John Cusack

John Cusack
Cusack at the Comic-Con 2011
Born	John Paul Cusack (1966-06-28) June 28, 1966 (age 45) Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer, writer
Years active	1983–present
Parents	Dick Cusack (deceased), Nancy Cusack
Family	Ann Cusack (sister), Joan Cusack (sister), Bill Cusack (brother), Susie Cusack (sister)

John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Pointe Blank, The Thin Red Line, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, and 1408.

Early life

Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American Catholic family.^[1][2] His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist.^[3][4] His father, Dick Cusack (1925–2003), was an actor, as are his siblings, Ann, Joan, Bill, and Susie.^[5] His father was also a documentary filmmaker,^[6] owned a film production company,^[7] and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan.^[8] Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in [his] belly".^[9]

Career

Cusack gained fame in the mid-1980s after appearing in teen movies such as Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer, and Sixteen Candles. Cusack made a cameo in the 1988 music video for "Trip At The Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies. In 1989 he starred as Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.... His roles broadened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare such as the politically themed True Colors and the film noir thriller The Grifters. He was later offered the role of the title character of Fred in the film Drop Dead Fred, but dropped out due to a death in his family.

Cusack experienced box office success with his roles in the dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank and the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster Con Air. In the years since, his range of films has diversified, appearing in roles such as an obsessive puppeteer in Being John Malkovich, a lovelorn record store owner in High Fidelity, and a Jewish art dealer mentoring a young Adolf Hitler in Max. He starred in the horror film 1408, based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. He next appeared as a widowed father in the Iraq War-themed drama Grace is Gone and as assassin Brand Hauser in the dark political satire, War, Inc., along with Hilary Duff and Marisa Tomei.

His sister Joan Cusack and close friend Jeremy Piven have appeared in many of his films. The siblings appeared as two geeks in Sixteen Candles: John as one of Farmer Ted's posse, and Joan as the geek with the neck brace. They also appeared together in Say Anything, Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity, Cradle Will Rock, Martian Child, and War, Inc.. Piven and Cusack play opposite one another in One Crazy Summer, Serendipity, Say Anything, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Cusack also had a brief cameo, seen from behind but speaking a line of dialogue, in Broadcast News, in which Joan also appeared. Piven also had roles in The Grifters and Runaway Jury.^[10]

Cusack was next seen in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012, which was released in theaters November 13, 2009; he played Jackson Curtis, a struggling novelist and limo driver, with his Identity and Martian Child co-star Amanda Peet. In 2010, Cusack starred in Hot Tub Time Machine, opposite Rob Corddry, Clark Duke, and Craig Robinson. In his latest film, the thriller The Raven, he portrayed Edgar Allen Poe; the film was released on April 27, 2012.

Cusack in The Raven, 2012

Personal life

John Cusack on the set of Grosse Pointe Blank

Cusack has an allegiance to both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, for which, he says, he is "in trouble there for that."^[11] He has led the crowd in a performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field.^[11] He has also been spotted at multiple Chicago Bears games and attended many of the Stanley Cup Finals games in support of the Chicago Blackhawks.^[12]

Cusack has trained in kickboxing for over 20 years under former world kickboxing champion Benny “The Jet" Urquidez. He began training under Urquidez in preparation for his role in Say Anything and currently holds the rank of Level 6 black belt in Urquidez’ Ukidokan Kickboxing system.^[13]

Political views

Between 2005 and 2009, John Cusack blogged at The Huffington Post, including an interview with Naomi Klein. He has blogged about on his opposition to the war in Iraq and his disdain for the Bush administration, calling its worldview "depressing, corrupt, unlawful, and tragically absurd".^[14]

He also appeared in a June 2008 MoveOn.org advertisement, where he made the claim that George W. Bush and John McCain have the same governing priorities.^[15]

Stalking incident

In March 2008, police arrested Emily Leatherman outside Cusack's Malibu home for stalking the actor. On October 10, 2008, Leatherman plead no contest and received five years probation and mandatory psychiatric counseling, and was ordered to stay away from Cusack, his home and business for the next 10 years.^[16]

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Cusack

• John Cusack at AllRovi
• John Cusack on Charlie Rose
• John Cusack on Twitter
• John Cusack at the Internet Movie Database
• John Cusack collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Works by or about John Cusack in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• John Cusack collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• John Cusack Interview
• The Onion A.V. Club interview, November 27, 2007