody Allen?s Deconstructing Harry (1997) and following that, a major role in the brooding, Ang Lee drama The Ice Storm (1997). After a small role in the film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson?s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Maguire again played the coming-of-age card in The Cider House Rules, a wistful interpretation of John Irving?s bestselling novel. The film garnered seven Academy Award nominations. In Wonder Boys (2000), Maguire found himself playing a slightly quirkier version of the prodigal son. But with the release of Spiderman (2002), Maguire?s days as the Holden-Caulfield-in-residence seem to be over. Reportedly paid $4 million for the title role, Maguire (with the help of a range of state-of-the-art special effects) made the transition from nerdy teen Peter Parker to comic book hero. The actor has signed on for the sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man, for 2004. He is an avid participant in the city?s nightlife and a visible member of what the media has dubbed ?the latter-day Rat Pack? along with fellow actor Leonardo DiCaprio.