JAMIE FOXX
G'day folks,
A
talented singer, comedian, and actor, Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx has
proved to be a triple threat in the entertainment industry.
Who Is Jamie Foxx?
Born Eric
Morlon Bishop on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas, Jamie Foxx has emerged
as one of the most diversely talented entertainers of his generation. Foxx
started out landing a spot on TV's In Living Color in the early 1990s.
He then proved himself as a dramatic actor, starring in Ray in 2004, a
role that earned him an Academy Award. Two years later, Foxx impressed music
fans with his hit collabration with Kanye West for the song "Gold
Digger." More recently, he starred in Quentin Tarantino's western Django
Unchained (2012).
Early Life
A
talented singer, comedian, and actor, Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx has
proved to be a triple threat in the entertainment industry. After his parents'
marriage dissolved, Foxx was adopted by his maternal grandparents when he was
less than a year old. He enjoyed sports and music as a child, and attended
Terrell High School in his hometown.
After
receiving a scholarship, Foxx enrolled at the U.S. International University in
San Diego where he majored in music. It was during college that he was
encouraged by friends to take the open mike one night at a comedy club, and his
career in entertainment began.
'In Living Color'
Leaving
college, Foxx moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. In 1991, he
was hired as a regular cast member on the Fox variety show In Living Color.
Foxx also explored his interest in music during the 1990s, releasing the album Peep
This in 1994. With its traditional, smooth R&B sound, the album
reached as high as No. 12 on the R&B and hip-hop charts, its single
"Infatuation" attracting attention from listeners and radio stations.
That same
year, Foxx left In Living Color, but in 1996 he returned to television
with The Jamie Foxx Show, playing a struggling Los Angeles actor
who lives in a hotel owned by his aunt and uncle.
Big Screen Acclaim
By the
time his show ended in 2001, Foxx was beginning to be viewed as a talented
dramatic actor. This was due in large part to his performance in the sports
drama Any Given Sunday (1999). Playing football star Willie Beamen, Foxx
showed incredible range in his performance and held his own against one of
film's greats, Al Pacino. His next notable film role was in Michael Mann's Ali,
followed by two powerful performances in 2004: opposite Tom Cruise in the
thriller Collateral and starring in the eagerly anticipated biopic Ray.
Foxx earned both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe award for his authentic
turn as Ray Charles.
Following
Ray, Foxx took an interesting array of roles with mixed results. The
military action film Stealth (2005), with Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel,
was a critical and financial dud. That same year, he garnered some critical
praise for his turn as a marine serving in the Middle East in Jarhead
(2005), with Jake Gyllenhaal, but the movie failed to attract much of an
audience.
Commercial Success as a Musician
In 2006,
Foxx released a new album, Unpredictable. The recording reached the top
of the pop, R&B and hip-hop charts, driven by the title track single,
"DJ Play a Love Song," and "Can I Take You Home." At the
2006 Black Entertainment Television Awards, Foxx won Best Duet/Collaboration
with Kanye West for his work on the single "Gold Digger."
Foxx
released his third album, Intuition, in 2008, which featured West and
Lil Wayne, among others. The album's second single, "Blame It," hit
No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop
Songs chart.
Foxx
enjoyed more success with his follow-up albums Best Night of My Life
(2010) and Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses (2015).
'Dreamgirls'
After
teaming up with Colin Farrell for Michael Mann's big screen adaptation of the
popular 1980s cop show Miami Vice (2006), Foxx co-starred in Dreamgirls
(2006), with Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé. He played a scheming car saleman who
becomes a manager for R&B star James Thunder Early (played by Eddie
Murphy). His character then transforms Early's backup singers, the Dreamettes,
into an all-female supergroup. The film is loosely based on the '60s pop group
the Supremes.
Foxx
featured prominently in The Kingdom (2007), a thriller about a terrorist
attack on Americans in Saudi Arabia. In 2009, Foxx portrayed Nathaniel Ayers in
the drama The Soloist, with Robert Downey Jr., and then starred in Law
Abiding Citizen.
Returing
to lighter fare, Foxx appeared in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine's Day,
with Jessica Biel and Jennifer Garner. He also had a supporting role in the
workplace comedy Horrible Bosses (2011), starring Jason Bateman,
Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Spacey, and lent his voice to the animated
children's film Rio the following year.
'Django Unchained'
In late
2012, Foxx burst back onto the big screen with a leading role in Quentin
Tarantino's action western Django Unchained. He starred as Django, a
freed slave who teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to find his
wife (Kerry Washington) and face off against the plantation owner (Leonardo
DiCaprio) who has her captive. The cast also included Samuel L. Jackson and
Jonah Hill.
More
recently Foxx appeared in the 2013 action film White House Down, playing
the role of President Sawyer. In 2014, he starred as the villain Electro in The
Amazing Spider-Man 2, reprised his character of Nico for Rio 2 and
took on the role of the Daddy Warbucks-like William Stacks for a remake of Annie.
Following
this busy year, Foxx took a break from film, before resurfacing in 2017 with
the crime films Sleepless and Baby Driver.
Clancy's comment: A successful man with more than one string to his bow.
I'm ...
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