Cuba Gooding, Jr. Biography

Cuba Gooding, Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of Rod Tidwell in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire.

Personal life

Gooding, Jr. was born in Bronx, New York, the son of Shirley Gooding (née Sullivan), a singer with the Sweethearts, and Cuba Gooding, Sr., a lead vocalist of the soul group The Main Ingredient. He has three siblings: Tommy, Omar, and April. His paternal grandfather was a native of Barbados. His family moved to Los Angeles after his father's music group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972; the elder Gooding abandoned his family two years later. During his appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Gooding revealed that, after his father had left, his family lived in hotels throughout Los Angeles. Gooding was raised by his mother and attended four different high schools: North Hollywood High School, Tustin High School, Apple Valley High School, and John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills in Los Angeles. He served as class president in three of them. He became a born-again Christian at age 13. In 1994, Gooding Jr. married his high school sweetheart Sara Kapfer, and they have three children: Spencer, Mason and Piper. They live in Pacific Palisades, and Porter Ranch, California.

Career

Early career and major success

His first job as an entertainer was as a breakdancer performing with singer Lionel Richie at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. After high school, Gooding studied Japanese martial arts for three years, before turning his focus toward acting. Early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues (1981), Amen (1988) and MacGyver (1988, 1989 and 1990) and also had a tiny part in the popular comedy Coming to America (1988). Gooding's first major role was in John Singleton's inner-city crime drama Boyz n the Hood (1991), in which he played the lead, Tré Styles. A box office surprise and critical hit, the film is now considered a modern classic. He followed this success with supporting roles in major films such as A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994), and Outbreak (1995). In 1996, Gooding reached a new level of prominence when he was cast as an arrogant yet charismatic football player on the brink of a career-ending injury in Cameron Crowe's blockbuster dramatic sports comedy Jerry Maguire (1996) with co-star Tom Cruise, and was a major critical and commercial success and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Most significantly, it earned Gooding an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His exuberant "Show Me the Money" line in the film became a nationwide catch phrase. Additionally, his Oscar acceptance speech has often been cited for its enthusiasm.

Post-Oscar prominence

In 1997, Gooding followed his breakout with a notable supporting role in the acclaimed Academy Award-winning comedy As Good as It Gets (1997), but in the following years his career was inconsistently successful. Some of his best received performances include turns in films such as the mystical drama What Dreams May Come (1998) and the US Naval drama Men of Honor (2000) in which he played the lead role and co-starred with Robert DeNiro. Gooding also received attention for his roles in the epic Pearl Harbor (2001) as historical figure Doris Miller, the ensemble farce Rat Race (2001), the musical The Fighting Temptations (2003) in which he co-starred alongside Beyoncé Knowles, and the football drama Radio (2003), in which he played the title role. Additionally, though not well received critically, the family comedy Snow Dogs (2002) was a commercial success. Other roles of note during this time include a co-lead role alongside Anthony Hopkins in the psychological thriller Instinct (1999) and voiced Buck in Disney's animated film Home on the Range (2004). However, during this stage of his career, he also began to appear in a series of films which were not critically or commercially successful, such as Chill Factor (1999), Boat Trip (2002), Norbit (2007), and Daddy Day Camp (2007), all of which had received extremely negative reviews and, with the exception of Norbit, performed poorly at the box office. On top of this, Gooding had allegedly turned down roles in successful films such as Amistad (1997) in the aftermath of his Oscar win. Ultimately, neither his earlier successes nor his leading roles in a couple of smaller independent independent films, including Lee Daniels' directorial debut Shadowboxer (2005), were able to offset these failures and prevent the downward trajectory of his career.

Recent career

Since then, in great contrast to earlier stages of his career, Gooding has appeared in many more gritty, critically ignored, direct-to-DVD action films than theatrical or television releases. A well-received performance as Ben Carson in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) and a small supporting role in Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007) both proved to be exceptions to this trend. Indeed, a significant role in the World War II film, Red Tails (2012), produced by George Lucas and with other prominent actors such as Terrence Howard and Bryan Cranston, marked his first appearance on the big screen since American Gangster. In 2012, he starred in a TV pilot for FOX called Guilty that was directed by McG. Though it was well received in screenings, it was ultimately not picked up by the network. He appeared on Channel 4's Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on August 5, 2011, closing the show dueting Bad Romance with Lulu. In 2013, Gooding, Jr. made his Broadway theatre debut alongside Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams in "The Trip to Bountiful". In 2002, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His 2013 roles included theatrical releases The Butler and Machete Kills.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Coming to America	Boy getting Haircut	Walk-on role
1989	Sing	Stanley
1991	Boyz n the Hood	Tré Styles
1992	Gladiator	Abraham Lincoln Haines
	'	Cpl. Carl Hammaker
1993	Judgment Night	Mike Peterson
1994	Lightning Jack	Ben Doyle
	Blown Away	Bomb Squad Class member	Cameo
1995	Outbreak	Maj. Salt	Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
	Losing Isaiah	Eddie Hughes
1996	Jerry Maguire	Rod Tidwell	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor " Comedy/Romance Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture Nominated " Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture
1997	As Good as It Gets	Frank Sachs	Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1998	What Dreams May Come	Albert Lewis	Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor " Drama/Romance Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
1999	Instinct	Theo Caulder
	Chill Factor	Arlo
2000	Men of Honor	BM2/Chief/Senior Chief Carl Brashear	Nominated - BET Award for Best Actor Nominated - Black Reel Award: Best Actor Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2001	Pearl Harbor	Petty Officer Doris Miller
	Rat Race	Owen Templeton
	Zoolander	Himself	Cameo
2002	Snow Dogs	Theodore "Ted" Brooks
2003	Boat Trip	Jerry Robinson	Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor
	'	Darrin Hill
	Radio	James Robert "Radio" Kennedy	Carnie Award for Best Cast NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor
2004	Home on the Range	Buck the Domestic Horse	Voice role
2005	Dirty	Salim Adel
	Shadowboxer	Mikey	Nominated - Black Movie Award for Best Actor
2007	Norbit	Deion Hughes	Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor
	Daddy Day Camp	Charlie Hinton
	What Love Is	Tom
	American Gangster	Nicky Barnes	Nominated " Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2008	Harold	Cromer
2012	Red Tails	Major Emanuel Stance
2013	The Butler	Carter Wilson
	Machete Kills	El Camaleon
	Don Jon	Movie star	Cameo

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Better Days	Bully	1 episode
1987	Hill Street Blues	2nd Gang Member / Ethan Dillon	2 episodes
1988	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Paul	1 episode
1989-1991	MacGyver	Billy Colton	4 episodes
1993	Daybreak	Torch (Stephen Tolkin)	Television film
1995	'	Billy Roberts	Television film Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
1999	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Cuba Gooding Jr./Ricky Martin"
2009	Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story	Ben Carson	Television film NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special Nominated " Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2012	Firelight	Dwayne Johnson (DJ)	Television film NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
	Guilty	William "Billy" Remz	TV pilot

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	The Trip to Bountiful	Ludie Watts	Broadway

Direct-to-DVD

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	'	Lawson Russel	Direct-to-DVD
2006	End Game	Alex Thomas	Direct-to-DVD
	'	Loofah the Beipiaosaurus	Direct-to-DVD Voice role
2008	Hero Wanted	Liam Case	Direct-to-DVD
	Linewatch	Michael Dixon	Direct-to-DVD
	'	David Wolfe	Direct-to-DVD
2009	Lies & Illusions	Isaac	Direct-to-DVD
	'	Mack	Direct-to-DVD
	Wrong Turn at Tahoe	Joshua	Direct-to-DVD
	Hardwired	Luke Gibson	Direct-to-DVD
2011	Ticking Clock	Lewis Hicks	Direct-to-DVD
	Sacrifice	Detective John Hebron	Direct-to-DVD
	The Hit List	Jonas Arbor	Direct-to-DVD
2012	One In The Chamber	Ray Carver	Direct-to-DVD
2013	Absolute Deception	Nelson	Direct-to-DVD