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Jamie Foxx (born December 13, 1967) is an American actor, singer, and stand-up comic. Foxx is possibly best known for his portrayal of musician Ray Charles in Ray, and for his collaborations with director Michael Mann. With Ray, he became one of the few African Americans to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Jamie studied at Juilliard and San Diego's United States International University in music. Foxx received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 14, 2007. First discovered by audiences as a confident, fresh faced comic who was incredibly proficient at playing outrageous characters and sending up famous celebrities on the small screen after joining the TV sketch comedy "In Living Color" in 1991, and over time developed into one of the big screen's most admired performers after earning an Oscar for his uncanny and unforgettable performance as the iconic musician Ray Charles in the 2005 biopic "Ray." Foxx was born Eric Marlon Bishop in Dallas, Texas, the son of Louise Annette Talley Dixon and Darrell Bishop, who sometimes worked as a stockbroker and changed his name to Shahid Abdula after converting to Islam. Shortly after his birth, Foxx was adopted and raised by his mother's adoptive parents, Esther Marie (née Nelson), a domestic worker and nursery operator, and Mark Talley, a yard worker. He has had little contact with his birth parents, who were not part of his upbringing. Foxx was raised in the black quarter of Terrell, Texas, at the time a racially segregated community (In The Kingdom, Foxx makes reference to Terrell). He had a strict Baptist upbringing. He has frequently cited his adoptive grandmother's influence on his life. At his grandmother's urging, Foxx began piano lessons at the age of five. He went on to play for church groups in Terrell, and studied classical music in college. He also played football (quarterback) at Terrell High School, and had an ambition to play for the Dallas Cowboys. Born Eric Bishop in Terrell, Texas, Foxx's young mother was had difficulty supporting him when her marriage dissolved early on, but his maternal grandparents stepped in and raised him as their own, and the actor would later credit his grandmother for the lion's share of his successes in life. A piano student--at his grandmother's insistence--since the age of three, he ultimately attended United States International University in San Diego on a music scholarship and later studied music at Julliard before embarking on a career in acting and comedy. Foxx, who altered his name into the more feminine-sounding Jamie Foxx in order to get preferential placement on stand-up open mic stages, began performing in comedy clubs soon after reaching Los Angeles in 1989. Within the next few years, he appeared on stage at The Comedy Store and The Improv, and at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem. He won the 1991 Oakland (California) Comedy Competition. That same year, Foxx joined the cast of Fox's variety show "In Living Color" as one of the sketch players, creating Wanda, one of the ugliest women in the world. In 1992, Foxx won his first feature role, a supporting part to Robin Williams, in "Toys.” In 1996, he had supporting roles in two features, the uneven comedy "The Great White Hype,” as a boxer's manager, and "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" (1996), as Ben Chaplin's friend trying to make sense of the confusion. Foxx changed his name while doing stand up once he found out that female comedians were often called first to perform. He felt Jamie Foxx was an ambiguous enough name to disallow any biases. His last name was chosen as a tribute to Redd Foxx. After a small part on the TV series Roc, Foxx joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991. Here he won over viewers with many unusual characters and impressions, which included: ugly girl Wanda; fictitious boxer Carl "The Tooth" Williams; and The Dirty Dozens champion T-Dog Jenkins. His impersonation of Garrett Morris would eventually find him starring against the former Saturday Night Live cast member in his sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show. Foxx has continued to perform comedy on TV. He was a guest on "Paul Rodriguez: Crossing Gang Lines,” a 1991 Fox special, and has appeared on HBO's "Def Comedy Jam.” In 1993, he starred in the one-man concert special, "Jamie Foxx: Straight From the Foxxhole" (HBO) and three years later was back in his own sitcom, "The Jamie Foxx Show" (The WB, 1996-2001). In the latter, he played an ambitious actor who goes to work for relatives at a somewhat run-down hotel. Although never a ratings smash or even a cult hit, the series allowed Foxx to build an audience and hone his talents, leading to big screen roles, first cast obviously in comedies pitched to urban audiences such as "Booty Call" (1997) opposite Tommy Davidson as two buddies who get in over their heads pursuing women; "The Players Club" (1998), a strip-club comedy from writer-director Ice Cube; and "Held Up" (1999), playing a hapless man caught in an outrageous hostage situation. Foxx's first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone's 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where he played a heavy-partying football player. He was cast in the role in part because of his background as a football player. Foxx has since evolved into a respected dramatic actor. Following Any Given Sunday, Foxx was featured as taxi driver Max Durocher in the film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His standout performance, however, was his portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Foxx first ventured into more dramatic territory when Oliver Stone cast him as a nervous third-string quarterback turned overnight sensation in "Any Given Sunday" (1999), and the actor equated himself well with an impressive performance. He then balanced action and comedy in the middling thriller "Bait" (2000) from director Antwone Fuqua, playing an ex-con used by federal agents to lure a killer out of hiding before turning in his most complex performance to date when he played Muhammad Ali's troubled ring man Drew 'Bundini' Brown in director Michael Mann's biopic "Ali" (2001). Foxx is the second male, and the first African American, in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies, Collateral and Ray. The only other male actor to achieve this was Al Pacino. In 2005, Foxx was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Foxx had a major breakthrough year in 2004: first he starred in the f/x telepic "Redemption: The Stan 'Tookie' Williams Story," giving a widely praised performance as the founder of the L.A. street gang The Crips, a man who went from Death Row to being nominated for a Nobel Peace Price—Foxx, who took an active hand in trying to prevent Williams' execution, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, as well as an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor; next, the actor was praised for his turn in the otherwise forgettable comedy "Breakin' All the Rules" as a dumped boyfriend-turned-breakup expert author; Foxx then surprised audiences with his engrossing and sophisticated portrayal of an L.A. cabbie who finds himself at the mercy of a fare who revealed to be a mercenary hit man (Tom Cruise), and the strong performance rocketed Foxx into Hollywood's leading man A-list, earning him nominations for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He followed up with an extraordinary turn as legendary R&B singer Ray Charles in the big-screen biopic "Ray," an explosive performance that transcended a mere impersonation of the musician and firmly established Foxx as one of the most talented and versatile actors of his generation. The resultant raves culminated in a series of professional accolades and nominations, and he took home the choicest of the three Golden Globe awards he was nominated for that year, winning for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. His subsequent wins at the BAFTA Awards, SAG Awards and a multitude of critics' awards preceded his Best Actor victory at the Academy Awards. The actor's first follow-up to hit theaters, in progress since before his "Ray" breakout, was decidedly less impressive: the action film "Stealth" (2005), next effort was "Stealth" (2005), a stupefyingly lowbrow cross between "Top Gun" and "2001," cast him as a hotshot pilot of high-tech military planes, was a forgettable side trip before the juicier post-Oscar offers rolled in. He was working on one of the them when he won his trophy: "Jarhead" (2005), director Sam Mendes' insightful, psychological adaptation of former U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's bestselling recounting his experience during the 1990 Gulf War in Iraq. Foxx was cast in a potentially familiar role as a hard-driving Marine training sergeant (a composite character), but the script, direction and Foxx's performance served up enough subtle curves and quirks to establish the character as a counterpoint to Swofford (played in the film by Jake Gyllenhaal) by his grounded, centered desire and satisfaction to be serving in the military. At the same time, Foxx began pushing his musical career (the former music student's debut album Peep This was released in 1994) forward: he appeared on Kanye West's song "Gold Digger," which held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks straight in 2005, and in December of that year he released the R&B album Unpredictable, which despite a tepid critical reception emerged as a chart-topper. Following this success, Foxx appeared in three more movies: Jarhead, Miami Vice, and Dreamgirls which were hits at the box office and lifted Foxx even higher as a bankable star in Hollywood. 2007 brought him the lead role in the film The Kingdom, opposite Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner. In September 2007, Foxx was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He said, upon receiving the honor, "[it was] one of the most amazing days of my life." Refocusing his attention on what he has done best—act—Foxx was next cast by director Michael Mann to play Detective Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs in the remake of the hit 1980s police procedural, “Miami Vice” (2006). Shooting began in April 2005 and from the start the production experienced on disaster after another, including Foxx’s near-miss during a joyride in a convertible Ferrari with costar Coli Farrell, who played partner Sonny Crockett—a strong wind blew out the windows on a skyscraper and sent large shards of glass onto the street where the actors were cruising. Both barely escaped unscathed. In April of 2003 Foxx was involved in an incident with two police officers who were attempting to escort him and his sister out of Harrah's casino in New Orleans. Employees claimed they had failed to show identification upon entry. Originally charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace, battery on police officers and resisting arrest, Foxx pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace in exchange for the other charges being dropped, and was sentenced to a six month suspended jail term with two years probation and a $1500 fine. After a 105-day shoot that saw a local Dominican shot by Mann’s security after he brandished a gun near set, among many other calamities, Foxx was glad to be finished with what many—cast and crew—considered to be an excessively grueling shoot. Foxx then found himself in the Oscar mix again with a strong performance in the much-hyped “Dreamgirls” (2006), a big screen version of late director Michael Bennett’s Broadway musical about a the rise and potential fall of a black female singing trio (Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose) in the 1960s and 1970s. Foxx played Curtis Taylor, Jr., a ruthlessly ambitious talent manager from Detroit who turns the singing group into stars, but only on his own terms. Foxx is a Grammy-nominated singer and accomplished musician. He began piano lessons at age five, and later took classical piano lessons while attending college. In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the FOX record label) entitled Peep This. In 2001, he hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. His music career went into a higher gear when, in 2004, he was featured on rapper Kanye West's song, "Slow Jamz", which also featured Twista. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, as well as number three on the UK singles chart. Foxx's second collaboration with Kanye West, "Gold Digger", in which he sang the "I Got a Woman" Ray Charles-influenced hook, went straight to #1 on the Billboard Top 100, and remained there for 10 weeks. In 2005, Foxx was featured on the hit single "Georgia" by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob. The song sampled Ray Charles' hit "Georgia on My Mind". Unpredictable is Jamie Foxx's second studio release. It sold over 598,000 copies in its first week but reached the U.S. number one spot in its 2nd week. Debuting at number two, Unpredictable rose to the top of the Billboard pop album chart, with 2nd-week sales of 200,000 copies in the United States. The album also charted in the UK top 10 album chart, peaking at number nine. It has since been certified Platinum. Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for acting and to have achieved a number-one record album in the US. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) Foxx's first single from the album, the title track, "Unpredictable" (featuring Ludacris) samples "WildFlower" by New Birth. The song peaked inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and also made the UK top 20 singles chart. The second US single from the album was "DJ Play A Love Song", which reunited Foxx with Twista. In the UK, however, the second single was "Extravaganza", which saw Foxx once again collaborate with Kanye West. He was not, however, featured in the song's music video. At the 2006 BET Awards, Foxx won two awards: Best Duet/Collaboration with Kanye West for "Gold Digger" and Video of the Year for the same video. Kanye's video tied with Mary J. Blige's (Be Without You) for Video of the year. On December 8, 2006, Foxx received a 4 Grammy nominations. On January 22, 2007, Foxx was on Sirius Satellite Radio, announcing his new "Foxxhole" channel. This channel now features comedy and music by Jamie but also music and comedy by those Jamie respects most. Foxx recorded a song with country superstars Rascal Flatts entitled "She Goes All The Way" for their album, "Still Feels Good". Foxx also does background vocals for artist/songwriter Tank. |
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