CINCINNATI -- Hollywood actor Ryan Gosling has been cast to play astronaut Neil Armstrong, an Ohioan, in an upcoming biopic.
According to Esquire, Gosling will play Armstrong in “First Man,” an adaptation of the book First Man: A Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James Hansen.
Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. He died at the age of 82 in Cincinnati in 2012.
A statement from his family said the pioneering astronaut died in Cincinnati following complications from heart surgery.
Half a billion people watched on television as Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon on July 20, 1969. With the words, "that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong made history as the first man on the moon.
Armstrong also taught at the University of Cincinnati for nearly a decade in the 1970s, creating courses such as aircraft design and flight navigation operations. He did it with the same humility and quiet dedication that marked his private life.
