Jamie Foxx - Biography

Last Editor: death_sythe				Jamie Foxx Biography -   Name : Jamie Foxx Birth Date : December 13, 1967 Birth Place : Terrell, Texas, USA Birth Name : Eric Bishop Height : 5' 10 Education : Terrell High School, Terrell, Texas U.S. International University, San Diego, California (majored in Music) Nationality : American Occupation : Actor, producer

Jamie Foxx Trivia -

Jamie is the first man of the decade to host "Saturday Night Live" (1975). He was a football quarterback in high school. He started as a stand up comedian. He auditioned for the Cuba Gooding Jr. role in Jerry Maguire (1996). Jamie 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). He was pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace involving charges of battery against a New Orleans policeman in a casino last April. He received two years probation and a $1500 fine. 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 'P. 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/I), he wore prosthetic eyelids which made him virtually blind. Went to the United States International University in San Diego after graduation on a music scholarship. Is the first person to have been nominated for three acting awards at the Golden Globes in the same year. He said that Richard Pryor is his idol in comedy, Denzel Washington is his idol in acting, and that Steven Harden is his idol in music. His three Golden Globe nominations were announced on his 37th birthday. Started out as a stand-up comedian, often doing imitations of former president Ronald Reagan. On January 25th, 2005, he became one of the elite eleven thespians to have been nominated for both a Supporting and Lead Acting Academy Award in the same year for their achievements in two different movies. The other nine are Fay Bainter, Teresa Wright, Cate Blanchett, Barry Fitzgerald (he has been nominated in both categories for the same role in the same movie), Jessica Lange, Sigourney Weaver, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Holly Hunter and Julianne Moore. Is only the second male in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies. The first male to do so was Al Pacino. First African-American to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, he performed "Georgia on my Mind" with Alicia Keys as a tribute to Ray Charles, whom he portrayed in Ray (2004/I) the previous year and became good friends with him before he passed away. As of January 25th, 2005, he became the sixth actor nominated for playing a pianist. The first to be nominated (and win) was F. Murray Abraham, who beat out co-star Tom Hulce for the Best Actor Oscar in Amadeus (1984). The second to be nominated was Holly Hunter, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as a mute pianist in The Piano (1993). Geoffrey Rush won the Best Actor Oscar for his work in Shine (1996). In 2002, Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Pianist (2002). Foxx was nominated, and won, for his performance as the legendary musician Ray Charles in the hit biopic Ray (2004/I). His Oscar win for Ray (2004/I) along with Morgan Freeman's win for Million Dollar Baby (2004), was the second time two African-Americans won Oscars in the same year. The first was in 2002 when Denzel Washington won Best Actor for Training Day (2001) and Halle Berry won Best Actress for Monster's Ball (2001). He and Holly Hunter have both won Oscars for playing pianists - and for playing the piano themselves in their respective roles. In 1993, the same year that Hunter won Best Actress, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Firm (1993) in which she appeared opposite Tom Cruise. In 2004 Foxx was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Collateral (2004), also opposite Cruise. Cousin Michael Bishop starred at quarterback for Kansas State University in the mid-1990s and currently plays for Toronto Argonaughts of the Canadian Football League. Only one of a few actors to win the quadruple award crown during motion picture award season. Foxx won a Golden Globe, the SAG Award, the BAFTA Award and topped it off with the Oscar. Was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine in 2005 Is a Miami Heat fan. He invited to join AMPAS in 2005. His 10-year-old daughter accompanied him to the Oscars in 2005. Second actor to win an Academy Award for "Best Actor" and to have had a #1 billboard single ("Gold digger" by Kanye West). The first to do so was Bing Crosby. To play Ray Charles from the years 1949 to 1979 for the movie Ray (2004/I), he dropped more than 30 pounds, going from 189 to 157. Was listed as a potential nominee on the 2006 Razzie Award nominating ballot. He was suggested in the Worst Actor category for his performance in the film Stealth (2005), however, he failed to receive a nomination. During 2005 he was nominated nine times for both Best Actor in Ray (2004/I) and Best Supporting Actor in Collateral (2004). Eight out of those nine times he won Best Actor for "Ray" and lost for Best Supporting Actor for "Collateral". Idolizes R. Kelly and attributes his musical stylings, as well as personal style, to his influence. His performance as Ray Charles in Ray (2004/I) is ranked #31 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006). In 2006, a region of his Unpredictable Tour ad campaigns were by filmmaker, Shane Stanley. Ray (2004/I), which he played the titled role in, is ranked #99 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time (2006). Is one of only five performers to have both a Billboard #1 single and an Oscar for acting. The others are Barbra Streisand, Cher, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. His "SSG Sykes" character in Jarhead (2005) ironically took place the same time (during the Gulf War of 1990) as his "In Living Color" (1990) stint. He often impersonated Ray Charles when he was a cast member on "In Living Color" (1990), satirizing Charles' 1992 Diet Pepsi advertisements. When he sings "What I'd Say" for Ray (2004/I), he recites almost the same backup refrain in Kanye West's "Gold Digger". While performing as a stand-up comedian, changed his last name to Foxx after one of his favorite comics Redd Foxx and changed his first name to Jamie because it could be a girls name as well. In comedy clubs, female comics often perform before the male comics so when a club manager read his name on the list, he would often be moved up on the list of performers. He named one of People Magazine's "Hottest Bachelors" in 2006. Won 22 awards for his performance as Ray Charles in Ray (2004/I). Jamie is a great fan of Professional Wrestling. Good friends with his Any Given Sunday Co-Star and current WWE Superstar Marty Wright. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Jamie Foxx Detailed Biography -

Jamie Foxx was born December 13, 1967 in Terrell, Texas. His orginal name was Eric Bishop. When his parents marriage failed, his grandparents, Mark and Esther Talley, stepped in and at age 7 months adopted him. 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 in 1994, "Peep This" and sings the theme song for his 1999 movie, "Any Given Sunday". However, in 1989 his life changed when a girl firend 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 in "Roc" and "In Living Color" and ultimately to his own Fox network tv series. By the mid-1990s, stand-up comic Jamie Foxx had begun to parlay his work in comedy clubs and on the TV sketch comedy "In Living Color" into a feature film career. Foxx had begun 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 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. He's also starred in films such as Booty Call (1997), Any Given Sunday (1999), Date from Hell (2000) and Ali (2001).