Best Known As: The guy who made Swingers with Vince Vaughn
Jon Favreau's career as an actor and movie maker took off when his indie comedy Swingers (1996) became a hit in art houses and on video. The semi-autobiographical tale of two single and struggling actors made a movie star out of his friend and co-star Vince Vaughn. It also set Favreau on his path as a successful character actor who also directs Hollywood blockbusters like Iron Man (2008, starring Robert Downey, Jr.). He has acted in Swingers, Made (2001, also writer and director), Very Bad Things (1998, with Cameron Diaz), the HBO biopic Rocky Marciano (1999, as Marciano) and The Break Up (2006, with Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston). Favreau has directed Elf (2003, starring Will Ferrell), Daredevil (2003, starring Ben Affleck) and Iron Man.
His cable TV talk show, Dinner for Five (2001), featured Favreau and four other guests chatting about the movie business while eating a meal... Another Jon Favreau is a speechwriter for presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Career Highlights: Swingers, Love & Sex, The Replacements
First Major Screen Credit: PCU (1994)
Biography
An actor whose solid everyman quality has endeared him to audiences and critics alike, Jon Favreau first made his name with 1996's Swingers. The story of a group of rat pack-obsessed, out-of-work actors slumming amiably through life in L.A., the indie-comedy was one of the year's biggest sleeper hits and made a star out of Favreau, who also wrote the script.
A native of Queens, NY, where he was born on October 19, 1966, Favreau was raised as the only child of two educators. After attending the Bronx High School of Science, he did an abbreviated stint at Queens College before heading to Chicago to pursue a comedy career. In Chicago, he studied improvisational comedy with Del Close and was a member of the ImrovOlympic troupe. Favreau's time in Chicago ended when he decided to head to L.A. to try and break into film; his experiences as a lovelorn, out-of-work actor would later provide the inspiration for Swingers.
After years of false hopes and false starts that took the form of supporting roles in such disappointing films as Rudy and P.C.U., Favreau began channeling his experiences and those of his friends (who included fellow Swingers star Vince Vaughn) into a rudimentary script for Swingers. Encouraged to make his script into a film, the actor despaired of securing enough funding for the project until he met fledgling director Doug Liman, who convinced him that the film could be made for 250,000 dollars. Costs were cut by filming largely without permits and making use of inexpensive shooting locations such as Favreau's own apartment. The film's low-budget charm was sufficient enough to sway the powers-that-be at Miramax who picked it up for distribution. When Swingers was eventually released in 1996, it was hailed by critics as a funny and painfully accurate account of the L.A. scene and its various faux-hipster denizens, as well as the dynamics at work amongst a group of guys (Favreau, Vaughn, and company) and the women they try so desperately to impress. In the wake of the film's success, Favreau, who was being hailed as the latest in the long line of Hollywood "Next Big Things," chose to star in Very Bad Things (1998), a black comedy directed by actor-turned-director Peter Berg. The film, in which Favreau played a soon-to-be married man whose Las Vegas bachelor party goes disastrously wrong, received very mixed reviews, although most critics praised the actor's performance as a "suburban Joe" caught up in circumstances that rapidly spiral beyond his control. After playing the eponymous boxing legend in the made-for-TV Rocky Marciano in 1999, Favreau returned to the screen in 2000 to star as a football player in The Replacements, a sports comedy directed by Howard Deutch. That same year, he returned to the indie scene with Love & Sex, a take on urban romance.
In 2001, Favreau re-teamed with Vaughn for Made, a crime comedy that cast the two actors as aspiring mobsters and marked Favreau's feature directorial debut. Also in 2001, Favreau made the jump to the small screen, producing and hosting IFC's Dinner for Five, a candid roundtable program featuring fellow actors and filmmakers. In 2003, not only did Favreau show up in supporting roles in the hits Daredevil and Something's Gotta Give, his sophomore directorial effort, the Will Ferrell holiday comedy Elf proved to be one of the season's biggest crowd-pleasers, grossing over 100 million dollars at the box office. He followed up that success by bringing Chris Van Allsburg's Zathura to the big screen, although it did not match Elf's box office success.
After making a few cameos on TV shows like My Name Is Earl and Monk, Favreau re-teamed with Vince Vaughn once again for a supporting role in the 2006 comedy The Break-Up. He also lent his vocal talents to the animated film Open Season. That same year he announced he would be taking on directorial duties for the big screen adaptation of the comic book Iron Man. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Favreau was born in Flushing, New York, the son of Madeleine, a schoolteacher who died of leukemia in 1978, and Charles Favreau, a special education teacher.[1] His father was an Italian AmericanCatholic and his mother was Jewish.[2] He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1984 and attended Queens College from 1984 to 1987, before dropping out. He briefly worked for Bear Stearns on Wall Street before returning to Queens College for a semester in early 1988. He dropped out of college for good (a few credits shy of completing his degree),[3] and in the summer of 1988, moved to Chicago to pursue a career in comedy. He performed at several Chicago improvisational theaters, including the ImprovOlympic and the Improv Institute.
Career
While in Chicago, Favreau landed his first film role alongside Sean Astin as the pudgy tutor D-Bob in the classic sleeper hit Rudy (1993). Favreau met Vince Vaughn—who also played a small role in this film—during shooting. The next year, he appeared in the college film PCU alongside Jeremy Piven, and also stepped into the world of television in the 1994 episode of Seinfeld titled "The Fire" as Eric the Clown. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he made his breakthrough in 1996 as an actor-screenwriter with the film Swingers, which was Vaughn's breakthrough role as the glib and extremely confident Trent Walker, a perfect foil to Favreau's heartbroken Mike Peters. In 1997 he appeared on the popular TV sitcom Friends portraying Pete Becker, whom Monica dates for several episodes, and who competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
He rejoined Piven in 1998 as part of Very Bad Things (1998). In 1999 he starred in Rocky Marciano, based on the life of the only undefeated world heavyweight champion in the world. He later appeared in Love & Sex (2000), co-starring Famke Janssen. Favreau got some screen time as lawyerFoggy Nelson in the 2003 movie Daredevil (2003) (considerably more in the Director's Cut version). In 2003 he also starred in The Big Empty, directed by Steve Anderson. His character was John Person, an out of work actor given a strange mission to deliver a blue suitcase to a man named Cowboy in the desert. Earlier, Favreau appeared in 2000's The Replacements as maniacal linebacker Daniel Bateman. He was a guest-director for an episode of the college dramedyUndeclared in 2001.
In 2000, he played himself in a Sopranosepisode as a Hollywood director who feigns interest in developing mob associate Christopher Moltisanti's execrable screenplay in order to collect material for his own screenplay.
In 2001, he made his (film) directorial debut with another self-penned screenplay, Made. Made once again teamed him up with his Swingers co-star Vince Vaughn but was generally perceived as lacking the spark that made Swingers such a big hit[citation needed]. In the fall of 2003, he scored his first financial success as a director of the hit comedy Elf starring Will Ferrell and James Caan. Also in 2003, Favreau had a small part in Something's Gotta Give (a film starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson); Favreau played Leo, Harry Sanborn's (Nicholson) personal assistant, who visited Harry in the hospital. Among Favreau's latest projects, he has directed the film adaptation of Zathura (2005). Never to turn his back on acting, Favreau still makes regular appearances in film and television. He recently reunited with friend Vince Vaughn in the much-hyped hit romantic comedy The Break-Up and appeared in My Name Is Earl as a reprehensible fast food manager. Favreau also made a guest appearance in Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show.
Favreau at an Iron Man photo call in Mexico City, April, 2008
Favreau also has a TV series called Dinner for Five which airs on the cable TV channel IFC. On April 28, 2006, it was announced that Favreau was signed to direct the long awaited Iron Man movie.[4] Favreau was the third director attached to John Carter of Mars, the film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' swashbuckling space hero. Robert Rodriguez and Kerry Conran were previously attached within the last two years. Mark Protosevich and Ehren Kruger have both written drafts. The Marshal in Revelation has been in development since Swingers was released. It's a western about a Hasidic gunslinger. At one time both Favreau and Vince Vaughn were to co-direct. Neanderthals is a CGanimated film that Favreau will write and produce. Johnny Zero will cover the birth of the hot rod movement following World War II. Favreau will write and direct. Iron Man was the first Marvel-produced movie under their alliance with Paramount, and Favreau served as the director and an executive producer. He recently told MTV that he would like to be at the helm of an Avengers film. During early scenes in Iron Man Favreau appears as Tony Stark's loyal friend, and driver, Happy Hogan. He also wrote a mini-series for Marvel Knights titled Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas that started in September 2008.[5]
On October 15, 2008, TV Guide reported that Favreau has signed on to co-star in Couples Retreat, a comedy chronicling four couples who partake in therapy sessions at a tropical island resort, which he also wrote. The film will see him reunited with co-star Vince Vaughn. Kristin Davis will play his better half.[6]
Personal life
Favreau married Joya Tillem in November 24, 2000. The couple have three children, a son, Max, born July 25, 2001, and two daughters, Madeleine, born April 2003 and Brighton Rose, born August 2006. Joya Tillem is the niece of KGO (AM) lawyer/talk show host Len Tillem.[7]
Favreau also plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Cancer Care charity.
Favreau credits Dungeons & Dragons with giving him "...a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance."[8]
Favreau constantly Tweets during his day, including updates from rehearsals[1] of Iron Man 2.
