James Woods Biography

James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American film, stage and television actor. After his first Golden Globe nomination for a breakthrough role in The Onion Field (1979), Woods starred in Once Upon a Time in America, the Oliver Stone films Salvador and Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, and in legal series Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards (for tele-movies Promise and My Name Is Bill W., and for the animated series of Hercules). He has been twice nominated for an Academy Award. His voice work has been heard in the animated series The Simpsons, Family Guy, Disney movie Hercules as Hades and the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Early life

Woods was born in Vernal, Utah. His father, Gail Peyton Woods, was an army intelligence officer who died in 1960, after routine surgery. His mother, Martha A. (née Smith), operated a pre-school after her husband's death and later married Thomas E. Dixon. Woods grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he attended Pilgrim High School. According to rumor, he scored a perfect 800 on the verbal section of the SAT and 779 on the math section of the SAT, yielding a total score of 1579. He was nominated for the United States Air Force Academy and received scholarships from Tufts University and Johns Hopkins University for both undergraduate and graduate studies, intending to go to medical school.

Woods ultimately chose to pursue his undergraduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he majored in political science (though he originally planned on a career as an eye surgeon). While at MIT, Woods pledged to Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. He was also an active member of the student theatre group 'Dramashop' where he both acted in and directed a number of plays. In order to pursue a career in acting, he dropped out of MIT in 1969 before his graduation. Woods has said that he became an actor because of the father of actor Ben Affleck, Tim Affleck, who was a stage manager at the Theatre Company of Boston while Woods was a student there.

Career

Woods did 36 plays before making his Broadway debut in 1970 at the Lyceum Theatre, in the first US production of Frank McMahon's Borstal Boy, he got the part by pretending he was British and returned to Broadway the following year to portray David Darst in Daniel Berrigan's The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. In 1971, he played Bob Rettie in the American premiere of Michael Weller's Moonchildren at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The production moved to Broadway the following year and Woods won a Theatre World Award for his performance. He returned to Broadway in 1973 to portray Steven Cooper in the original production of Jean Kerr's Finishing Touches. Since then, he has worked regularly as an actor for film and television. In 1975, he portrayed an arrogant high school drama teacher and debate team leader in the television sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.

Woods is a prominent Hollywood character actor. He is known for his dark, intense characters. Early examples include his portrayals of a sadistic murderer in 1979's The Onion Field, and of serial killer Carl Panzram in 1994's Killer: A Journal of Murder. He appeared in an episode of The Rockford Files, playing a son whose parents were murdered. He has been twice nominated for an Academy Award: first, for Best Actor, for playing a journalist chronicling events in El Salvador in early Oliver Stone film Salvador (1986), and again in 1996, for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance as real-life white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith in drama Ghosts of Mississippi. One of his favorite film roles is Max, the domineering gangster, in Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). In 1995, Woods took the role of pimp Lester Diamond in Martin Scorsese's Casino. That same year, he portrayed H. R. Haldeman in Nixon, the biopic of Richard M. Nixon, directed by Oliver Stone. One of his most prominent television roles to date saw him starring in CBS legal drama TV series Shark, which ran for two seasons between 2006 and 2008. He played an infamous defense lawyer who, after growing disillusioned when his client commits a murder, becomes a successful prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

He was briefly considered for the role of The Joker by director Tim Burton and screenwriter Sam Hamm for the 1989 film Batman. Hamm recalls that he and Burton thought, "James Woods would be good and wouldn't need any makeup, which would save a couple of hours' work every morning." The role ended up going to Jack Nicholson. Quentin Tarantino wrote a part in Reservoir Dogs with Woods in mind, but Woods' agent rejected the script without showing it to the actor. When Woods learned of this some time later, he considered firing his agent. Woods was also considered for the part of Donald Kimball in American Psycho, but he turned it down. The part was given to Willem Dafoe. In 2006, Woods starred in the political thriller End Game with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and makes a cameo of himself in the premiere episode of Entourage's third season. In 2011, Woods appeared as Richard S. Fuld, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, in HBO's Too Big to Fail, for which he gained an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Mini-series or Movie.

Voiceover work

Woods has lent his voice talents to many animated television shows and feature films. He garnered critical praise for his voice work as Hades in 1997 Disney film Hercules, he won for an Daytime Emmy Award after reprising the role in a follow-up television series. He also voiced Phillium Benedict, the twisted former headmaster who attempts to abolish summer vacation in the 2001 film, Recess: School's Out. He also appeared as a fictional version of himself in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer and Apu" and in five episodes of Family Guy, which is set in Woods' native state of Rhode Island. Woods also lent his voice talents to Family Guy episode "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" (a parody of The Empire Strikes Back). Other references in Family Guy include the local high school, James Woods High School, and a forest briefly mentioned in "The Fat Guy Strangler" named James Woods. In 2004, Woods played the character Jallak in the animated film Ark.

Personal life

During a press interview for Kingdom Hearts II, Woods noted that he is an avid video game player. He is an active dealer of antiques in Rhode Island. Some of his favorite activities are playing golf and cooking.

Poker

Woods plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the American Stroke Association charity. In 2006, he finished in 24th place out of 692 at the L.A. Poker Classic for $40,000. Woods has shared an endorsement for the online poker website Hollywood Poker which is run in conjunction with Ongame Network, and "co hosted" with poker enthusiast Vince Van Patten. He plays poker at Hollywood Poker and contributes content to the website.

Lawsuits

In 1988, Woods sued Sean Young for $2 million, accusing her of stalking him after they appeared together in the movie The Boost. Young later countered that he had overreacted after she had spurned his advances on set. The suit was settled out of court in 1989 when Woods paid Sean Young $250,000. On July 26, 2006, Woods' younger brother, Michael Jeffrey Woods, died from cardiac arrest at the age of 49. James Woods sued Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island, alleging negligence. The suit was settled in 2009.

Activism

Politics

Woods was a vocal supporter of former U.S. President George W. Bush and the Iraq War, though he is still a registered Democrat. He is a supporter of former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani. Woods lobbied hard to play Giuliani in the biopic Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story, and considers the role one of the favorites of his career. In 2008, Woods appeared in David Zucker's comedy An American Carol (presented from a conservative-leaning perspective), along with active Republican actors Kelsey Grammer, Kevin Farley, and Leslie Nielsen. Woods's name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (August 17, 2006) that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

9/11

In late August 2001, Woods was on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles. On the flight he noticed 4 men nearby him acting suspiciously. He said that they never drank anything, ordered food, service or talked to anybody. They were just whispering to each other as if they were planning something secret. James Woods reported his suspicions to police officers at the Airport and it reached the FBI but they did not worry or take it seriously. When the September 11 Attacks occurred about two weeks later, Woods believed that he had encountered 4 of the 19 terrorists/hijackers that were just on the flight to study it for the 9/11 disaster. Woods has been interviewed several times by FBI agents regarding this incident. Woods has confirmed that he looked at pictures of the hijackers and has identified two terrorists as being some of the men that he had seen on the flight.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes/Awards
1972	Hickey & Boggs	Lt. Wyatt	Film debut
	The Visitors	Bill Schmidt
1973	The Way We Were	Frankie McVeigh
1974	The Gambler	Bank Officer
1975	Night Moves	Quentin
1976	The Billion Dollar Bubble	Art Lewis
1977	The Choirboys	Harold Bloomguard
1979	The Onion Field	Gregory Ulas Powell	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
1981	Eyewitness	Aldo Mercer
1982	Fast-Walking	Fast-Walking
	Split Image	Charles Pratt
1983	Videodrome	Max Renn
1984	Against All Odds	Jake Wise
	Once Upon a Time in America	Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz
1985	Cat's Eye	Dick Morrison
	Joshua Then and Now	Joshua Shapiro
1986	Salvador	Richard Boyle	Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor
1987	Best Seller	Cleve	Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
1988	Cop	Lloyd Hopkins	Also producer
	The Boost	Lenny Brown	Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
1989	True Believer	Eddie Dodd
	Immediate Family	Michael Spector
1991	The Hard Way	Detective Lt. John Moss, NYPD
1992	Straight Talk	Jack Russell
	Diggstown	Gabriel Caine
	Chaplin	Joseph Scott
1994	The Getaway	Jack Benyon
	Curse of the Starving Class	Weston Tate
	The Specialist	Ned Trent
1995	For Better or Worse	Reggie Makeshift
	Killer: A Journal of Murder	Carl Panzram	Catalonian International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
	Casino	Lester Diamond
	Nixon	H. R. Haldeman	Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1996	Ghosts of Mississippi	Byron De La Beckwith	Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Tied with Paul Scofield Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture
1997	Kicked in the Head	Uncle Sam
	Hercules	Hades	Voice
	Contact	Michael Kitz
1998	Vampires	Jack Crow	Saturn Award for Best Actor
	Another Day in Paradise	Mel	Also producer
1999	True Crime	Alan Mann
	The Virgin Suicides	Ronald Lisbon	Nominated - Sierra Award for Best Supporting Actor
	The General's Daughter	Col. Robert Moore
	Any Given Sunday	Dr. Harvey Mandrake
	Play It to the Bone	Ringside Fan
2001	Recess: School's Out	Dr. Philliam "Phil" Benedict	Voice
	Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	General Hein	Voice
	Scary Movie 2	Father McFeely
	Riding in Cars with Boys	Mr. Leonard Donofrio
	Race to Space	Dr. Wilhelm von Huber
2002	John Q	Dr. Raymond Turner
	Stuart Little 2	The Evil Falcon	Voice
2003	Northfork	Walter O'Brien	Also executive producer
	This Girl's Life	Pops
2005	Pretty Persuasion	Hank Joyce
	Be Cool	Tommy Athens
	Ark	Jallak	Voice
2006	End Game	Vaughn Stevens
2007	Surf's Up	Reggie Belafonte	Voice
2008	Big Fat Important Movie	Agent Grosslight
2011	Straw Dogs	Tom Heddon
2012	Officer Down	Captain Verona
2013	White House Down	Martin Walker
2013	Jobs	Dean Jack Dudman

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes/Awards
1974	Kojak	Caz	Episode: "Death Is Not a Passing Grade"
	The Rockford Files	Larry Kirkoff	Episode: "The Kirkoff Case"
1975	Welcome Back, Kotter	Alex Welles	Episode: "The Great Debate"
	The Streets of San Francisco	Doug	Episode: "Trail of Terror"
	The Rookies	Ted Ayres	Episode: "A Time to Mourn"
1976	Barnaby Jones	Danny Reeves	Episode: "Sins of Thy Father"
	The Disappearance of Aimee	Asst. Disty. Atty. Joseph Ryan	(TV movie)
	Police Story	Lewis Packer	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
	Raid on Entebbe	Capt. Sammy Berg	(TV movie)
1977	Family	Dr. Robert Styles	Episode: "An Eye to the Future"
1978	Holocaust	Karl Weiss	(TV miniseries)
	The Gift of Love	Alfred Browning	(TV movie)
1979	The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel	Sin Eater	(TV movie)
1979–1980	Young Maverick	Lem Fraker
1985	Badge of the Assassin	Robert K. Tannenbaum / Assistant District Attorney	(TV movie)
1986	Promise	D.J.	(TV movie) Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1987	In Love and War	James B. 'Jim' Stockdale	(TV movie) Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
1989	My Name Is Bill W.	Bill Wilson	(TV movie) Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1991	The Boys	Walter Farmer	(TV movie)
1992	Citizen Cohn	Roy Marcus Cohn	(TV movie) Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV Nominated - CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries
1993	Dream On	Dennis Youngblood	Episode: "Oral Sex, Lies and Videotape"
	Fallen Angels	Mickey Cohen	Episode: "Since I Don't Have You"
1994	Jane's House	Paul Clark	(TV movie)
	Next Door	Matt Coler	(TV movie)
	The Simpsons	as himself	Episode: Homer and Apu
1995	Indictment: The McMartin Trial	Danny Davis	(TV movie) Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV Nominated - CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries
1998–1999	Hercules: The Animated Series	Hades	Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program
2000	Dirty Pictures	Dennis Barrie	(TV movie) Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
2001	Clerks: The Animated Series	Major Baklava	Episode: "Leonardo Is Caught in the Grip of an Outbreak of Randal's Imagination and Patrick Swayze Either Does or Doesn't Work in the New Pet Store"
2003	Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story	Rudolph 'Rudy' Giuliani	(TV movie) Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
2001–2003	House of Mouse	Hades
2005	Odd Job Jack	Manny Kowalski	Episode: "Orgy: The Musical"
2005–2012	Family Guy	Himself	Episodes: "Peter's Got Woods" "Back to the Woods" "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" "Brian Griffin's House of Payne" "And Then There Were Fewer" "Tom Tucker: The Man and His Dream"
2006	ER	Dr. Nate Lennox	Episode: "Body & Soul" Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
	Entourage	Himself	Episode: "Aquamom"
2006–2008	Shark	Sebastian Stark	Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Series, Drama
2009	iCarly	Security Guard #2	Episode: "iWant My Website Back"
2011	Too Big to Fail	Richard Fuld	(TV movie) Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
2012	Coma	Dr. Theodore Stark	A&E (TV channel) miniseries based on the novel of the same name
2013	Mary and Martha	Tom	(TV movie)
	Ray Donovan	Patrick Sullivan

Direct-to-video

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Hercules: Zero to Hero	Hades	Voice
2005	Mickey's House of Villains	Hades	Voice
2010	Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths	Owlman	Voice

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2002	Kingdom Hearts	Hades
2004	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	Mike Toreno
2005	Kingdom Hearts II	Hades
2006	Scarface: The World Is Yours	George Sheffield Nominated - Spike Video Game Award for Best Supporting Male Performance
2007	[[Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+]]	Hades
2010	Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
2011	Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
2013	Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1980	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Motion Picture Drama	The Onion Field
1980	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actor	The Onion Field
1987	Academy Awards	Best Actor	Salvador
1987	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Promise
1987	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Promise
1987	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead	Salvador
1988	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	In Love and War
1988	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead	Best Seller
1989	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead	The Boost
1989	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	My Name Is Bill W.
1990	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Hallmark Hall of Fame
1993	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Citizen Cohn
1993	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Citizen Cohn
1993	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Citizen Cohn
1994	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Drama Series	Fallen Angels
1995	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Indictment: The McMartin Trial
1995	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Indictment: The McMartin Trial
1996	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Indictment: The McMartin Trial
1996	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Nixon
1997	Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Ghosts of Mississippi
1997	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor	Ghosts of Mississippi
1997	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture	Ghosts of Mississippi
1997	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	The Summer of Ben Tyler
1997	Satellite Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	The Summer of Ben Tyler
1997	Satellite Awards	Best Actor " Motion Picture	Killer: A Journal of Murder
1999	Saturn Awards	Best Actor	Vampires
2000	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program	Hercules
2000	Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actor	The Virgin Suicides
2001	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Dirty Pictures
2001	Satellite Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Dirty Pictures
2001	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Dirty Pictures
2003	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story
2004	Satellite Awards	Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story
2006	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series	ER
2006	Satellite Awards	Best Actor " Television Series Drama	Shark
2011	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Too Big to Fail
2011	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Too Big to Fail
2012	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Too Big to Fail