Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx

Actor
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Life Story

Jamie Foxx is an American actor, singer and comedian. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for his work in the biographical film Ray (2004). The same year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the action film Collateral (2004). Other prominent acting roles include the title role in the film Django Unchained (2012), the supervillain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and William Stacks in the modern version of Annie (2014).

Jamie Foxx was born Eric Marlon Bishop in Terrell, Texas, to Louise Annette Talley and Darrell Bishop, who worked as a stockbroker and had later changed his name to Shahid Abdula. His mother was an adopted child. When her marriage to his father failed, his maternal grandparents, Mark and Estelle Talley, stepped in and, at age seven months, adopted Jamie too. He has said that he had a very rigid upbringing that placed him in the Boy Scouts and the church choir. During high school, he played quarterback for his high school team and was good enough that he got press in Dallas newspapers. He studied music in college. He released a music album, "Peep This" (1994), and sings the theme song for his movie, Any Given Sunday (1999). However, in 1989, his life changed when a girlfriend challenged him to get up onstage at the Comedy Club. In fact, he says he took his androgynous stage name because he learned that women got preference for mike time on open stage nights. That led to his being cast on Roc (1991) and In Living Color (1990).

Foxx had his own WB television show from 1996 to 2001, the sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show (1996), in which he played Jamie King Jr. Foxx is also a Grammy Award-winning musician, producing four albums which have charted highly on the US Billboard 200: "Unpredictable" (2005), which topped the chart, "Intuition" (2008), "Best Night of My Life" (2010), and "Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses" (2015). In 2012, Foxx starred in the title role of the Quentin Tarantino written and directed Django Unchained (2012). Foxx starred alongside his Ray co-star Kerry Washington, as well as Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson. In 2013, Foxx was cast as President James Sawyer in White House Down (2013) alongside Channing Tatum. The following year, Foxx appeared as the villain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and co-starred with Quvenzhané Wallis in Annie (2014), Sony's Will Smith and Jay Z produced update of the comic strip-turned-musical.

Family

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Trivia

[January 2000] First man of the decade to host Saturday Night Live (1975).
Was a football quarterback in high school.
Began his career as a stand up comedian.
Auditioned for the role of Rodney "Rod" Tidwell in Jerry Maguire (1996), which went to Cuba Gooding Jr..
Had the role of Slim in The Wood (1999), but had to drop out when he got the role of Willie Beamen in Any Given Sunday (1999).
Pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace, involving charges of battery against a New Orleans policeman in a casino in April 2003. He received two years probation and a $1500 fine. [February 2004]
His piano lessons started at the age of three at his grandmother's insistence.
His top five favorite songs are "Do Me, Baby" by Prince, "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye, "Always and Forever" by Heatwave, "It's All About the Benjamins" by Sean 'Diddy' Combs and "Lady" by Lionel Richie.
Attended United States International University (now known as Alliant International University) from 1986 to 1988 on a music scholarship.
As a second grader, he was so talented in telling jokes that his teacher used him as a reward. If the class behaved, Foxx would tell them jokes.
In Ray (2004), he wore prosthetic eyelids which made him virtually blind.
Is the first person to have been nominated for three acting awards at the Golden Globe Awards in the same year.

Personal Quotes 

[on wearing prosthetic eyelids which made him blind in Ray (2004)] After six hours of being blind, you lose the sense of how a person is physically. It was amazing to hear the little buzzing voices all around you.
[2005 Academy Awards acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ray (2004)] I guess we got to do it again. "Oh, ah!" Yeah, you're ready. That's for Ray Charles. Give it up for Ray Charles and his beautiful legacy. And thank you, Ray Charles, for living.

I got so many people to thank tonight. First I want to start it out with Taylor Hackford. Taylor, you took a chance, man. I mean that love for Ray Charles was deep, down in the earth. It's cracked open. And it's spilling. And everybody's drowning in this love. I thank you for taking a chance on this film. And thank you for waiting 15 years to get me to do it. I want to thank you. I want to thank Crusader. I want to thank my agents. I want to thank Rick Kurtzman. I want to thank Kim Hodges. I want to thank Steve Smooke. I want to thank my managers, Jaime King [Jaime Rucker King] and Marcus King. Let's live this African-American dream. It's beautiful. I'm glad I'm with you. I ain't never leaving you. I'm glad I'm with you.

I got a chance to meet a whole lot of people, experiencing this. And other people I want to thank, I want to thank my sister. Four feet, eleven inches of nothing but pure love. I want to thank my daughter for telling me just before I got up here, "If you don't win, dad, you're still good.

I'm just ... I see Oprah [Oprah Winfrey] and I see Halle [Halle Berry]. I just want to say your names. I want to talk to you later. Both of you. Because Oprah got -- allowed me to meet somebody by the name of Sidney Poitier. And, yes, Sidney Poitier said, "I saw you once. And I looked in your eyes and there was a connection." And he says, "I give to you responsibility." So, I'm taking that responsibility tonight. And, thank you, Sidney.

This is probably going to be the toughest part of this speech. My daughter shares my grandmother's name, "Marie." My grandmother's name is Estelle Marie Talley. She's not here tonight. And this is going to be the toughest part. But she was my first acting teacher. She told me to stand up straight. Put your shoulders back. Act like you got some sense.

Filmography

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