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Samuel L. Jackson

 
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Samuel L. Jackson

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Samuel L. Jackson
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actor

Personal Information

Born December 21, 1948, in Chattanooga, TN. Married LaTanya Richardson, an actress, c. 1981; daughter, Zoe.
Education: Received Dramatic Arts degree from Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA, 1972.

Career

Co-founded Just Us theater company and member of Negro Ensemble Company, Atlanta, c. 1970s; appeared in New York stage productions, including A Soldier's Play, 1981; The Piano Lesson, 1987; Sally/Prince, 1989; The District Line, 1990; Two Trains Running, 1990; and Home. Appeared in Seattle Repertory production of Fences; appeared in Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles production of Distant Fires, 1993. Made film debut in Together for Days; appeared in numerous films, including Ragtime, 1981; Raw, 1987; School Daze, 1988; Sea of Love, 1989; Do the Right Thing, 1989; Mo' Better Blues, 1990; Def by Temptation, 1990; Goodfellas, 1991; Jungle Fever, 1991; Jumpin' at the Boneyard, 1992; White Sands, 1992; Patriot Games, 1992; True Romance, 1993; Menace II Society, 1993; National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I, 1993; Amos & Andrew, 1993; Jurassic Park, 1993; Against the Wall, 1994; Assault at West Point:The Court Martial of Johnson Whittaker, 1994; Fresh, 1994; and Pulp Fiction, 1994; Kiss of Death, 1995; Die Hard: With A Vengeance, 1995; Losing Isaiah, 1995; A Time To Kill, 1996; The Long Kiss Goodnight, 1997; Eve's Bayou, 1997; 187, 1997; Jackie Brown, 1997; Sphere, 1998; The Negotiator, 1998; The Red Violin, 1998; Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, 1999; Deep Blue Sea, 1999; Shaft, 2000; Rules of Engagement, 2000; Any Given Wednesday, 2000; Unbreakable, 2000; Changing Lanes, 2001; The 51st State, 2001; The Caveman's Valentine, 2001; xXx, 2002; Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, 2002; Changing Lanes, 2002; S.W.A.T., 2003; The Incredibles, 2004; Twisted, 2004; In My Country, 2004; Coach Carter, 2005; xXx: State of the Union, 2005; Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, 2005; The Man, 2005.

Life's Work

"I never get tired of acting because I have a passion for it," Samuel Jackson declared to Paul B. Cohen of the L.A. Village View. "Every time I have an opportunity to do it, I will do it." Despite occasional encounters with the implicit racist attitude of Hollywood, he has managed to get cast "color-blind" more often than many of his black colleagues. His versatility and professionalism have been Jackson's keys to survival. As Phillip Noyce, director of Patriot Games, told the New York Times, "Sam has a remarkable connection with the cinema audience."

Likewise, Jackson is much beloved by those who enjoy live drama. Unlike film work--which tends to offer little immediate reward for the actor--Jackson has acknowledged to Cohen that "theater is such a healthy exchange of energy between the audience and the actors." He added that he can sense audience members "sitting forward, sighing, or getting carried along with the momentum of what we're doing, so it's very invigorating."

Jackson spent years reinvesting that energy in role after role, until finally erupting into widespread public notice in the late 1980s. Before then, his lengthy resume of film appearances consisted mostly of low-profile character parts until his award-winning performance in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever moved him to the top of casting directors' lists. He went on to appear in increasingly varied features with two goals in mind--stretching his range and returning to stage, the arena in which he got his start.

Jackson grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with his mother, grandparents, and his aunt, who was a schoolteacher. His urge to perform emerged while he was still quite young. "As a kid I loved Treasure Island," he informed Jean Oppenheimer of the L.A. Village View. "My favorite pirate movie was The Crimson Pirate with Burt Lancaster. When I was a kid we played pirates in our neighborhood, not sissy stuff like Captain Hook but serious pirates." He also participated in rowdy neighborhood recreations of favorite westerns, substituting bicycles for the horses. When he was not pretending to be a high sea rogue, he acted in his aunt's school plays. However, he did not seriously participate in the theater world until he was in college.

Jackson attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, but in order to major in theater he had to take all his theater classes at the college's sister school, Spelman. There he met LaTanya Richardson, an actress whom he would later marry; there too, he made his adult performance debut in the darkly satirical Weill-Brecht classic, The Three Penny Opera, making up for his lack of singing acumen with his acting skills. Meanwhile, offstage was becoming radicalized by the burgeoning black liberation movement of the early 1970s. Student anger at the lack of African American studies and the institution's control by a white governing body caused him to participate in an action that involved locking a few Morehouse trustees--including Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr.--in a room until the insurgents' demands were met. For having had a hand in things, Jackson and some of his comrades, were suspended but later reinstated.

Focusing on what would soon become his career, Jackson helped start the Just Us theater company in Atlanta, but he and Richardson ultimately left for New York City in 1976. "All I know is, we pulled into [Greenwich] Village at night, and everyone on the street looked really bizarre," Jackson told Michael Angeli of the New York Times. "We were going to live with some friends on Barrow Street. What we didn't realize was that it was Halloween, and we were in the middle of a parade." Though he did not begin his own parade of acting roles until some years later, he did start working in the theater almost immediately.

For the next several years, Jackson appeared in various plays. Film work was sometimes offered, as when he appeared in 1981's Ragtime, but it was when he was appearing onstage in A Soldier's Play the same year that he began making real connections. He first met fellow African American actor Morgan Freeman, who greatly encouraged him, then a young film student named Spike Lee. Lee came backstage to introduce himself. Jackson recollected to the New York Times. "He told me he was a Morehouse alumnus, that he was at NYU [New York University] film school, da-da-da. He was going to, um, be a filmmaker. He said when he started to make films, he would love for me to be in his movies. It was, like, I had my dream, and he had his--a surplus of reality there, you know what I mean?"

Lee's dream came true, and Jackson appeared in several of the writer/director's films, including School Daze in 1988, and the following year's Do the Right Thing. Jackson observed that Lee's tendency to use the same actors in different films lent an esprit de corps to the productions. "Bill Nunn, Giancarlo [Esposito]--we knew each other from Morehouse, where we did plays together. There's something to be said for the ensemble feeling, for getting to know other actors and having a feeling for working with them," Jackson explained to Angeli. "And doing Spike's films, that was the one thing we all had to look forward to every year--knowing we were going to get together again. Same crew, same actors," he continued. Jackson also landed character roles in features by other directors; in the late 1980s to early 1990s, Jackson worked in The Exorcist III, Coming to America, Sea of Love and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. But Lee was the creative force behind the film that made Jackson's reputation, Jungle Fever.

In that 1991 production, Jackson played Gator, the crack-addicted brother of Flipper Purify, played by Wesley Snipes. This character hit home because Jackson himself was a recovering crack addict. He brought an explosive charisma and unpredictability to the portrayal; Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called him "a blistering actor in an unforgettable role." When the film debuted at the Cannes film festival, the judges named Jackson the best supporting actor. The award was a double honor because the Cannes judging had never before extended to that category, but Jackson's performance left an indelible mark on those who would rate him. Besides winning at that prestigious affair, he also received a New York Film Critics award. Jackson even won over the toughest critic of all--himself. Perhaps the greatest satisfaction accorded by the showing was that for once, as he told Lena Williams of the New York Times, "I don't want to go back and fix it."

A few months after Jungle Fever's release, Jackson was surprised to find that his increased visibility and all the acclaim made some filmmakers think he was unavailable except at high salaries. He emphasized to Williams that he was "not out of anyone's range yet." Nonetheless, he proceeded to take small roles in such offbeat films as Juice and True Romance, among others. When Jackson was sent the script for the thriller White Sands, he assumed he was being considered for the part of the villain--a role eventually bagged by Mickey Rourke.

"Then they call me back and say no, you're Meeker, the FBI agent. What? I had to go back and read it again," Jackson admitted to Premiere's Veronica Chambers. "And I like the guy [Meeker] a lot. He's not obviously bad or obviously good. It was a stretch from Gator to that character. And I really would like to display the fact that I have that range." The film's director, Roger Donaldson, praised Jackson to Chambers, saying "He's got enormous resources as an actor. He's extremely talented technically. Sam can do something one take, then go back and build on it. He's spontaneous, but he's well trained.... And he's a nice guy."

Hollywood did not need to be heavily persuaded about Jackson's willingness to take on different genres. He shared above-the-title billing in two broad comedies, Amos & Andrew and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I. Unfortunately, critics trashed both 1993 films. Entertainment Weekly's review of the Amos & Andrew, for example, consisted largely of career advice for the actor. Their reviewer wondered, "did Samuel L. Jackson really have to follow up his mesmerizing, out-on-the-edge performance as a homeless crack addict [in Jungle Fever] with National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I and the imbecilic mistaken-identity farce Amos & Andrew?" The unequivocal pan concluded by urging the actor to "call your agent--and fire him."

Despite such misfires, Jackson continued working regularly in the 1990s, appearing as a technician in the box-office hit Jurassic Park--also one of the top-selling movies of all time--as one of Harrison Ford's allies in Patriot Games, and in an ensemble role in Menace II Society. Patriot Games director Noyce told the New York Times that Jackson, despite having his performance severely edited, "made so much out of so little that the audience imagined he had a greater participation than he actually did."

In 1994, Jackson was cast as a killer in writer-director Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, an ultraviolent thriller boasting what Jackson described to Cohen as "one of the best scripts I've read in a couple of years." The plumb role contained "four to five page [long] speeches ... and that's something you don't normally do in a film," though he had done so on stage. Jackson had earlier appeared in such prestigious New York productions as August Wilson's two acclaimed pieces, The Piano Lesson and Two Trains Running. His appreciation for the dialogues Wilson had written was obvious. Speaking to Cohen, Jackson reflected, "August writes three-hour plays, and when I was doing Piano Lesson--I was the original [protagonist] Boy Willie before [actor] Charles Dutton did it--that character talks for about two hours and ten minutes in a three-hour play...."

Despite the plethora of motion picture work he obtained in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jackson pined to appear onstage again. Once he did, he was pleasantly surprised to find a new environment in regards to many playwrights. In a New York Times interview, Jackson observed that "the black acting community is relatively small. Especially in New York theater. The funny thing is that when they used to cast black roles, everybody from age 20 to 50 was called because they had no idea what kind of black person they wanted for the role. That kind of let you know that they sort of didn't have a clue as to who these people are."

Though Jackson assumed he would have to maintain himself in New York City for theatrical roles, he was pleasantly surprised at the opportunity to be in the 1993 working-class play Distant Fires in Los Angeles. "Everybody's very concerned about the production as a whole and not about their own performances," he enthused to Cohen. He similarly told Premiere's Chambers "I always want to get back to theater to make sure that I'm still an actor. You have to convince people who are actually sitting there looking at you that you're doing what you're doing, without all the trappings of reality around you."

Jackson's time on stage was short-lived because Hollywood continued to beckon. Since Jungle Fever, he has been in over 30 films. Jackson teamed up with fellow Pulp Fiction star Bruce Willis in Die Hard: With A Vengeance, the third installment of the Die Hard films. He also portrayed Carl Lee Hailey, the father who murdered two white rednecks who brutally raped his daughter in A Time To Kill, a film based on the bestseller by John Grisham.

Jackson has also appeared in Fresh, Losing Isaiah with Jessica Lange and Halle Berry, The Long Kiss Goodnight with Geena Davis, The Great White Hype, a satire on the boxing industry--he portrayed a character like boxing promoter Don King--and U.S. Marshals with Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes. He also took part in Sphere, a thriller, with Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone. He told Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly, "The closer together your jobs are, the greater the [producers] think your ability is."

Jackson teamed up again with Quentin Tarantino in Jackie Brown, an adaptation of author Elmore Leonard's book, Rum Punch, and starring Foxy Brown star, Pam Grier--a favorite of Tarantino--Robert DeNiro, Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton. This film opened to mixed reviews but Jackson shined in them all. Though not as violent as other Tarantino flicks, Jackie Brown was still offensive to some, especially concerning the use of the N-word in the film. Director Spike Lee took offense, even accusing Tarantino of wanting to be black. Jackson came to Tarantino's defense, quoted in Jet as saying, "Black artists think they are the only ones allowed to use the word. Well, that's bull. This film is a wonderful homage to Black exploitation films (of the 1970s). This is a good film. And Spike hasn't made one of those in a few years."

Jackson also starred and co-produced Eve's Bayou. Though he hoped the producer title was just ceremonial, it turned out to be real. He told Joe Leydon of MSNBC that once on location, he found that he was "the only producer who's really on the set. So, things start to happen. And you have goals every day." The independent film won raves from critics and Jackson is set to produce another film.

Jackson has completed his part in the first installment of the Star Wars prequels. He plays a Jedi Knight. Jackson will also utter that famous line, "May the force be with you." Since this is a prequel to the already released Star Wars saga, he is actually the first person to ever say the line. He also appeared in The Negotiator, The Red Violin, and a small-barely noticeable part in Out Of Sight. To sum up his busy year, Jackson was quoted in MSNBC as saying, "All I can say is, it's been an interesting kind of year for me. I look up one day, and I'm standing across from Dustin Hoffman, and I go 'Wow!' And I look up another day, and I'm next to Robert DeNiro. And last week--I died and went to heaven. I looked up, and there was Yoda."

On tap for 2002, Jackson worked on Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones, and a drama with John Travolta, called Basic. Two crime thrillers in the works for the early 2000s included No Good Deed with Milla Jovovich, and XXX--which takes place against the backdrop of the Xtreme sports culture. Trappings notwithstanding, Jackson admitted to L.A. Village View writer Jean Oppenheimer that he still wants to play a pirate, as well as a gunslinger, as he had done in his neighborhood as a child. Yet he has never lost sight of the practical necessities of his career. Indeed, Samuel Jackson seems, with each new performance, to guarantee a versatility and commitment that never go out of style.

In August of 2003 Jackson's film, S.W.A.T., was released and quickly became a number-one box office hit. It was based on a 1970s television series of the same name. In September an advertising campaign by the American Civil Liberties Union stood in opposition to United States President George W. Bush's expansion of law enforcement powers. Celebrities appearing in the campaign included actors Jackson, Richard Dreyfuss, Al Pacino, Martin Sheen and Kristin Davis; author Kurt Vonnegut; and Michael Stipe, the lead singer of musical group REM.

In February of 2004 Jackson appeared in Twisted. In November he starred as the voice of Lucius Best in The Incredibles, which was released by Walt Disney Pictures. The movie, directed by Brad Bird and about middle-aged, retired superheroes who have to jump back into action when a psychotic man tries to take over the world, was a huge success. In March Jackson starred in In My Country, which was released by Sony Pictures Classics. The film was an adaptation of the story from Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog.

In 2005 Jackson was seen in no less than four films. January of 2005 saw Jackson starring in Coach Carter, which was released by Paramount Pictures. According to People, "The ever reliable Jackson gives a strong, forceful performance." In May Jackson reprised his role of Jedi master Mace Windu for the last installment of the Star Wars Prequels: Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Then in September Jackson starred in The Man with Eugene Levy, which was released by New Line Cinema. He was next seen in XXX: State of the Union. In October Jackson bought a condo in New York City with his wife, LaTanya Richardson.

Awards

Best Supporting Actor award at Cannes Film Festival and New York Film Critics award for Jungle Fever, 1991; Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor, nominated for Pulp Fiction, 1995; BAFTA (British Academy) Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, for Pulp Fiction, 1995; Independent Spirit Awards, 1995, 1998; Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, for A Time to Kill, 1997; Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actor for Jackie Brown, Berlin International Film Festival, 1998; Black Film Award, Acapulco Black Film Festival, 1998; Career Achievement Award, Acapulco Black Film Festival, 1999; Man of the Year, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, 1999; Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 2000; nominated for Best Actor in a Film, 1st Annual Black Entertainment Television Awards, 2001.

Further Reading

  • Entertainment Weekly, March 5, 1993, p. 42; February 18, 1994, pp. 102-3; November 25, 1994; March 5, 2004, p. 48; May 13, 2005, p. 64; September 23, 2005, p. 67.
  • Essence, April 1992, p. 48.
  • Interview, April 1992, p. 50.
  • Jet, March 9, 1998, p. 36; August 18, 2003, p. 60; January 17, 2005, p. 54; October 24, 2005, p. 48.
  • L.A. Village View, February 12, 1993, 11; December 3, 1993.
  • New York Times, June 9, 1991; February 7, 1993, section 2, 13-14.
  • People, January 24, 2005, p. 31; March 28, 2005, p. 30; September 19, 2005, p. 37.
  • Premiere, May 1992, p. 57.
  • Rolling Stone, June 27, 1991, 75-6.
  • Launch, launch.yahoo.com/read/news.asp?contentID=214351 (August 14, 2003).
  • New York Times, www.nytimes.com, September 21, 2003.
  • New York Times, movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=282834, March 9, 2004.
  • New York Times, movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=287450, November 12, 2004.
  • New York Times, movies2.nytimes.com, January 21, 2005.
  • New York Times, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=299150, April 1, 2005.
  • New York Times, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=306977, September 19, 2005.
  • Other Information also obtained online at www.msnbc.com, The Samuel L. Jackson Home Page at http://member.aol.com/gifhack, www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistE2K/jackson--samuel.html, and www.imdb.com.

— Simon Glickman and Ashyia N. Henderson

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Samuel L. Jackson

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"What kills me is that everybody thinks I like jazz."

AMG AllMovie Guide:

Samuel L. Jackson

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Biography

After spending the 1980s playing a series of drug addict and character parts, Samuel L. Jackson emerged in the 1990s as one of the most prominent and well-respected actors in Hollywood. Work on a number of projects, both high-profile and low-key, has given Jackson ample opportunity to display an ability marked by both remarkable versatility and smooth intelligence.

Born December 21, 1948, in Washington, D.C., Jackson was raised by his mother and grandparents in Chattanooga, TN. He attended Atlanta's Morehouse College, where he was co-founder of Atlanta's black-oriented Just Us Theater (the name of the company was taken from a famous Richard Pryor routine). Jackson arrived in New York in 1977, beginning what was to be a prolific career in film, television, and on the stage. After a plethora of character roles of varying sizes, Jackson was discovered by the public in the role of the hero's tempestuous, drug-addict brother in 1991's Jungle Fever, directed by another Morehouse College alumnus, Spike Lee. Jungle Fever won Jackson a special acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival and thereafter his career soared. Confronted with sudden celebrity, Jackson stayed grounded by continuing to live in the Harlem brownstone where he'd resided since his stage days.

1994 was a particularly felicitous year for Jackson; while his appearances in Jurassic Park (1993) and Menace II Society (1993) were still being seen in second-run houses, he co-starred with John Travolta as a mercurial hit man in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination. His portrayal of an embittered father in the more low-key Fresh earned him additional acclaim. The following year, Jackson landed third billing in the big-budget Die Hard With a Vengeance and also starred in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah. His versatility was put on further display in 1996 with the release of five very different films: The Long Kiss Goodnight, a thriller in which he co-starred with Geena Davis as a private detective; an adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, which featured him as an enraged father driven to murder; Steve Buscemi's independent Trees Lounge; The Great White Hype, a boxing satire in which the actor played a flamboyant boxing promoter; and Hard Eight, the directorial debut of Paul Thomas Anderson.

After the relative quiet of 1997, which saw Jackson again collaborate with Tarantino in the critically acclaimed Jackie Brown and play a philandering father in the similarly acclaimed Eve's Bayou (which also marked his debut as a producer), the actor lent his talents to a string of big-budget affairs (an exception being the 1998 Canadian film The Red Violin). Aside from an unbilled cameo in Out of Sight (1998), Jackson was featured in leading roles in The Negotiator (1998), Sphere (1998), and Deep Blue Sea (1999). His prominence in these films added confirmation of his complete transition from secondary actor to leading man, something that was further cemented by a coveted role in what was perhaps the most anticipated film of the decade, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), the first prequel to George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy. Jackson followed through on his leading man potential with a popular remake of Gordon Parks' seminal 1971 blaxploitation flick Shaft. Despite highly publicized squabbling between Jackson and director John Singleton, the film was a successful blend of homage, irony, and action; it became one of the rare character-driven hits in the special effects-laden summer of 2000.

From hard-case Shaft to fragile as glass, Jackson once again hoodwinked audiences by playing against his usual super-bad persona in director M. Night Shyamalan's eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable (2000). In his role as Bruce Willis' brittle, frail antithesis, Jackson proved that though he can talk trash and break heads with the best of them, he's always compelling to watch no matter what the role may be. Next taking a rare lead as a formerly successful pianist turned schizophrenic on the trail of a killer in the little-seen The Caveman's Valentine, Jackson turned in yet another compelling and sympathetic performance. Following an instance of road rage opposite Ben Affleck in Changing Lanes (2002), Jackson stirred film geek controversy upon wielding a purple lightsaber in the eagerly anticipated Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. Despite rumors that the color of the lightsaber may have had some sort of mythical undertone, Jackson laughingly assured fans that it was a simple matter of his suggesting to Lucas that a purple lightsaber would simply "look cool," though he was admittedly surprised to see that Lucas had obliged him Jackson eventually saw the final print. A few short months later filmgoers would find Jackson recruiting a muscle-bound Vin Diesel for a dangerous secret mission in the spy thriller XXX.

Jackson reprised his long-standing role as Mace Windu in the last segment of George Lucas's Star Wars franchise to be produced, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). It (unsurprisingly) grossed almost four hundred million dollars, and became that rare box-office blockbuster to also score favorably (if not unanimously) with critics; no less than Roger Ebert proclaimed it "spectacular." Jackson co-headlined 2005's crime comedy The Man alongside Eugene Levy and 2006's Joe Roth mystery Freedomland with Julianne Moore and Edie Falco, but his most hotly-anticipated release at the time of this writing is August 2006's Snakes on a Plane, a by-the-throat thriller about an assassin who unleashes a crate full of vipers onto a aircraft full of innocent (and understandably terrified) civilians. Produced by New Line Cinema on a somewhat low budget, the film continues to draw widespread buzz that anticipates cult status. Black Snake Moan, directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) dramatizes the relationship between a small-town girl (Christina Ricci) and a blues player (Jackson). The picture is slated for release in September 2006 with Jackson's Shaft collaborator, John Singleton, producing.

According to the trades, Jackson is next contracted to appear in Irwin Winkler's drama Home of the Brave (about the Iraqi war), Rod Lurie's Resurrecting the Champ (about a homeless person, played by Jackson, who is mistaken for a former heavyweight champion), and 1408, an adaptation of a Stephen King story about a hotel room plagued by paranormal occurrences, which Jackson will co-headline with John Cusack. The aforementioned films are tentatively scheduled for release through the end of 2007. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Filmography:

Samuel L. Jackson

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Twisted

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Kill Bill Vol. 2

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Basic

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Kill Bill Vol. 1

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S.W.A.T.

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XXX

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Changing Lanes

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Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

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No Good Deed

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Formula 51

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Rules of Engagement

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Shaft

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Unbreakable

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Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

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Deep Blue Sea

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Sphere

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Out of Sight

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The Negotiator

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The Red Violin

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One Eight Seven

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Eve's Bayou

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Jackie Brown

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The Directors: John Frankenheimer

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Happily Ever After Fairy Tales: Pied Piper

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Hard Eight

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The Great White Hype

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The Search for One-Eyed Jimmy

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A Time to Kill

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The Long Kiss Goodnight

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Losing Isaiah

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Die Hard With a Vengeance

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Fluke

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Kiss of Death

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Shaquille O'Neal: Larger than Life

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Hail Caesar

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Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker

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Fresh

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Pulp Fiction

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Against the Wall

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The New Age

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Amos & Andrew

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Jurassic Park

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Menace II Society

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The Meteor Man

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National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1

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True Romance

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Fathers and Sons

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Johnny Suede

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Juice

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Jumpin' at the Boneyard

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Patriot Games

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White Sands

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Jungle Fever

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Strictly Business

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Betsy's Wedding

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Def by Temptation

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GoodFellas

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Mo' Better Blues

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The Return of Superfly

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A Shock to the System

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Dead Man Out

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Do the Right Thing

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Sea of Love

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Coming to America

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School Daze

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Eddie Murphy: Raw

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Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Ragtime

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The Trial of the Moke

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Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Samuel L. Jackson

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For other people named Samuel Jackson, see Samuel Jackson (disambiguation).
Samuel L. Jackson
An African-American man is at the centre of the image looking to the left and smiling. He is wearing a hat, glasses, a white jacket and a black t-shirt that says "MoFo".
Jackson at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con
Born Samuel Leroy Jackson
(1948-12-21) December 21, 1948 (age 63)
Washington, D.C., United States
Occupation Actor, producer
Years active 1972–present
Spouse LaTanya Richardson (m. 1980) «start: (1980)»"Marriage: LaTanya Richardson to Samuel L. Jackson" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_L._Jackson)
Website
www.samuelljackson.com

Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee. After gaining critical acclaim for his role in Jungle Fever in 1991, he appeared in films such as Patriot Games, Amos & Andrew, True Romance and Jurassic Park. In 1994, he was cast as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, and his performance received several award nominations and critical acclaim.

Jackson has since appeared in over 100 films including Die Hard with a Vengeance, The 51st State, Jackie Brown, Unbreakable, The Incredibles, Black Snake Moan, Shaft, Snakes on a Plane, as well as the Star Wars prequel trilogy and small roles in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Inglourious Basterds.

He played Nick Fury in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Marvel's The Avengers, the first five of a nine-film commitment as the character for the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Jackson's many roles have made him one of the highest-grossing actors at the box office. Jackson has won multiple awards throughout his career and has been portrayed in various forms of media including films, television series, and songs. In 1980, Jackson married LaTanya Richardson, with whom he has a daughter, Zoe.

In October 2011, Jackson surpassed Frank Welker as the highest grossing film actor of all-time.[1]

Contents

Early life

Jackson was born in Washington, D.C.[2] He grew up as an only child in Chattanooga, Tennessee with his mother, Elizabeth Jackson (née Montgomery), who was a factory worker and later a supplies buyer for a mental institution, and his maternal grandparents and extended family.[3][4] His father lived away from the family, in Kansas City, Missouri, and later died from alcoholism; Jackson had only met his father twice during his life.[3][5] Jackson attended several segregated schools[6] and graduated from Riverside High School in Chattanooga. Between the third and twelfth grades, he played the French horn and trumpet in the school orchestra.[7] Initially intent on pursuing a degree in marine biology, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After joining a local acting group to earn extra points in a class, Jackson found an interest in acting and switched his major.[8] Before graduating in 1972, he co-founded the "Just Us Theatre".[3][9]

Civil Rights Movement involvement

After the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackson attended the funeral in Atlanta as one of the ushers.[10] Jackson then flew to Memphis to join an equal rights protest march. In a Parade interview Jackson revealed: "I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn’t shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different – not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence."[11] In 1969, Jackson and several other students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees (including a nearby Martin Luther King, Sr.) hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the school's curriculum and governance.[12] The college eventually agreed to change its policy, but Jackson was charged with and eventually convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony.[13] Jackson was then suspended for two years for his criminal record and his actions (although he would later return to the college to earn his Bachelor of Arts in Drama in 1972).[14]

"I would like to think because of the things I did, my daughter can do the things that she does. She barely has a recognition that she's black."

—Jackson reflecting on his actions during the Civil Rights Movement.[6]

While he was suspended, Jackson was employed as a social worker in Los Angeles.[15] Jackson decided to return to Atlanta, where he met with Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and others active in the Black Power movement.[11] Jackson revealed in the same Parade interview that he began to feel empowered with his involvement in the movement, especially when the group began buying guns.[11] However, before Jackson could become involved with any significant armed confrontation, his mother sent him to Los Angeles after the FBI told her that he would die within a year if he remained with the Black Power movement.[11]

Acting career

1970s–1980s

"Casting black actors is still strange for Hollywood. Denzel gets the offer first. Then it's Danny Glover, Forest Whitaker and Wesley Snipes. Right now, I'm the next one on the list."

—Jackson reacting to his new fame in 1993.[15]

Jackson initially majored in marine biology at Morehouse College before switching to architecture. He later settled on drama after taking a public speaking class and appearing in a version of The Threepenny Opera.[7] Jackson began acting in multiple plays, including Home and A Soldier's Play.[3] He appeared in several television films, and made his feature film debut in the blaxploitation independent film Together for Days (1972).[16] After these initial roles, Jackson proceeded to move from Atlanta to New York City in 1976 and spent the next decade appearing in stage plays such as The Piano Lesson and Two Trains Running, which both premiered at the Yale Repertory Theater.[15][17] At this point in his early career, Jackson developed alcoholism and cocaine addictions, resulting in him being unable to proceed with the two plays as they continued to Broadway (actors Charles S. Dutton and Anthony Chisholm took his place).[14] Throughout his early film career, mainly in minimal roles in films such as Coming to America and various television films, Jackson was mentored by Morgan Freeman.[7] After a 1981 performance in the play A Soldier's Play, Jackson was introduced to director Spike Lee who would later include him in small roles for the films School Daze (1988) and Do the Right Thing (1989).[3][18] He also played a minor role in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas as real-life Mafia associate Stacks Edwards and also worked as a stand-in on The Cosby Show for Bill Cosby[12][19] for three years.

1990s

While completing these films, Jackson's drug addiction had worsened. After previously overdosing on heroin several times, Jackson gave up the drug in favor of cocaine.[20] After seeing the effects of his addiction, his family entered him into a New York rehab clinic.[7][21] When he successfully completed rehab, Jackson appeared in Jungle Fever, as a crack cocaine addict, a role which Jackson called cathartic as he was recovering from his addiction.[3] Jackson commented on the transition, "It was a funny kind of thing. By the time I was out of rehab, about a week or so later I was on set and we were ready to start shooting."[22] The film was so acclaimed that the 1991 Cannes Film Festival created a special "Supporting Actor" award just for him.[5][23] After this role, Jackson became involved with multiple films, including the comedy Strictly Business, dramas Juice and Patriot Games, and then moved on to two other comedies: National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (his first starring role) and Amos & Andrew.[24][25] Jackson then worked with director Steven Spielberg, appearing in Jurassic Park.[26]

After a turn as the criminal Big Don in the 1993 Tarantino-penned True Romance directed by Tony Scott, Tarantino contacted Jackson for the role of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. Jackson was surprised to learn that the part had been specifically written for him, "To know that somebody had written something like Jules for me. I was overwhelmed, thankful, arrogant – this whole combination of things that you could be, knowing that somebody's going to give you an opportunity like that."[27] Although Pulp Fiction was Jackson's thirtieth film, the role made him internationally recognized and he received praise from critics. In a review by Entertainment Weekly, his role was commended: "As superb as Travolta, Willis, and Keitel are, the actor who reigns over Pulp Fiction is Samuel L. Jackson. He just about lights fires with his gremlin eyes and he transforms his speeches into hypnotic bebop soliloquies."[28] For the Academy Awards, Miramax Films pushed for the supporting actor nomination for Jackson (although he had about the same screen time as Travolta, who was nominated for best actor).[29] For his performance, Jackson received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In addition, Jackson received a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Best Supporting Actor award win.[30][31][32]

After Pulp Fiction, Jackson received multiple scripts to play his next role: "I could easily have made a career out of playing Jules over the years. Everybody's always sending me the script they think is the new Pulp Fiction."[33] With a succession of poor-performing films such as Kiss of Death, The Great White Hype, and Losing Isaiah, Jackson began to receive poor reviews from critics who had praised his performance in Pulp Fiction. This ended with his involvement in the two successful box office films A Time To Kill, where he depicted a father who is put on trial for killing two men who raped his daughter, and Die Hard with a Vengeance, starring alongside Bruce Willis in the third installment of the Die Hard series.[34][35] For A Time to Kill, Jackson earned a NAACP Image for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture and a Golden Globe nomination for a Best Supporting Actor.[36]

Quickly becoming a box office star, Jackson continued with three starring roles in 1997. In 187 he played a dedicated teacher striving to leave an impact on his students.[37] He received an Independent Spirit award for Best First Feature alongside first-time writer/director Kasi Lemmons in the drama Eve's Bayou, for which he also served as executive producer.[38] He joined up again with director Quentin Tarantino and received the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival[39] and a fourth Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of arms merchant Ordell Robbie in Jackie Brown.[40] In 1998, he worked with other established actors such as Sharon Stone and Dustin Hoffman in Sphere and Kevin Spacey in The Negotiator, playing a hostage negotiator who resorts to taking hostages himself when he is falsely accused of murder and embezzlement.[41][42] In 1999, Jackson starred in the horror film Deep Blue Sea, and as Jedi Master Mace Windu in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.[43][44] In an interview, Jackson claimed that he did not have a chance to read the script for the film and did not learn he was playing the character Mace Windu until he was fitted for his costume (he later said that he was eager to accept any role, just for the chance to be a part of the Star Wars saga).[45]

2000s

Film roles

Jackson's handprints in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.
Jackson at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival

On June 13, 2000, Jackson was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which can be found at 7018 Hollywood Blvd.[46] He began the next decade in his film career as a Marine colonel put on trial in Rules of Engagement, co-starred with Bruce Willis for a third time in the supernatural thriller Unbreakable, and starred in the 2000 remake of the 1971 film Shaft.[47][48][49] Jackson's sole film in 2001 was The Caveman's Valentine, where he played a homeless musician in a murder thriller. The film was directed by Kasi Lemmons, who previously worked with Jackson in Eve's Bayou.[50] In 2002, he played a recovering alcoholic attempting to keep custody of his kids while fighting a battle of wits with Ben Affleck's character in Changing Lanes.[3] He returned for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, seeing his minor supporting role develop into a major character. Mace Windu's purple lightsaber in the film was the result of Jackson's suggestion;[3] he wanted to be sure that his character would stand out in a crowded battle scene.[51][52] Jackson then acted as a NSA agent alongside Vin Diesel in xXx and a kilt-wearing drug dealer in The 51st State.[53][54] In 2003, Jackson again worked with John Travolta in Basic and then as a police sergeant alongside Colin Farrell in the television show remake S.W.A.T.[55][56] A song within the soundtrack was named after him, entitled Sammy L. Jackson by Hot Action Cop.[57] Jackson also appeared in HBO's documentary Unchained Memories, as a narrator along many other stars like Angela Bassett and Whoopi Goldberg. He uses terminology such as paddy rollers (which can be seen on the slave patrol page) when reading his narration.

According to reviews gathered by Rotten Tomatoes, in 2004 Jackson starred in both his lowest and highest ranked films in his career.[58] In the thriller Twisted, Jackson played a mentor to Ashley Judd.[59] The film garnered a 2% approval rating on the website, with reviewers calling his performance "lackluster" and "wasted".[60][61][62] He then lent his voice to the computer-animated film The Incredibles as the superhero Frozone.[63] The film received a 97% approval rating, and Jackson's performance earned him an Annie Award nomination for Best Voice Acting.[64][65] He then went on to do a cameo in another Quentin Tarantino film, Kill Bill, Vol. 2.[66]

In 2005, he began with the sports drama, Coach Carter, where he played a coach (based on the actual coach Ken Carter) dedicated to teaching his players that education is more important than basketball.[67] Although the film received mixed reviews, Jackson's performance was praised despite the film's storyline.[68][69] Bob Townsend of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution commended Jackson's performance, "He takes what could have been a cardboard cliche role and puts flesh on it with his flamboyant intelligence."[70] Jackson also returned for two sequels: XXX: State of the Union, this time commanding Ice Cube, and the final Star Wars prequel film, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.[71][72] His last film for 2005 was The Man alongside comedian Eugene Levy.[73] On November 4, 2005, he was presented with the Hawaii International Film Festival Achievement in Acting Award.[74]

On January 30, 2006, Jackson was honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theater; he is the seventh African American and 191st actor to be recognized in this manner.[75] He next starred opposite actress Julianne Moore in the box office bomb Freedomland, where he depicted a police detective attempting to help a mother find her abducted child while quelling a citywide race riot.[76][77] Jackson's second film of the year, Snakes on a Plane, gained cult film status months before it was released based on its title and cast.[78] Jackson's decision to star in the film was solely based on the title.[79] To build anticipation for the film, he also cameoed in the 2006 music video "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" by Cobra Starship. On December 2, 2006, Jackson won the German Bambi Award for International Film, based on his many film contributions.[80] In December 2006, Jackson starred in Home of the Brave, as a doctor returning home from the Iraq War.[81]

Jackson in July 2006

On January 30, 2007, Jackson was featured as narrator in Bob Saget's direct-to-DVD Farce of the Penguins.[82] The film was a spoof of the box office success March of the Penguins (which was narrated by Morgan Freeman).[83] Also in 2007, he portrayed a blues player who imprisons a young woman (Christina Ricci) addicted to sex in Black Snake Moan, and the horror film 1408, an adaptation of the Stephen King short story.[84][85] In 2008, Jackson reprised his role of Mace Windu in the CGI film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, followed by Lakeview Terrace where he played a racist cop who terrorizes an interracial couple.[86][87] In November of the same year, he starred along with Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes (who both died prior to the film's release) in Soul Men.[88] In 2008, he portrayed the villain in The Spirit, which was poorly received by critics and the box office.[89][90] In 2009, he again worked with Quentin Tarantino when he narrated several scenes in the World War II film, Inglourious Basterds.[91] In 2010, he starred in the drama Mother and Child and portrayed an interrogator who attempts to locate several nuclear weapons in the direct-to-video film Unthinkable.[92][93] Alongside Dwayne Johnson, Jackson again portrayed a police officer in the opening scenes of the comedy The Other Guys. He also co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones for a film adaptation of The Sunset Limited.

Throughout Jackson's career, he has appeared in many films alongside mainstream rappers. These include Tupac Shakur (Juice), Queen Latifah (Juice/Sphere), Method Man (One Eight Seven), LL Cool J (Deep Blue Sea/S.W.A.T.), Busta Rhymes (Shaft), Eve (xXx), Ice Cube (xXx: State of the Union), Xzibit (xXx: State of the Union), David Banner (Black Snake Moan), and 50 Cent (Home of the Brave).[94] Additionally, Jackson has appeared in four films with actor Bruce Willis (National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Unbreakable) and the actors were slated to work together in Black Water Transit before both dropped out.[95]

Television and other roles

In addition to films, Jackson also appeared in several television shows, a video game, music videos, as well as audiobooks. Jackson had a small part in the Public Enemy music video for "911 Is a Joke". Jackson voiced several television show characters including the lead role in the anime series, Afro Samurai, in addition to a recurring part as the voice of Gin Rummy in several episodes of the animated series The Boondocks.[96][97] He guest-starred as himself in an episode of the BBC/HBO sitcom Extras.[98] He voiced the main antagonist, Officer Frank Tenpenny, in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.[99] Jackson also hosted a variety of awards shows. Thus far, he has hosted the MTV Movie Awards (1998),[100] the ESPYs (1999, 2001, 2002, and 2009),[101] and the Spike TV Video Game Awards (2005, 2006, and 2007).[102] In November 2006, he provided the voice of God for The Bible Experience, the New Testament audiobook version of the Bible. He was given the lead role because producers believed his deep, authoritative voice would best fit the role.[103] He further expanded his audio book legacy by then reading the Audible.com production of the number one Amazon.com best seller Go the Fuck to Sleep.[104] For the Atlanta Falcons 2010 season, Samuel L. Jackson portrayed Rev. Sultan in the Falcons "Rise Up" commercial to help improve tickets sales.

Upcoming films

Jackson gave his approval for Marvel to use his likeness for the Ultimate Nick Fury. In 2008 and 2010, he portrayed the character in the Iron Man series of movies

Jackson has several upcoming film projects between 2010 and 2012. In 2001, Jackson gave his consent for Marvel Comics to design their "Ultimate" version of the character Nick Fury after his likeness.[105] In the 2008 film Iron Man, he made a cameo as the character in a post-credit scene.[106] In February 2009, Jackson signed on to a nine-picture deal with Marvel which would see him appear as the character in Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers as well as any other sequels they would produce.[107]

He will appear[when?] in Quentin Tarantino's film, Django Unchained.[108] He is also set to produce a live-action movie of Afro Samurai,[109] and is assuming the role of Sho'nuff in a remake of The Last Dragon.[110]

Box office performance

Jackson has said that he chooses roles that are "exciting to watch" and have an "interesting character inside of a story", and that in his roles he wanted to "do things [he hasn't] done, things [he] saw as a kid and wanted to do and now [has] an opportunity to do".[111] Throughout the 1990s, A.C. Neilson E.C.I., a box office tracking company, determined that Jackson appeared in more films than any other actor that grossed $1.7 billion domestically.[112] For all the films in his career, where he is featured as a leading actor or supporting co-star, his films have grossed a total of $2.81[113] to $4.91 billion[114] at the North American box office, placing him as the seventh (as strictly lead) or the second highest-grossing movie star (counting supporting roles) of all time; behind only that of voice actor Frank Welker. The 2009 edition of The Guinness World Records, which uses a different calculation to determine film grosses, stated that Jackson is the world's highest grossing actor, having earned $7.42 billion in 68 films.[115]

Personal life

Jackson with his wife LaTanya Richardson in 2005

In 1980, Jackson married actress and sports channel producer LaTanya Richardson,[116] whom he met while attending Morehouse College.[3] The couple have a daughter, Zoe, born in 1982.[117] In 2009, they started their own charitable organization to help support education.[116] Jackson and Richardson live in Los Angeles, California.

Jackson has revealed in an interview that he sees every one of his movies in theaters with paying customers claiming that "Even during my theater years, I wished I could watch the plays I was in – while I was in them! I dig watching myself work."[118] He also enjoys collecting the action figures of the characters he portrays in his films, including Jules Winnfield, Shaft, Mace Windu, and Frozone.[119] He is a comic book and anime fan.[45]

Jackson is bald, but enjoys wearing unusual wigs in his films.[120] Jackson has reflected on his decision to go bald: "I keep ending up on those bald is beautiful lists. It's cool. You know, when I started losing my hair it was during the era when everybody had lots of hair. ... All of a sudden I felt this big hole in the middle of my afro, I couldn't face having a comb over so I had to quickly figure what the haircut for me was."[120] His first bald role was in The Great White Hype.[121] Jackson usually gets to pick his own hairstyles for each character he portrays.[121][122] Although he did poke fun at his baldness the first time he appeared bald on The Tonight Show, explaining that he had to shave his head for one role, but then he kept receiving more and more roles afterward, and had to keep shaving his head so wigs could be made for him. Laughingly, he ended the tale by lamenting to Jay Leno, "The only way I'm gonna have time to grow my hair back, is if I'm not workin'!".

Jackson enjoys playing golf, a game he has been reported to have become very proficient at.[3] Jackson has a clause in his film contracts that allows him to play golf during production.[6][30] He has played in the Gary Player Invitational charity golf tournament to assist golf icon Gary Player raise funds for needy children in South Africa. He stated that the golf course is the only place where he "can go dressed as a pimp and fit in perfectly".[7] Jackson is also a keen basketball fan, and especially favors the Toronto Raptors and the Harlem Globetrotters.[123] He also became a Liverpool F.C. fan after filming The 51st State in Liverpool. Jackson, a known lover of Ireland, also supports a Dublin based football team Bohemian F.C.[124][125][126]

Jackson campaigned during the 2008 Democratic Primary for then Illinois Senator Barack Obama in Texarkana, Texas. He said "Barack Obama represents everything I was told I could be growing up. I am a child of segregation. When I grew up and people told me I could be president, I knew it was a lie. But now we have a representative... the American Dream is a reality. Anyone can grow up to be a president."[127] Jackson also said "I voted for Barack because he was black. ’Cuz that’s why other folks vote for other people – because they look like them".[128]

Filmography

Main article: Samuel L. Jackson filmography

References

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