Born in Glendale, California, Edward Furlong had no acting ambitions until he was approached by casting agent Mali Finn, who was looking for a young actor to play the role of John Conner in what turned out to be one of the the biggest box-office hits of the 1990s, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Finn instantly recognized his ability, and suggested him for the part, feeling that he could hold his own playing opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton.

For his career-starting role, Furlong earned an MTV movie award for best breakthrough role, and a Saturn Sci-Fi award for best young actor. From there, he took an unconventional route through Hollywood, which led to his working with some of the top people in the business, in both studio and independent films. His work has included starring opposite Jeff Bridges in American Heart for which he was nominated for an IFP Spirit award for best supporting actor. He has also starred in A Home of Our Own with Kathy Bates, Little Odessa with Tim Roth, The Grass Harp with Walter Matthau and Barbet Schroeder's Before and After.

He also starred opposite Edward Norton in Tony Kaye's controversial and gripping drama American History X and in the hit comedy Pecker. More recently, Furlong has been opposite Willem Dafoe in the prison drama Animal Factory, directed by Steve Buscemi. He recently starred in Pupi Avati's 11th-century tale, Cavalieri che fecero l'impresa, I ("The Knights of the Quest").
He was discovered by a casting director at the Boys Club of Pasadena, and won the part of "John Connor" in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He reprised his Terminator 2: Judgment Day character, "John Connor", for the theme park attraction T2-3D, a short film filmed in a new 3-D process that makes the film really appear to jump out at you. Former girlfriend and manager, Jacqueline Louise Domac, has gone to the courts to request 15 percent of Edward's earnings for the last 3 year for abuse and breach of contract. Arrested by West Hollywood Police in 2 separate incidents: 1) for driving without a license 2) for DUI & causing a car wreck (just 4 hours after the first incident). [25 September 2001] Replaced Scott Ryan Whinery for the lead role in _Firecracker (2003/I)_ . Is a vegetarian. Attended Elliot Junior High School and South Pasadena Junior High School before filming Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In 1992, he launched a successful music career in Japan and is still extremely popular with Japanese girls today. His debut song "Hold On Tight" even beat Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" to #1 on the Japanese charts. Modelled for labels such as "Gap" and Calvin Klein and has advertised for the Japanese food company, "Hot Noodle". During the shooting of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, his voice changed and he had to loop all of his lines in quite a few scenes. He also grew quite a bit. At the beginning of shooting, he was a few inches smaller than his double and, at the end, he was a little bit taller than him. He even had to stand in a hole during the shooting of some scenes. Says on the commentary for The Crow: Wicked Prayer that Apocalypse Now is his favorite movie of all time. Rated #69 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars". If half-Mexican on his mother's side. His mother's name is Eleanor Torres. Edward and his wife, Rachael Bella, became the parents of a boy, Ethan Page Furlong, on September 21, 2006. Ethan weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. First child and son Ethan Page born September 21, 2006.