Tobias Vincent Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor. He began his career in the 1990s, and has since become best known for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Spider-Man film series.Maguire was born in Santa Monica, California. His father, Vincent Maguire, was a construction worker and a cook. His mother, Wendy Brown, is a secretary turned screenwriter and producer.His parents were 18 and 20 years old, and 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 $100 USD 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 yet another relocation to yet another school, Maguire dropped out of his freshman year of high school and never returned, deciding to focus himself on his blossoming acting career. By 2000, Maguire had taken the 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."
Maguire has been engaged to jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer, daughter of Universal Studios COO Ron Meyer, since April 2006; the couple met in 2003 while Maguire was working on the movie Seabiscuit at Universal Studios, and soon began dating. They have a daughter named Ruby Sweetheart Maguire (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.
Maguire has been a vegetarian for over 14 years and is working toward a vegan diet, though he makes vegetarian changes in his diet to either gain or lose weight for movie roles, like dramatically decreasing his calorie intake for Seabiscuit followed by a rapid increase to regain the weight for Spider-Man 2.On the subject of vegetarianism, Maguire notes that "I’m close to being a vegan, but I’m not one, technically. I don’t eat eggs, or nearly any dairy--no cheese or milk. I do eat honey, and a piece of milk chocolate here and there. It’s never really been that hard for me. I’ve never had any desire to eat meat. In fact, when I was a kid I would have a really difficult time eating meat at all. It had to be the perfect bite, with no fat or gristle or bone or anything like that. I don’t judge people who eat meat--that’s not for me to say--but the whole thing just sort of bums me out."
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.'"
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 and 2006 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 292th place on the fourth day, taking $39,445 in prize money. He actually ended up sitting next to another celebrity, Sully Erna, the singer of Godsmack.
Maguire loves playing basketball; he often plays pick-up games with friends (as described by author James Crotty of the alternative online travel site Monk.Com) and organizes a weekly game on Saturdays when he's 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 fiancée 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.
In the same interview with DeGeneres, Maguire confessed to being a big fan of American Idol and particularly expressed appreciation for the talent of contestant Blake Lewis. Two weeks before the finale, he predicted that the final two would be Blake and Jordin Sparks, who eventually went on to become the final pair.
