Jaime King

Jaime King

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Birth name: Jaime King
Date of birth: 23 April 1979
Place of birth: Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Nickname: James King
Height: 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
Spouse: Kyle Newman (23 November 2007 – present)

Famous Quote: “I like doing accents and I like learning as much as I can learn. You all seem to forget that you work for me. This is a formality. I’m embarrassed to have you on my payroll, and offer a free steak dinner to anyone who thinks this tax won’t pass.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

James King
Columbia Artists Management Inc.
1790 Broadway
New York, NY 10019-1412, USA 

Biography:  Jaime King (born April 23, 1979) is an American film actress and model. In her modeling career and early film roles, she went by the names Jamie King and most especially James King, which was a childhood nickname given to King by her parents, because her agency already represented another Jaime — the older, then-more famous model Jaime Rishar. King, because of the latter name, is sometimes referred to as the “Model with a man’s name”.

An alluring, lithe blonde who got her start modeling as a teen, James King went from cover girl to hot Hollywood property, appearing in a whopping five releases set to open in 2001 and another ready to lens in the summer of that same year. Born Jamie King in Omaha, Nebraska, the young girl sought to broaden her horizons and asked that she be allowed to attend the local modeling school. At age fourteen, at the school’s final presentation, King was discovered by New York model agent Michael Flutie, who offered the teen beauty a shot at stardom. King was soon on the fast track, appearing in all the major magazines, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Allure.

Called by Complex magazine “one of the original model- turned- actresses”, King appeared in Vogue, Mademoiselle, and Harper’s Bazaar among other fashion magazines. Afterwards, she began taking small film roles, her first large endeavor being the big-budget Pearl Harbor (2001), and later first starring role in Bulletproof Monk (2003). She has gone on to appear as a lead in various other films, gaining more notoriety after Sin City (2005), a role which she will reprise in the sequel Sin City 2 (2009).

King was born in the suburbs of Nebraska, the daughter of Nancy King, a beauty queen, and Robert King. She has an older sister, Sanddra, and a younger brother, Barry. King was named after Lindsay Wagner’s character, Jaime Sommers, of the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman. King’s parents separated in 1994, eventually spliting amicably in 1995. The two continue to work together in Omaha where they rent out low-income apartments. King had attended the modeling school Nancy Bounds’s Studios and later dropped out of Westside High School in 1995 to pursue a modeling career in New York, afterwards enrolling in a home-study program run by the University of Nebraska.

Displaying a more playful personality and down-to-earth appeal than the average stone-faced model, King had something special that would elevate her quickly to supermodel ranks, but along with her great successes came big problems. Young and free with money to spend, the model was on the party circuit, and drug use soon became more of a lifestyle than a recreation. When the life of her then-boyfriend, an up and coming photographer was cut short reportedly due to a drug overdose, King determinedly worked to straighten up her life. By 1998, she was back in business, co-hosting MTV’s fashion series “House of Style” with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. With her likeness in countless magazines and her name on the lips of those in the know, King had made a name for herself in the fashion industry, but her teenage party girl past threatened to shadow her accomplishments.

She was discovered in November 1993, at the age of fourteen, while attending Nancy Bounds’ Studios, a school for modeling. After being spotted at her graduation fashion show by New York model agent Michael Flutie, King was invited to New York to begin modeling professionally. She joined with Company Management, who already represented Jaime Rishar, a more established model at the time. To avoid confusion, King opted to go by her childhood nickname, James, for the duration of her modeling career and later, the beginning of her film career. In March 1994 she traveled to New York for test pictures and received enthusiastic responses, however, she did not return to New York until July 1994 after gaining a successful advertisement for Abercrombie & Fitch. Much of Fall and Spring 1994 were spent commuting between Omaha and New York.

King had a successful early career as a fashion model, and by age fifteen she had been featured in the fasion magazines Vogue, Mademoiselle, Allure, and Seventeen. At sixteen, King had graced the pages of Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar. She was featured on the New York Times Magazine cover story published on February 4, 1996 and had walked the runway for Chanel and Christian Dior. In 1998 she began co-hosting MTV’s fashion series, House of Style, with fellow model turned actress Rebecca Romijn. Despite her success, King has noted that she “remembers the times where I was so alone” and thought she was “never gonna be able to be a kid.” She, along with Kate Moss, had been often cited as those who helped popularize the idea of heroin chic in the 1990s.

In 2004, King, along with Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, and Eva Mendes were chosen as spokesmodels for a high profile ad campaign for Revlon. The advertisements were featured in print, television, theatrical, outdoor and Internet venues, banking on their spokeswomen’s “collective star power” to sell the cosmetics products. In 2006, King was chosen by Rocawear CEO Jay-Z to become the new face of the line; her advertisements were featured for the Winter 2006 Season. Jamie is on the cover of the April 2008 issue Of Maxim magazine.

In 1999, King began lensing her first feature, “Happy Campers” (screened at Sundance Film Festival in 2001), co-starring as counselor Pixel in this teen comedy written and directed by “Heathers” screenwriter Daniel Waters. Next up for the actress was a supporting turn as the grown up daughter of Johnny Depp’s enterprising drug dealer George Jung in the drama “Blow” (2001), directed by Ted Demme. A co-starring turn as the object of a nerdy young man (Jason Schwartzman)’s affections in the college comedy “Slackers” was set to hit screens in April of 2001, but the folding of Destination Films kept the film shelved until 2002. King fans looking forward to catching the actress in a substantial role would be sated with the May 2001 unspooling of Michael Bay’s World War II romantic epic “Pearl Harbor”. Here she played Betty, a bright and bubbly seventeen-year-old nurse who sneaks into the navy for adventure. Later that year she would star with teen heartthrob Joshua Jackson in “Lone Star State of Mind”, playing a girl looking to pursue dreams of fame and fortune by leaving her little Texas hometown behind.

In 1999, King began her acting career and made her debut in the Daniel Waters’ comedy Happy Campers, as Pixel. Happy Campers was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, and in 2003, King was nominated for “Best Actress” at the DVD Exclusive Awards for her portrayal of Pixel. Filmed in 1999, she also appeared in Filter’s music video for “Take a Picture”. Following her debut acting roles, King appeared briefly in the film Blow, portraying Kristina Jung, daughter of George Jung (portrayed by Johnny Depp). Blow was based on the real-life stories of cocaine smugglers George Jung, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder and the Medellín Cartel.

King made her first appearance in a large Hollywood production with her role as the seventeen year old nurse, Betty, in the World War II epic romance Pearl Harbor (2001). Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine had commented that King “has a lively minute or two” in the film, however, her part was small and the “young cast is mostly pinup packaging”. King went on to be featured in the Incubus music video “Wish You Were Here”. The roles King took part in during 2001 garnered her the “New Stylemaker” title at the Young Hollywood Awards.

In 2002, she appeared in the teen comedy Slackers as Angela Patton, Four Faces of God as Sam, and the crime comedy Lone Star State of Mind as Baby. Slackers received a majority of negative response from critics who found that the characters “are not so strikingly original as to elevate the slack material”, while Four Faces of God and Lone Star State of Mind did not have wide theatrical releases. 2003 saw King in the film Bulletproof Monk, alongside Chow Yun-Fat and Seann William Scott, an adaptation of a comic book by Michael Avon Oeming. She auditioned five times, did a screen test and a physical test in order to obtain the role of Jade, a character skilled in martial arts. This was King’s first leading action film role, however, Bulletproof Monk had received mostly negative reviews from critics, who cited that the fight scenes were not as well choreographed or directed as those other genre films, and that the alternating comedic and action scenes were jarring. 

Despite those negative reviews, Bulletproof Monk was nominated for “Choice Movie in a Drama/Action Adventure” award at the Teen Choice Awards. Late 2003 saw King in Robbie Williams’ music video for “Sexed Up” and on the cover artwork for the single’s release. In 2004, King appeared in the comedy White Chicks, playing Heather Vandergeld, with actress Brittany Daniel as her sister Megan Vandergeld, a parody on socialites Paris and Nicky Hilton. White Chicks was also negatively reviewed by critics, receiving five nominations at the Razzie Awards in the categories for “Worst Actress”, “Worst Director”, “Worst Picture”, “Worst Screen Couple” and “Worst Screenplay”. Despite the multiple Razzie Awards nominations, White Chicks received “Outstanding Directing for a Box Office Movie” and “Outstanding Writing for a Box Office Movie” at the BET Comedy Awards.

2005 saw King in a variety of film and television roles. She first appeared in the independent black comedy and satire Pretty Persuasion, playing a small role as Kathy Joyce, the step mother of Evan Rachel Wood’s character. Afterwards, she gained lead roles in the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel Sin City. She had met with director Robert Rodriguez, who was a fan of her work, and at the time King was unaware that Rodriguez wanted her involvement in the film. Eventually, “we started reading the Sin City graphic novel] and it was really fun”. King portrayed Goldie and Wendy, the twin prostitutes in charge of the girls of Old Town, in the segment The Hard Goodbye opposite Mickey Rourke. However, because the twins never appeared in the same frame together, special effects were not needed to composite two images of King. Sin City featured a large ensemble cast of well known actors which included Rosario Dawson and Jessica Alba, whom King had “kinda grew up together” with in New York.

The beautiful actress was one of the few characters to appear in color in director Robert Rodriguez and writer-artist Frank Miller’s visually arresting (and otherwise black-and-white) adaptation of Miller’s crime noir comic book series “Sin City” (2005), playing the angelic murdered hooker Goldie as well as her vengeful twin Wendy opposite Mickey Rourke’s hulking Marv in the sequence “The Hard Goodbye.” After a supporting part in the indie black comedy “Pretty Persuasion” (2005) and a regular role on the sitcom “Kitchen Confidential” (Fox, 2005- ), King joined the original cast for the sequel “Cheaper By the Dozen 2” (2005), starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the overburdened parents of a family of twelve. Meanwhile, King was cast to appear in the sequel “Sin City 2,” set for release in summer 2006. 

Sin City had opened to wide critical and commercial success, gathering particular recognition for the film’s unique coloring process, which rendered most of the film in black and white but retained coloring for select objects; King was one of the few in the black and white film to have color, that being, red lips and blonde hair when acting as Goldie. The film was screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in-competition and won the Technical Grand Prize for the film’s “visual shaping.”24 The family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen 2 featured King as Anne Murtaugh in yet another large ensemble cast, and the Al Pacino drama Two for the Money as Alexandria; both films had negative critical and box office reception. In television, she had a one episode guest appearance on the teen drama The O.C. and a recurring role on the short-lived situation comedy Kitchen Confidential. Also, King was featured in the Zach Braff directed music video for Gavin Degraw’s “Chariot”.

In 2006, King appeared with a small role as Heather in the comedy The Alibi, and a starring role in the thriller True True Lie. Her largest role that year was in the David Arquette horror film The Tripper as Samantha; Arquette had, in addition to directing the film, had produced, written, and acted in it. King had a recurring role on the short lived comedy The Class, which ended its run on television after an announcement in May 2007. The Class had been nominated for an Emmy in 2007, and won the People’s Choice Award for “Favorite New TV Comedy”. 

In 2007, King filmed They Wait, an upcoming Canadian horror-thriller film inspired by true events. She stars as a mother attempting to find the truth and save her son when threatened by spirits during the Chinese tradition of Ghost Month. It was featured in the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, but will not make a theatrical release until 2008.

Currently, King has five films in production that have release dates estimated for 2008 and 2009. The first of three to be released in 2008 may be the Starwars-themed comedy Fanboys, which has had its release date pushed beyond January 14, 2008. This is the second date change as it was to be originally released August 17, 2007. As of late March 2008 there is no release date set. This was due to additional funding given to director Kyle Newman to shoot new scenes, however, the busy schedules of the actors only allowed for filming in September 2007, thus moving the release date to accommodate that. Re-shoots took place under the advisement of Harvey Weinstein, who believed the “cancer plot” would not be funny. 

The new “cut” of the film is said to have removed the cancer storyline, thus inciting a rebellion of Star Wars fans. The fans believe the “cancer plot” gives the story heart and not having it makes a mockery of their allegiances to the Star Wars saga. The Pardon, a film based on the true life story of Toni Jo Henry, the first and only woman to be electrocuted by the State of Louisiana, will star King as Toni Jo Henry. The last film is the Jim Kouf comedy, A Fork in the Road, that will have King portraying the character of April Rogers alongside Daniel Roebuck. 

2009 will see the release of The Spirit and Sin City 2, both of which are in pre-production. King confirmed her role in The Spirit, a live-action film adaptation based on the 1940s newspaper strip The Spirit, created by Will Eisner, in October 2007. King will portray Lorelei Rox, “a modern-day siren with a voice that could kill”. The role will reunite King with Sin City writer, Frank Miller, who is attached to write and direct The Spirit. Filming is slated to begin in October 2007, with a release date in January 2009.28 King’s other 2009 film will also be written by and co-directed by Miller, in the film Sin City 2. She will reprise her role as twins Goldie and Wendy in the part sequel and part prequel.

During her first job modeling, King was turned onto heroin and had an addiction to the drug from age fourteen to nineteen. In 1997, her boyfriend, twenty one year old fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti, had died from what was thought be a kidney ailment brought on by excessive heroin use. Following his death, King became sober, and went to rehabilitation at age nineteen for her addictions to both heroin and alcohol. In 2006, she commented that her past reputation as a “party girl” is “like another lifetime” and she now thinks of herself as a different person.

In September 2000, King dated Kid Rock and the couple made an appearance on a recording of the Howard Stern Show. In January 2005, while working on the set of Fanboys, she met husband Kyle Newman, the film’s director. Within three months of dating, the two moved in together. Newman proposed in Spring 2007, and the two married on November 23, 2007 in an “intimate and relaxed” ceremony in Los Angeles at Greystone Park and Manor, where Newman had proposed. King told InStyle magazine, “I want at least three children.”. King enjoys surfing and claims to be friends with numerous musicians. In an interview published in 1996, King, after retiring from modeling, plans to be a writer or possibly a photographer. King currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

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