Best Known As: The star of Jurassic Park and Independence Day
Tall and wryly cynical, Jeff Goldblum was a star of Jurassic Park and many other films of the 1980s and 1990s. Goldblum studied piano before getting his acting start on the New York stage. That's where he was noticed by Robert Altman, who cast him in California Split (1974) and Nashville (1975). In 1983 Goldblum had a memorable role as a celebrity journalist in the comedy The Big Chill, and was the star of director David Cronenberg's creepy remake of The Fly (1986). He has had leading roles and character parts in several comedies and small-budget dramas, but is best known for his appearances in the 1990s blockbuster sci-fi thrillers Jurassic Park (1993), Independence Day (1996, with Will Smith) and Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997, with Vince Vaughn). His other films include Igby Goes Down (2002), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Man of the Year (2006, with Robin Williams).
Goldblum is the subject of a persistent Internet rumor that he has died after a fall from a cliff in New Zealand. The rumor is not true... In the 1974 movie Death Wish Goldblum plays one of the scruffy hooligans who helps Charles Bronson see the merits of vigilantism... Goldblum was married to Geena Davis, his co-star in The Fly, from 1987-1990... The Fly was produced by Brooksfilms, the production company headed by comedian Mel Brooks.
Career Highlights: The Fly, The Big Chill, Deep Cover
First Major Screen Credit: Between the Lines (1977)
Biography
Tall, gangly, and oddly handsome, stage, screen, and television actor Jeff Goldblum is an unlikely sex symbol. But for many women, especially those fond of eccentric intellectual types, he fits the role perfectly. Known for the range of quirky, often otherworldly characters he has portrayed, Goldblum is adept at playing lead and supporting roles in dramas and comedies alike.
A native of Pittsburgh, PA, where he was born October 22, 1952, Goldblum moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career. He got his start at Sanford Meisner's distinguished Neighborhood Playhouse, and in the '70s began performing in a wide variety of on and off-Broadway productions. When he was 22, Goldblum made his film debut with a small role as a rapist in Michael Winner's brutal revenge drama Death Wish (1974). He was performing on-stage in the El Grande de Coca Cola review when Robert Altman gave him a small part in California Split (1974) and a slightly larger role in Nashville (1975). Afterwards, Goldblum was steadily employed as a bit player in both major and minor features, turning in one of his most notable performances as a nervous houseguest struggling to remember his mantra in the Los Angeles-set segment of Annie Hall (1977).
In 1980, Goldblum branched out into television, starring opposite Ben Vereen in the short-lived television detective comedy Tenspeed and Brown Shoe. As Brown Shoe, Goldblum played an uptight stockbroker trying to make it as a hardboiled private detective. Although the role may have given him greater recognition, the actor gained his first really favorable reviews playing a tabloid magazine reporter in The Big Chill (1983). This led to leading roles in such films as Into the Night (1985), where Goldblum played an aerospace engineer opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, and Silverado (also 1985), which cast him as a villainous gambler. In 1986, he had his first hit movie with David Cronenberg's terrifying sci-fi-horror film The Fly (1986), playing a driven scientist whose research turns him into a gruesome mutant. His co-star was his then-wife, Geena Davis, whom he met while they were on the set of the comedy-thriller Transylvania 6-5000 (1985). The couple divorced in the early '90s and Goldblum then embarked on a highly publicized relationship with actress Laura Dern that broke up in the mid-'90s.
In 1989, Goldblum made a favorable transatlantic impression in the British romantic comedy The Tall Guy, playing a perpetually unemployed actor who is cast as the lead of a musical about the Elephant Man. He continued to work steadily throughout the subsequent decade, appearing in films of markedly varying quality. He found great success in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, playing a mathematician in one of the decade's biggest blockbusters. He reprised his role for the film's 1997 sequel. In 1996, Goldblum again explored blockbuster territory with a leading role as a computer genius in Independence Day. He repeated his role from Jurassic Park in that film's sequel. He starred opposite Eddie Murphy in the notorious bomb Holy Man.
Goldblum was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Homestead, Pennsylvania, the son of Shirley S. (née Temeles), a radio broadcaster who later ran a kitchen equipment and appliances sales firm, and Harold L. Goldblum, a medical doctor.[1][2] He has a sister, Pamela and an older brother, Lee. Another older brother, Rick, lived to age 23. His family is Jewish and belonged to an Orthodox synagogue;[3][4] Goldblum's paternal grandfather, Josef Povartzik (whose surname was changed to Goldblum), emigrated from Minsk, Russian Empire in 1911, and his maternal grandfather, Samuel Louis Temeles, from Złoczów, Austria–Hungary, in 1910.[2]
Goldblum's parents were interested in show business.[5] Goldblum moved to New York City at 17 to become an actor. Goldblum worked on the stage and studied acting at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse under the guidance of acting coach Sanford Meisner. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist and declared that if he did not act, he would have become a professional musician. He made his film debut as a thug in the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish. He briefly appeared as a protester in the TV movie Columbo A Case of Immunity (1975).
For several years, Goldblum was the voice for most U.S. Apple commercials, including advertisements for the iMac and iBook. He also voices some U.S. Toyota commercials as well as Procter & Gamble's facial cream line. He has recently appeared on Irish TV in commercials for the National Lottery.
Goldblum taught acting at Playhouse West in North Hollywood with Robert Carnegie. It was with several actors from this acting company that he improvised and directed the live action short film Little Surprises, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996. According to gossip columnist Caffeinated Clint (as of September 2006), Jeff Goldblum will retain his role as Ian Malcom in Jurrasic Park IV[dated info]
Goldblum got the role of Adam in the upcoming film Adam Resurrected, a film adaptation of the Yoram Kaniuk novel. Jeff is a German entertainer who becomes the ringleader to a group of Holocaust survivors in an asylum after World War II.
In September 2006, it was announced that Goldblum was one of the founding members of a new theater company in New York called The Fire Dept. According to press materials, "The Fire Dept is made up of established and emerging writers, directors, actors and designers who have come together to create and produce work that cannot be replicated inside a television box or on a movie screen...The work of The Fire Dept combines the rigor and structure of great narrative storytelling with the vitality of formal experimentation to immerse audiences in a total experience that leaves them awake, alive and transformed." The company will devote energy into developing new live theater works as well as interpreting old favorites.
Goldblum has been married twice, to Patricia Gaul from 1980 to 1986, then to Geena Davis, his co-star in three films (including the comedy Earth Girls Are Easy and the science fiction/horror film The Fly) from November 1, 1987 to October 1990. He claims to have maintained a good friendship with Davis, saying she is a wonderful person and a wonderful actress.
