Forest Whitaker

Caption	Forest Whitaker, March 2007
Birth name	Forest Steven Whitaker
Birth date	July 15, 1961
Birth place	Longview, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer, director
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Keisha Nash (1996–present)

Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and . However, for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television series, The Shield, Whitaker merely had to draw on his childhood years growing up in South Central Los Angeles, California.

Whitaker won an Academy Award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker has also won a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA. He became the fourth black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, joining the ranks of Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, and Jamie Foxx.

Early life

Whitaker was born in Longview, Texas, and his family moved to South Central Los Angeles when he was four. His father, Forest Whitaker, Jr., was an insurance salesman and the son of novelist Forest Whitaker, Sr. His mother, Laura Francis (née Smith), was a special education teacher who put herself through college and earned two Masters degrees while raising her children. Whitaker has two younger brothers, Kenn and Damon, and an older sister, Deborah.

As a teenager, Whitaker commuted from Carson to wealthy Palisades High School on LA's West Side.

Whitaker then attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) on a football scholarship, but due to a debilitating back injury, he changed his major to music (voice). He toured England with the Cal Poly Chamber Singers in 1980. While still at Cal Poly, he briefly changed his major to drama. He was accepted to the Music Conservatory at the University of Southern California to study opera as a tenor, and subsequently was accepted into the University's Drama Conservatory.

Career

Film work

Whitaker has a long history of working with well-regarded film directors and fellow actors. In his first onscreen role of note, he played a football player in the 1982 film version of Cameron Crowe's coming-of-age teen-retrospective, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. His performance, which has been called "transcendent," and a Golden Globe nomination. Whitaker continued to work with a number of well-known directors throughout the 1990s. He starred in the 1990 film Downtown with Anthony Edwards and Penelope Ann Miller. Neil Jordan cast him in the pivotal role of "Jody" in his 1992 film, The Crying Game. Todd McCarthy, of Variety, described Whitaker's performance as "big-hearted," "hugely emotional," and "simply terrific." In 1994, he was a member of the cast that won the first ever National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble for Robert Altman's film, Prêt-à-Porter. He gave a "characteristically emotional performance" in Wayne Wang and Paul Auster's 1995 film, Smoke.

Whitaker played a serene, pigeon-raising, bushido-following, mob hit man in , a 1999 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Many consider this to have been a "definitive role" for Whitaker.

Whitaker next appeared in what has been called one of the "worst films ever made," the 2000 production of Battlefield Earth, based on the novel of the same name by L. Ron Hubbard. The film was widely criticized as a notorious commercial and critical disaster. However, Whitaker's performance was lauded by the film's director, Roger Christian, who commented that, "Everybody's going to be very surprised" by Whitaker, who "found this huge voice and laugh." Battlefield Earth "won" seven Razzie Awards; Whitaker was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to his co-star, Barry Pepper.

In 2001, Whitaker had a small, uncredited role in the Wong Kar-wai-directed The Follow, one of five short films produced by BMW that year to promote its cars. He co-starred in Joel Schumacher's 2002 thriller, Phone Booth, with Kiefer Sutherland and Colin Farrell. That year, he also co-starred with Jodie Foster in Panic Room. His performance as the film's "bad guy" was described as "a subtle chemistry of aggression and empathy." To portray the dictator, Whitaker gained 50 pounds, learned to play the accordion, and immersed himself in research. He read books about Amin, watched news and documentary footage, and spent time in Uganda meeting with Amin's friends, relatives, generals, and victims; he also learned Swahili and mastered Amin's East African accent. For that same role, he was also recognized with a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA Award, and accolades from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association among others.

In 2007, Whitaker played Dr. James Farmer Sr. in The Great Debaters, for which he received an nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor. In 2008, Whitaker appeared in three films, first as a business man known only as Happiness, who likes butterflies, in the film The Air I Breathe. He also portrayed a rogue police captain in Street Kings, and a heroic tourist in Vantage Point.

Television work

After completing several films in the early 1980s, Whitaker gained additional roles in multiple television shows. On the series, Diff'rent Strokes, he played a bully in the 1985 episode "Bully for Arnold". That same year, Whitaker also played the part of a comic book salesman in the Amazing Stories episode "Gather Ye Acorns". Throughout the 1990s, Whitaker mainly had roles in television films, including Criminal Justice, The Enemy Within, and Witness Protection.

From 2002 to 2003, Whitaker was the host and narrator of 44 new episodes of the Rod Serling classic, The Twilight Zone, which lasted one season on UPN. After working in several film roles, he returned to television in 2006 when he joined the cast of FX's police serial The Shield, as Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh, who was determined to prove that the lead character, Vic Mackey, is a dirty cop. He received rave reviews for his performance — Variety called it a "crackling-good guest stint" — and he reprised the role in the show's 2007 season.

In the fall of 2006, Whitaker started a multi-episode story arc on ER as Curtis Ames, a man who comes into the ER with a cough, but quickly faces the long-term consequences of a paralyzing stroke; he then takes out his anger on Doctors Luka Kovač and Abby Lockhart. Whitaker received a 2007 Emmy Award nomination for his performance on the series. Also in 2006, Whitaker appeared in T.I.'s music video "Live in the Sky" alongside Jamie Foxx.

Producing and directing

Whitaker branched out into producing and directing in the 1990s. He co-produced and co-starred in A Rage in Harlem in 1991. He made his directorial debut with a grim film about inner-city gun violence, Strapped, for HBO in 1993. In 1995, he directed his first feature, Waiting to Exhale, which was based on the Terry McMillan novel of the same name. Roger Ebert observed that the tone of the film resembled Whitaker's own acting style: "measured, serene, confident." Whitaker also directed co-star Whitney Houston's music video of the movie's theme song, "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)".

Whitaker continued his directing career with the 1998 romantic comedy, Hope Floats, starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick, Jr. He directed Katie Holmes in the romantic comedy, First Daughter in 2004; he had co-starred with Holmes in Phone Booth in 2002. Whitaker served as an executive producer on First Daughter. He had previously gained experience as the executive producer of several made-for-television movies, most notably the 2002 Emmy-award winning Door to Door, starring William H. Macy. He produced these projects through his production company, Spirit Dance Entertainment, which he shut down in 2005 to concentrate on his acting career. He was honored at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2007, where he received the American Riviera Award.

Previously, in 2005, the Deauville (France) Festival of American Film paid tribute to him. Whitaker was the recipient of the 2,335th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 16, 2007. He received an Honorary Degree from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2009 at the 82nd Commencement Ceremony.

Personal life

in Paris, 2010.]]

In 1996, Whitaker married actress Keisha Nash, whom he met on the set of Blown Away.

Whitaker, who is a vegetarian, He is also a supporter and public advocate for Hope North, a boarding school and vocational training center in northern Uganda for escaped child soldiers, orphans, and other young victims of the country's civil war. In politics, Whitaker supported and spoke on behalf of Senator Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign. On April 6, 2009, Whitaker was given a chieftancy title in Imo State, Nigeria. Whitaker, who was named a chief among the Igbo community of Nkwerre, was given the title Nwannedinamba of Nkwerre, which means A Brother in a Foreign Land.Whitaker has a cousin, Terry, who attends Southern Nazarene University.

Whitaker's left eye ptosis has been called "intriguing" by some critics and "gives him a sleepy, contemplative look." Whitaker has explained that the condition is hereditary and that he has considered having surgery to correct it, not for cosmetic reasons but because it affects his vision.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Actor |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1982 | | Gowdy's Bodyguard | |- | 1982 | Fast Times at Ridgemont High | Charles Jefferson | |- | 1985 | Vision Quest | Balldozer | |- | 1985 | North and South | Cuffey | |- | 1986 | | Amos | |- | 1986 | North and South, Book II | Cuffey | |- | 1986 | Platoon | Big Harold | |- | 1987 | Stakeout | Jack Pismo | |- | 1987 | Good Morning, Vietnam | Edward Garlick | |- | 1988 | Bird | Charlie 'Bird' Parker | Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor |- | 1988 | Bloodsport | Rawlins | |- | 1989 | Johnny Handsome | Dr. Steven Fisher | |- | 1990 | Downtown | Dennis Curren | |- | 1991 | Diary of a Hitman | Dekker | |- | 1991 | | Jackson | |- | 1992 | Article 99 | Dr. Sid Handleman | |- | 1992 | | Jody | |- | 1992 | Consenting Adults | David Duttonville | |- | 1993 | Bank Robber | Officer Battle | |- | 1993 | Body Snatchers | Major Collins | |- | 1994 | Blown Away | Anthony Franklin | |- | 1994 | Prêt-à-Porter | Cy Bianco | NBR Award for Best Cast |- | 1994 | Jason's Lyric | Maddog | |- | 1995 | Species | Dan Smithson, Empath | |- | 1995 | Smoke | Cyrus Cole | |- | 1996 | Phenomenon | Nate Pope | |- | 1998 | Body Count | Crane | |- | 1999 | | Ghost Dog | |- | 1999 | Light It Up | Officer Dante Jackson | |- | 2000 | Battlefield Earth | Ker |Nominated - Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor |- | 2000 | Four Dogs Playing Poker | Mr. Ellington | |- | 2001 | | Agent Jules Bernard | |- | 2001 | | The Employer | uncredited |- | 2001 | Green Dragon | Addie | |- | 2002 | Panic Room | Burnham | |- | 2002 | Phone Booth | Captain Ed Ramey | Theatrical release was delayed due to the Beltway sniper attacks in October 2002.

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External links

Forest Whitaker lighting a candle for Rwanda

Category:1961 births Category:Actors from Los Angeles, California Category:Actors from Texas Category:African American film actors Category:African American film directors Category:African American television actors Category:American people of Igbo descent Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American karateka Category:American television actors Category:American vegetarians Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:California State Polytechnic University, Pomona alumni Category:Emmy Award winners Category:English-language film directors Category:Living people Category:People from Longview, Texas Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:University of Southern California alumni