comedian; actor; singer
Personal Information
Born Eric Bishop on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, TX; son of Shaheed Abdullah and Louise Annette Dixon; adopted by grandparents Mark and Esther Talley
Education: Attended U.S. International University, San Diego, CA, 1986-88.
Career
Comedian, 1990-; actor, director, and producer, 1991-; musician, 1994-.
Life's Work
In the ever-shifting, multi-media world of Hollywood entertainment, the juggling talents has always paid off. Jamie Foxx juggled his way to an Academy Award for best actor, receiving his Oscar in 2005 for playing musician Ray Charles in Ray. Foxx has been a comedian, actor, singer, and producer. Foxx, who arose from obscurity, also starred in his namesake sitcom, "The Jamie Foxx Show," from 1996 through 2001.
Prepared for the Stage
Jamie Foxx was born Eric Bishop on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas, to stockbroker Shaheed Abdullah and Louise Annette Talley--now surnamed Dixon through remarriage--in the small town of Terrell, Texas. Foxx's parents quickly found themselves overwhelmed by the demands of child rearing, and at the age of seven months, he was adopted by his maternal grandparents, Mark and Esther Talley. Foxx rarely saw his biological parents throughout his childhood, so he felt no affect from their divorce when he was six years old. Fortunately, his new family, including two half sisters and a stepbrother, provided a loving, supportive environment.
At a very young age, Foxx showed evidence of his flair for performing and entertaining. At five years old, he started piano lessons, immersing himself both in the language of music and in the often-shocking experience of facing an audience--crucial skills for his future career. While performing in a talent competition at Terrell High School, his peers noticed Foxx's magnetic stage presence. "He was singing, and the women just moved to the front to be near him," ex-classmate Chris Barron recalled to People. Although the teenage Foxx was a standout in his local church choir who embarked on an academic pursuit of music at the U.S. International University in San Diego, California, it was comedy, not music, that gave Foxx his break.
Like many small-town celebrities in waiting, Foxx dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles in 1990 to enter directly, working from the very bottom up. With no formal experience and no connections, the struggling Foxx soon ended up peddling shoes in a Thom McAn shoe store outlet, and sat in at local comedy clubs on amateur nights in hopes of performing himself. He quickly noticed a pattern of gender in the roster of comedians which he decided to use to his advantage. As he confessed to Jet magazine, "[t]hree girls would show up and 22 guys would show up. They had to put all the girls on who were on the list to break up the monotony." Foxx, still named Eric Bishop, began signing unisex monikers on audition lists in hopes of being taken for a woman. The ploy soon worked. On his twenty-first birthday, Foxx and his friends were attending a San Francisco nightclub, and the young comedian flooded the entry list with fabricated, ambiguous names. When the master of ceremonies called out, "Jamie Foxx...Is she here?," Foxx responded in a resonant, masculine tone, to everyone's surprise, and stepped to the microphone.
Made a Name for Himself
From this first comedy performance, which drew a standing ovation from the audience, Foxx relied on talent, not gimmicks. Nonetheless, he kept his assumed name, perhaps in part as an acknowledgement of a new life. "I loved my old name," he told People. "But Eric Bishop was Clark Kent. And Jamie Foxx is Superman." With a new name, a boosted confidence level, and one auspicious stage outing, the newly named Foxx stormed the Los Angeles comedy circuit, winning the Black Bay Area Comedy Competition in 1991, and quitting his job as a shoe clerk to perform up to seven nights per week. On stage, he began to develop a sassy, outrageous persona, as well as a repertoire of characters he would use later, including "Wanda, the Ugly Woman." In addition, his impersonations of celebrities such as fellow comedian/actor Bill Cosby and boxer Mike Tyson balanced mimicry and exaggeration. Foxx had elevated his entertainment with rehearsed artistry and contagious energy. And yet while he had thrived within Southern California comedy, Foxx was quickly becoming a television "Superman."
Aspiring to expand beyond a local audience, Foxx auditioned alongside several hundred other comedians for a part in an ensemble cast of a new television comedy for the Fox television network entitled In Living Color. Foxx landed the role, and in 1991 joined the cast of the highly rated show that would last several seasons and help elevate the careers of Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, and the Wayans Brothers. The show followed a short sketch comedy format, with an exuberant, outrageous attitude perfect for Foxx's style of comedy. Adapting his material for television, Foxx was able to convert his stand-up characters into favorites of television comedy, and quickly developed a nationwide fan base. Not only was In Living Color a kindling fire for Foxx's popularity, it also provided the growing funnyman an opportunity to hone his comic skills among his contemporaries. "Damon [Wayans] taught me the importance of having a little attitude," he remarked to People about one of his co-stars. "And Jim [Carrey] taught me goofiness."
In Living Color was a gateway of opportunity for Foxx, catapulting him into many television and film engagements. During the show's run, Foxx managed to portray a recurring character on the series Roc, also on the Fox network, in addition to making guest appearances on stand-up specials. In 1993, HBO invited him to create a one-man concert program, and the result was Jamie Foxx: Straight from the Foxxhole. The uncensored nature of cable television enabled him to return to the style of his earliest material, and the program fared well. Foxx even juggled his motion picture debut into his demanding television schedule, acting alongside veteran comedian Robin Williams in the family feature Toys.
By the time In Living Color ran its final season in 1994, Foxx's resume was impressive enough to establish himself securely in comedy. The following year however, Foxx took a brief vacation from comedy and made an impressive return to his performing roots--music. Still under the Fox studios banner, he released a full-length album of 12 R&B tracks, all of which he wrote, sang, and produced. The record climbed to #12 on Billboard magazine's sales charts, and received warm reviews from music critics. Easily slipping back into the vocal training of his youth, Foxx had successfully given life to yet another branch of his career.
Continued Success in Film and Music
After a brief period of respite, Foxx plunged back into film and television with full force. In 1996, he played supporting roles in the films The Truth About Cats and Dogs and The Great White Hype, the latter gaining Foxx critical merit for his portrayal of a small-time boxing manager. But once again, it was television comedy that helped push his popularity. Moving from the Fox network to the WB (Warner Brothers) network, Foxx helped create and produce a program that was different from most of his work to date. With The Jamie Foxx Show, WB launched a family-oriented situation comedy, starring a decidedly adult comedian. The combination worked.
Prior to The Jamie Foxx Show, the comedian attracted backlash from critics who objected to Foxx's sometimes shocking comic arsenal, especially for his negative discussion of women. Taking this into consideration, Foxx decided to create a show "[l]ike I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke Show, " he explained to Mediaweek magazine. "They were clean and still funny. If you try to be on the edge you cut lots of people out." The series became the WB network's highest-rated series, scoring heavily among younger audiences and women. The show, in which Foxx essays the semi-autobiographical portrait of a struggling actor eking out a living as a worker at a shady hotel, is the product of a diverse creative team, made up of men and women, blacks and whites, which strives for a fresh, universal appeal. "You don't have to be gimmicky, you don't have to fall back on stereotypes," Foxx told Mediaweek. "It's not a conveyor belt. We try to handcraft the show." Alongside many programs that thrive on a barrage of sexual innuendos alone, The Jamie Foxx Show was a refreshing surprise and a marked sign of growth for its star. The Jamie Foxx Show aired for five seasons on the WB Network and won Foxx an Image Award in 1998. The reruns of the comedy show are played in syndication and remain popular with fans.
His work on The Jamie Foxx Show led to a variety of roles that proved Foxx was more than just a comedic actor. But acting continued to be the mainstay of his professional life. His part in Any Given Sunday in 1999 featured Foxx's true talent: versatility. In his role as Willie Beamen, a third-string quarterback, Foxx deftly switches from being uncertain to cocky, and back again. Foxx also wrote and performed two songs for the movie's soundtrack. Foxx had made a name for himself among producers as a serious actor and won the critics' attention in 2002 with his role in Ali. For his part as Muhammad Ali's trainer, director Taylor Hackford told Newsweek that "Jamie was the best thing about that movie."
In the 2004 movie Ray, which Hackford also directed, Foxx played the title role of musician Ray Charles, and became the third African American to win an Oscar for best actor, following Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington. Preparing for his role, Foxx spent hours with Charles before his death, learning his mannerisms and speech patterns. He used his talent as a comic to mimic Charles, but with such sympathy and understanding that his characterization stunned viewers. Foxx told Ebony that Charles' children saw him acting in some scenes and said, "Man, that's my daddy." Charles' long-time friend Quincy Jones told Newsweek that Foxx "nailed" his depiction of Charles. "It's interesting that Jamie started out as a comic, because that's not where his career is going," Hackford told Newsweek. "He's not going to be the next Eddie Murphy--he's going to be the next Denzel [Washington]." Foxx also won a Golden Globe and a BET Award for Ray, and he received an Image Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Later in 2005, Foxx appeared in the films Stealth and >Jarhead.
Awards
Black Bay Area Comedy Competition, 1991; Image Award, for The Jamie Foxx Show, 1998; Image Award, for Ali, 2002; Black Reel Award, for Ali, 2002; Academy Award and Golden Globe award for best actor in Ray, 2005; BET Award, Black Entertainment Television, 2005; Image Award, NAACP, 2005.
Works
Selected works
Further Reading
Periodicals
— Shaun Frentner and Sara Pendergast
| For The Record... |
| Born Eric Morlon Bishop Jr. on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, TX; children: Corinne. Education: Attended U.S. International University in San Diego. Comedic actor gained fame for performances on In Living Color, 1991-94; released debut album, Peep This, Twentieth Century Fox Records, 2004; acted in The Jamie Foxx Show, 1996-2001; won Academy Award for role in the dramatic film Ray, 2004; acted in Collateral, 2004; signed to J Records, released sophomore album Unpredictable, 2005; acted in films Jarhead, 2005; Dream Girls, 2005; Miami Vice, 2005. Awards: Academy Award, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, for Ray, 2004; American Music Award, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist, 2006; BET Award, Best Duet/Collaboration, for "Gold Digger," 2006; Soul Train Music Awards, Best Male R&B/Soul Album, for Unpredictable, 2007. Addresses: Record company—J Records/Arista, 6 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019, website: http://www.jrecords.com. Website—Jamie Foxx Official Website: http://www.jamiefoxx.com. |
| Jamie Foxx | |
|---|---|
Foxx promoting Stealth in July 2005 |
|
| Birth name | Eric Marlon Bishop |
| Born | December 13, 1967 Terrell, Texas, United States |
| Medium | Stand up, Film, Television, Radio, Music |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Genres |
Musical comedy, Political satire, Observational comedy, Character comedy, Black comedy (as actor) R&B, hip hop, soul, pop(as singer and rapper) |
| Subject(s) | Race relations, Racism, African-American culture, Celebrities, Human sexuality, American politics, Current events, Self-deprecation |
| Influences | Redd Foxx[1] |
| Notable works and roles | Law Abiding Citizen Jamie King on The Jamie Foxx Show Ray Charles in Ray Nico in Rio |
| Website | Official site |
Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, rapper, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a musical/comedy. He is also a Grammy Award winning musician, producing three albums which have charted highly on the Billboard 200: Unpredictable, which topped the chart, Best Night of My Life and Intuition.
Born in Terrell, Texas, Foxx was raised by his mother's adoptive parents. He performed in high school and was awarded with a scholarship to United States International University. In his twenties, Foxx began performing stand-up at comedy clubs, and eventually joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991; this exposure helped him land film roles and star in his own sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show. He released his debut album, Peep This, in 1994, but he did not gain significant musical success until 2004 when he was featured in Twista's song "Slow Jamz". Also in 2004, Foxx played critically acclaimed roles in the films Collateral and Ray. He released his second album, Unpredictable, in 2005, which was helped by his collaboration on Kanye West's number-one single "Gold Digger". His third album Intuition was released in 2008 and was anchored by the single "Blame It". Foxx released his fourth studio album, Best Night of My Life, in 2010.
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Foxx was born as Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas.[2] He is the son of Louise Annette Talley Dixon and Shaheed Abdulah. Foxx was abandoned seven months after birth, and was subsequently adopted and raised in Terrell by his mother's adoptive parents. Terrell was a racially segregated community at the time.[3] Foxx had a strict Baptist upbringing[4][5] and began piano lessons at the age of five by his grandmother's orders. As a teenager, he was a part-time pianist and choir leader in Terrell's New Hope Baptist Church.[3]
Foxx attended Terrell High School, where he received top grades, played basketball and football as quarterback, and had an ambition to play for the Dallas Cowboys. He was the first player in the school's history to pass for more than 1,000 yards.[3][6] He also sang in a band called Leather and Lace.[3] After completing high school, Foxx received a scholarship to United States International University, where he studied classical music and composition.[3][7] He has often acknowledged his grandmother's influence in his life as one of the greatest reasons for his success.[4][8]
After accepting a girlfriend's dare, Foxx told jokes and ffat a comedy club's open mic night in 1989. When he found that comediennes were often called first to perform, he changed his name to Jamie Foxx, feeling that it was an ambiguous enough name to disallow any biases.[1][3] He chose his surname as a tribute to comedian Redd Foxx.[1] In addition his recurrent In Living Color character LaWanda shared names with Redd's friend and co-worker, LaWanda Page.
Foxx joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991 and subsequently played a recurring role in the comedy-drama sitcom Roc.[9] From 1996 to 2001, Foxx starred in his own sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, and made his film debut in the 1992 comedy Toys. His first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone's 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where he portrayed a hard-partying American football player.[4] He was cast in the role in part because of his background as a football player.[4] Following Any Given Sunday, Foxx was featured as taxi driver Max Durocher in the film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.[4]
Foxx began piano lessons at age five. In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the Fox record label) entitled Peep This.
In April 2003, Foxx was involved in an incident with two police officers who were attempting to escort him and his sister out of Harrah's casino in New Orleans. Employees claimed they had failed to show identification upon entry. Originally charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace, battery on police officers and resisting arrest, Foxx pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace in exchange for the other charges being dropped, and was sentenced to a six month suspended jail term with two years probation and a $1,500 fine.[10][11]
His music career shifted into a higher gear when, in 2004, he was featured on rapper Twista's song, "Slow Jamz", which also featured Kanye West. The song reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, as well as number three on the UK singles chart. Foxx's second collaboration with Kanye West, "Gold Digger," in which he sang the "I Got a Woman" Ray Charles-influenced hook, went straight to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained there for 10 weeks. In 2005, Foxx was featured on the single "Georgia" by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob. The song sampled Ray Charles' hit "Georgia on My Mind." He also had a beginning verse on Kanye's "Gold Digger"
His standout performance, however, was his portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor[4] and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Foxx is the second male in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies, Collateral and Ray. The only other male actor to achieve this was Al Pacino. In 2005, Foxx was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[12]
Foxx released his second studio album, Unpredictable, in December 2005. It debuted at number two, selling 598,000 copies in its first week.[13] The following week, the album rose to number one, selling an additional 200,000 copies.[14] To date, the album has sold 1.98 million copies in the United States, and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA.[15][16] The album also charted on the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at number nine.[17] Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for an acting role and to have achieved a number-one record album in the US. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) Foxx's first single from the album, the title track "Unpredictable" (featuring Ludacris), samples "Wildflower" by New Birth. The song peaked inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and also made the UK top 20 singles chart. The second US single from the album was "DJ Play a Love Song," which reunited Foxx with Twista. In the UK, however, the second single was "Extravaganza," which saw Foxx once again collaborate with Kanye West. He was not, however, featured in the song's music video.
At the 2006 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards, Foxx won Best Duet/Collaboration with Kanye West for "Gold Digger" and tied with Mary J. Blige's "Be Without You" for Video of the year. On December 8, 2006, Foxx received four Grammy nominations, which included Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Love Changes featuring Mary J. Blige, Best R&B Album for Unpredictable, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for Georgia by Ludacris & Field Mob featuring Jamie Foxx, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for Unpredictable featuring Ludacris.
Following these successes, Foxx appeared in Jarhead, Miami Vice, and Dreamgirls, which were box-office hits, and lifted his profile even higher as a bankable star in Hollywood. 2007 brought him the lead role in the film The Kingdom opposite Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner and Ashraf Barhom. In September 2007, Foxx was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He said, upon receiving the honor, "[it was] one of the most amazing days of my life."[18]
On January 22, 2007, Foxx was on Sirius Satellite Radio, announcing his new channel The Foxxhole. The channel features talk-radio programs, stand-up comedy albums, and music primarily by African-American performers, and features much of Foxx's own material as well. The Jamie Foxx Show, Foxx's own talk-radio variety program, airs Friday evenings on The Foxxhole, and features Johnny Mack, Speedy, The Poetess, Lewis Dix, and T.D.P., as his co-hosts. Guests include popular musicians, actors, and fellow comedians. He recorded a song with country superstars Rascal Flatts entitled "She Goes All the Way" for their album, Still Feels Good. Foxx also performed background vocals for artist/songwriter Tank. He and The-Dream are featured on Plies' "Please Excuse My Hands." He also appeared on the remix of Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent" entitled "She Got Her Own." The track also features Fabolous. Foxx then collaborated with rapper The Game on the track "Around The World." In April 2009, Foxx played the lead role in the dramatic film The Soloist. A few months later in October 2009, He played a starring role along side Gerard Butler in the thriller Law Abiding Citizen. In April 2011, Foxx voiced Nico, a canary in the movie Rio.
Foxx released his third album titled Intuition in 2008, featuring such artists as Kanye West, T.I., Ne-Yo, and T-Pain. The album's first single, "Just Like Me" featuring T.I., was promoted by a video directed by Brett Ratner and featuring an appearance by Taraji P. Henson. The second single "Blame It" featured T-Pain and became a top 5 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and a number-one single on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The "Blame It" music video, directed by Hype Williams, features cameo appearances by Forest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Howard, Quincy Jones, and Jake Gyllenhaal, among others. Foxx was also featured on T.I.'s single "Live in the Sky" from the album King. On April 6, 2009 Foxx performed the George Strait song "You Look So Good in Love" at the George Strait Artist of the Decade All-Star Concert. Foxx has been a fan of country music for many years. Jamie Foxx hosted the 2009 BET Awards ceremony on June 28, 2009, which featured several tributes to pop star Michael Jackson, who had died three days prior to the show. Aside from performing "Blame It" with T-Pain and "She Got Her Own" with Ne-Yo and Fabolous, Foxx opened the show with a rendition of Jackson's "Beat It" dance routine and closed the show with a cover of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" with Ne-Yo. Foxx stated during the ceremony, "We want to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else."
On the April 17, 2009 episode of The Jamie Foxx Show on Foxxhole Radio, Foxx and his co-hosts made several sexually suggestive and disparaging jokes regarding teenaged singer Miley Cyrus, in response to a caller's comment on a recent altercation between Cyrus and rock band Radiohead.[19] Foxx issued a public apology on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno several days later in response to growing public outcry as well as televised criticism by Cyrus's father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.[20]
In 2011, Foxx was officially cast in the title role of, Django Unchained. It will be written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and he will star alongside his Ray co-star Kerry Washington, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson. As a producer, Foxx played a role in In the Flow with Affion Crockett on Fox in summer 2011.[21]
Foxx released his fourth album, Best Night of My Life, on December 21, 2010.[22] The first single is "Winner", featuring Justin Timberlake and T.I..[23] The second single is "Living Better Now" featuring rapper Rick Ross and the third single is "Fall For Your Type" featuring rapper Drake.[22] On October 7, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding J Records along with Arista Records and Jive Records. With the shutdown, Foxx (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release his future material on the RCA Records brand.[24][25] In 2011, Jamie Foxx was featured in the rapper Pitbull's album 'Planet Pitt' in the song "Where Do We go".
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Foxx has a daughter, Corinne Bishop, who was born in 1994.[3] Former Jamie Foxx Show co-star Garcelle Beauvais made a public announcement stating that Foxx has a second child.[26] Foxx was spotted with the baby in Miami for New Year's Eve 2010, and it was revealed to be a girl.[27]
Foxx performed a public service announcement for Do Something to promote food drives in local communities.[28]
Hosted Mixtapes
Television Awards
Music awards
Movie/TV Awards
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