Cuba Gooding Jr.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Gooding Jr. at the Firelight Hallmark Hall of Fame Premiere Red Carpet 2012 | |
| Born | January 2, 1968 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Spouse | Sara Kapfer (1994–present) |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Jerry Maguire (1996) |
Cuba Gooding, Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Rod Tidwell in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire.
Personal life
Gooding, Jr. was born in Bronx, New York, the son of Shirley Gooding (née Sullivan), a singer with the Sweethearts, and Cuba Gooding, Sr., a lead vocalist of the soul group The Main Ingredient.[1][2] He has three siblings: Tommy, Omar, and April. His paternal grandfather was a native of Barbados.[2] His family moved to Los Angeles after his father's music group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972; the elder Gooding abandoned his family two years later. Gooding was raised by his mother and attended four different high schools: North Hollywood High School, Tustin High School, Apple Valley High School, and John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills in Los Angeles. He served as class president in three of them.[3] He became a born-again Christian at age 13.[4] In 1994, Gooding Jr. married his high school sweetheart, Sara Kapfer, and they have three children: Spencer, Mason and Piper. They live in Pacific Palisades, and Porter Ranch, California.
Career
Early career and major success
His first job as an entertainer was as a breakdancer performing with singer Lionel Richie at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[1] After high school, Gooding studied Japanese martial arts for three years, before turning his focus toward acting. Early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues (1981), Amen (1988) and MacGyver (1988, 1989 and 1990)[5] and also had a tiny part in the popular comedy Coming to America (1988). Gooding's first major role was in John Singleton's inner-city crime drama Boyz n the Hood (1991), in which he played the lead, Tré Styles. A box office surprise and critical hit, the film is now considered a modern classic. He followed this success with supporting roles in major films such as A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994), and Outbreak (1995). In 1996, Gooding reached a new level of prominence when he was cast as an arrogant yet charismatic football player on the brink of a career-ending injury in Cameron Crowe's blockbuster dramatic sports comedy Jerry Maguire (1996) with co-star Tom Cruise, which was a major critical and commercial success and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Most significantly, it earned Gooding an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His exuberant "Show Me the Money" line in the film became a nationwide catch phrase.[6] Additionally, his Oscar acceptance speech has often been cited for its enthusiasm.
Post-Oscar prominence
In 1997, Gooding followed his breakout with a notable supporting role in the acclaimed Academy Award-winning comedy As Good as It Gets (1997), but in the following years his career was inconsistently successful. Some of his best received performances include turns in films such as the mystical drama What Dreams May Come (1998) and the US Naval drama Men of Honor (2000) in which he played the lead role and co-starred with Robert De Niro. Gooding also received attention for his roles in the epic Pearl Harbor (2001) as historical figure Doris Miller, the ensemble farce Rat Race (2001), the musical The Fighting Temptations (2003) in which he co-starred alongside Beyoncé Knowles, and the football drama Radio (2003), in which he played the title role. Additionally, though not well received critically, the family comedy Snow Dogs (2002) was a commercial success. Other roles of note during this time include a co-lead role alongside Anthony Hopkins in the psychological thriller Instinct (1999) and the voice of Buck in Disney's animated film Home on the Range (2004). However, during this stage of his career, he also began to appear in a series of films which were not critically or commercially successful, such as Chill Factor (1999), Boat Trip (2002), Norbit (2007), and Daddy Day Camp (2007), all of which had received extremely negative reviews and, with the exception of Norbit, performed poorly at the box office. On top of this, Gooding had allegedly turned down roles in successful films such as Amistad (1997) in the aftermath of his Oscar win. Ultimately, neither his earlier successes nor his leading roles in a couple of smaller independent independent films, including Lee Daniels' directorial debut Shadowboxer (2005), were able to offset these failures and prevent the downward trajectory of his career.
Recent film career
Since then, in great contrast to earlier stages of his career, Gooding has appeared in many more gritty, critically ignored, direct-to-DVD action films than theatrical or television releases. A well-received performance as Ben Carson in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) and a small supporting role in Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007) both proved to be exceptions to this trend. Indeed, a significant role in the World War II film, Red Tails (2012), produced by George Lucas and with other prominent actors such as Terrence Howard and Bryan Cranston, marked his first appearance on the big screen since American Gangster. However, in 2013, Gooding had roles in several theatrical releases, including a well-received supporting performance in Lee Daniels' The Butler and brief appearances in Don Jon and Machete Kills.
Other work
In 2013, Gooding, Jr. made his Broadway theatre debut alongside Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams in a Tony Award-nominated production of "The Trip to Bountiful".[7] In 2012, he starred in a TV pilot for FOX called Guilty that was directed by McG. Though it was well received in screenings, it was ultimately not picked up by the network. He appeared on Channel 4's Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on August 5, 2011, closing the show dueting Bad Romance with Lulu. In 2002, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[8]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | The Trip to Bountiful | Ludie Watts | Broadway |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | A Murder of Crows | Lawson Russel | |
| 2006 | End Game | Alex Thomas | |
| 2007 | The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends | Loofah the Beipiaosaurus | Voice |
| 2008 | Hero Wanted | Liam Case | |
| Linewatch | Michael Dixon | ||
| The Way of War | David Wolfe | ||
| 2009 | Lies & Illusions | Isaac | |
| The Devil's Tomb | Mack | ||
| Wrong Turn at Tahoe | Joshua | ||
| Hardwired | Luke Gibson | ||
| 2011 | Ticking Clock | Lewis Hicks | |
| Sacrifice | Detective John Hebron | ||
| The Hit List | Jonas Arbor | ||
| 2012 | One In The Chamber | Ray Carver | |
| 2013 | Absolute Deception | John Nelson |
References
- ^ a b Gaul, Lou (August 7, 2008). "Cuba Gooding Jr. talks 'Daddy Day Camp'". Phillyburbs. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ a b http://www.soulandfunkmusic.com/content/view/451/1/
- ^ "Cuba Gooding Jr Bio: movies.yahoo.com".
- ^ Williams, Kam (August 15, 2007). "Cuba Gooding: The Daddy Day Camp Interview with Kam Williams". Kamwilliams. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0274908/
- ^ "Cuba Gooding Jr". Vibe. Retrieved July 6, 2009. [dead link]
- ^ Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Williams head to Broadway
- ^ "Cuba Gooding Jr". Lodi News-Sentinel. Associated Press. January 18, 2002. Retrieved June 5, 2011.
External links
- Cuba Gooding Jr. at IMDb
- Cuba Gooding Jr. at the Internet Broadway Database
- Cinema Confidential interview (January 2002)
- Hollywood.com interview (November 9, 2000)
- Jet interview (October 11, 1999)
- Ebony interview (June 1997)
- JAM! Movies interview (December 13, 1996)
- Hanes Backstage Game with Cuba Gooding, Jr. & Michael Jordan (July 2007)
- USAToday
- Jezebel
- 1968 births
- American people of Barbadian descent
- Male actors from New York City
- American male film actors
- African-American Christians
- American evangelicals
- Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
- People from the Bronx
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors
- American male stage actors
- African-American male actors
- American male television actors
- Living people