John Cusack
John Cusack | |
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![]() Cusack at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival
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Born | John Paul Cusack June 28, 1966 Evanston, Illinois, U.S |
Residence | Chicago, Illinois |
Occupation | Actor, producer, screenwriter |
Years active | 1983–present |
Parent(s) | Dick Cusack Nancy Cusack |
Family | Ann Cusack (sister) Joan Cusack (sister) |
John Paul Cusack (/ˈkjuːsæk/; born June 28, 1966) is an American actor, producer, and screenwriter. He began acting on films during the 1980s. Cusack was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in High Fidelity (2000). Other films include Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Being John Malkovich (1999), Con Air (1997) (also starring John Malkovich), 1408 (2007), 2012 (2009), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), and The Raven (2012).
Contents
Early life[edit]
Cusack was born on June 28, 1966 at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. He is Irish Catholic and fourth of five children.[1][2][3] His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist.[4][5] His father, Richard Cusack (1925–2003), was an actor, along with John's siblings Ann, Joan, Bill and Susie. They left from Manhattan, New York and moved to Illinois.[6] Richard was also a documentary filmmaker[7] who owned a film production company[8] and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan.[9] Cusack graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1984, where he met Jeremy Piven,[10] and spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in his belly".[11]
Career[edit]
Teen films[edit]
Cusack made his movie debut in the teen film Class (1983), starring Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe. He followed it with a small role in John Hughes' Sixteen Candles (1984) as one of the friends of Anthony Michael Hall. Cusack unsuccessfully auditioned for the part played by Judd Nelson in Hughes' The Breakfast Club (1985). He had a small role in Grandview, U.S.A. (1985),
Leading man[edit]
Cusack's first film leading role was in The Sure Thing (1985), directed by Rob Reiner. He followed it with the lead in Better Off Dead (1985) a comedy for Savage Steve Holland.
Cusack played the male lead in Disney's The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) and had a cameo in Reiner's Stand by Me (1986). He then starred in a second film for Holland, One Crazy Summer (1986) and Hot Pursuit (1987).
He starred in a comedy alongside Tim Robbins, Tapeheads (1988). Better received was John Sayles's Eight Men Out (1988), where Cusack played Buck Weaver.
Cusack returned to teen roles for Say Anything... (1989), the directorial debut of Cameron Crowe.
Adult roles[edit]
Cusack had a cameo in Broadcast News (1987), which starred his sister Joan.
Cusack had a support part in Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) which was a box office disappointment. However The Grifters (1990), in which he had one of the leads, was a success.
Cusack starred in True Colors (1991) with James Spader then was one of the all star cast in Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog (1991).
He had small roles/cameos in Roadside Prophets (1991), The Player (1992), Map of the Human Heart (1992), and Bob Roberts (1993), then returned to leads with Money for Nothing (1993).
Cusack had a small role in Floundering (1994) and the lead in Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway (1994). He had a support in The Road to Wellville (1994) and co-starred with Al Pacino in City Hall (1996).
Producing and later roles[edit]
Cusack established a production company, New Crime Productions. They made Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) starring Cusack. He followed it with one of the lead roles in an action film Con Air (1997).
Cusack had a small role in Chicago Cab (1997) and provided a voice for Anastasia (1997). He was in Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) and then had support parts in This Is My Father (1998) and The Thin Red Line (1998).
Cusack was one of the leads in Pushing Tin (1999) and played Nelson Rockefeller in Robbins' Cradle Will Rock (1999). After starring in Being John Malkovich (1999) and making a Western for HBO The Jack Bull (1999), Cusack played the lead in another movie he produced and co-wrote High Fidelity (2000).
Cusack went back to more conventional fare with America's Sweethearts (2001) and Serendipity (2001).
He was in Max (2002) and made a cameo in Adaptation (2002).
Cusack starred in some studio films, Identity (2003), Runaway Jury (2005), Must Love Dogs (2005), and The Ice Harvest (2006).
The Contract (2006) with Morgan Freeman was poorly received. Grace Is Gone (2007) had mixed reviews but 1408 (2007) was a hit. Martian Child (2007) however was a box office disappointment.
Cusack returned to producing as well as acting with War, Inc. (2008), a spiritual successor to Grosse Point Blank, but not as successful. He made The Factory which was not released theatrically and provided the voice to Igor (2010). He starred in a big budget disaster film, 2012 (2009) and the comedy adventure film Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). Both were popular at the box office. [12]
Cusack was in Shanghai (2010) then starred as Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven (2012) and had a support role in The Paperboy (2012).
Video on demand[edit]
Cusack's films became progressively less high-profile: The Numbers Station (2013) and The Frozen Ground (2013). The Butler (2013) was a big hit, though Cusack's part - as Richard M. Nixon - was relatively small.
Cusack could be seen in Adult World (2013), Grand Piano (2013), and The Bag Man (2014). He had a support part in David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars (2014).[13]
After two poorly ranked action films, Drive Hard (2014) and The Prince (2014), Cusack received praise as Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy (2014).
He returned to VOD movies with Reclaim (2014). Dragon Blade (2015) was a big box office hit in China. He had a small role in Spike Lee's Chi-Raq (2015) and starred in Cell (2016), Arsenal (2017), Blood Money (2017) and Singularity (2017).
Politics[edit]
Between 2005 and 2009, Cusack wrote blogs for The Huffington Post, which included an interview with Naomi Klein. He blogged on his opposition to the war in Iraq and his hatred for the Bush administration, calling its worldview "depressing, corrupt, unlawful, and tragically absurd".[14] He also appeared in a June 2008 MoveOn.org advertisement, where he made the claim that George W. Bush and John McCain have the same governing priorities.[15]
Cusack criticized the Obama administarion for its drone policy in the Middle East and its support of the National Defense Authorization Act, and became one of the initial supporters of the Freedom of the Press Foundation in 2012. In June 2015, he stated in an interview with The Daily Beast that "when you talk about drones, the American Empire, the NSA, civil liberties, attacks on journalism and whistleblowers, (Obama) is as bad or worse than Bush".[16] However, he later scolded the publication for misquoting him in order to make an interesting headline.[17][18]
In 2015, Cusack, Daniel Ellsberg and Arundhati Roy met Edward Snowden, a fugitive from the US because of his leaks of classified information, at a Moscow hotel room.[19] This meeting was converted into a book co-authored with Roy titled Things That Can and Cannot Be Said.[20] The book is mainly a transcript of the conversation between Snowden, Roy, and Cusack, with a selection of relevant photos and illustrations as well as a detailed list of references.
In November 2017, Cusack mentioned in a tweet that he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.[21]
Personal life[edit]
Cusack is a fan of both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, for which he says he is "in trouble" in Chicago due to the longstanding rivalry between the teams. He led the crowd in a performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field. He was in attendance, along with fellow Cubs fans: Bill Murray, Eddie Vedder and Bonnie Hunt, during the Cubs' historic Game Seven victory during the 2016 World Series. Cusack appeared in multiple Chicago Bears games and attended many Stanley Cup Finals games in support of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Cusack once told NBC Nightly News, "I'm not lazy. I just enjoy gradually waking up in the morning. If that means sleeping in and walking around the house in my crocs and a bathrobe 'til three in the afternoon, I welcome that appealing lifestyle—all day."
He trained in kickboxing under former world kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez for over two decades. He began training under Urquidez in preparation for his role in Say Anything... and currently holds the rank of a level six black belt in Urquidez's Ukidokan Kickboxing system.[22]
In March 2008, police arrested Emily Leatherman outside Cusack's Malibu, California home for stalking him. On October 10, 2008, Leatherman pleaded no contest and received five years' probation and mandatory psychiatric counseling, and was ordered to stay away from Cusack, his home, and business for the next ten years.[23]
He is well known for being a bachelor. When asked in 2009 why he had never married he answered, "society doesn't tell me what to do."[24]
Filmography[edit]
Film[edit]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | Class | Roscoe Maibaum | |
1984 | Sixteen Candles | Bryce | |
1984 | Grandview, U.S.A. | Johnny Maine | |
1985 | The Sure Thing | Walter Gibson | |
1985 | Better Off Dead | Lane Meyer | |
1985 | The Journey of Natty Gann | Harry | |
1986 | Stand by Me | Denny Lachance | |
1986 | One Crazy Summer | Hoops McCann | |
1987 | Hot Pursuit | Dan Bartlett | |
1987 | Broadcast News | Angry Messenger | |
1988 | Tapeheads | Ivan Alexeev | |
1988 | Eight Men Out | Buck Weaver | |
1989 | Say Anything... | Lloyd Dobler | |
1989 | Fat Man and Little Boy | Michael Merriman | |
1990 | The Grifters | Roy Dillon | |
1991 | True Colors | Peter Burton | |
1991 | Shadows and Fog | Student Jack | |
1992 | Roadside Prophets | Caspar | |
1992 | The Player | Himself | Cameo |
1992 | Map of the Human Heart | The Mapmaker | |
1992 | Bob Roberts | Cutting Edge Host | |
1993 | Money for Nothing | Joey Coyle | |
1994 | Floundering | JC | |
1994 | Bullets over Broadway | David Shayne | |
1994 | The Road to Wellville | Charles Ossining | |
1996 | City Hall | Deputy Mayor Kevin Calhoun | |
1997 | Grosse Pointe Blank | Martin Q. Blank | Also co-writer and producer |
1997 | Con Air | U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin | |
1997 | Chicago Cab | Scary Man | |
1997 | Anastasia | Dimitri (voice) | |
1997 | Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil | John Kelso | |
1998 | This Is My Father | Eddie Sharp | |
1998 | The Thin Red Line | Captain Gaff | |
1999 | Pushing Tin | Nick Falzone | |
1999 | Cradle Will Rock | Nelson Rockefeller | |
1999 | Being John Malkovich | Craig Schwartz | |
2000 | High Fidelity | Rob Gordon | Also co-writer and producer |
2001 | America's Sweethearts | Eddie Thomas | |
2001 | Serendipity | Jonathan Trager | |
2002 | Max | Max Rothman | Also associate producer, independent film |
2002 | Adaptation | Himself | Uncredited[citation needed] |
2003 | Identity | Ed Dakota | |
2003 | Runaway Jury | Nicholas Easter | |
2005 | Must Love Dogs | Jake Anderson | |
2005 | The Ice Harvest | Charlie Arglist | |
2006 | The Contract | Ray Keene | |
2007 | Grace Is Gone | Stanley Philipps | Also producer, independent film |
2007 | 1408 | Mike Enslin | |
2007 | Martian Child | David Gordon | |
2008 | War, Inc. | Brand Hauser | Also co-writer and producer, independent film |
2008 | Igor | Igor (voice) | |
2009 | 2012 | Jackson Curtis | |
2010 | Hot Tub Time Machine | Adam Yates | Also producer |
2010 | Shanghai | Paul Soames | Independent film |
2012 | The Raven | Edgar Allan Poe | |
2012 | The Paperboy | Hillary Van Wetter | Independent film |
2012 | The Factory | Mike Fletcher | Direct-to-video |
2013 | The Numbers Station | Emerson Kent | Direct-to-video |
2013 | The Frozen Ground | Robert Hansen | Direct-to-video |
2013 | The Butler | Richard Nixon | |
2013 | Grand Piano | Clem | Independent film |
2013 | Adult World | Rat Billings | Direct-to-video |
2014 | The Bag Man | Jack | Direct-to-video |
2014 | Maps to the Stars | Stafford Weiss | Independent film |
2014 | Drive Hard | Simon Keller | Direct-to-video |
2014 | The Prince | Sam | Direct-to-video |
2014 | Love & Mercy | Brian Wilson | |
2014 | Reclaim | Benjamin | Direct-to-video |
2015 | Dragon Blade | Lucius | Chinese production |
2015 | Hot Tub Time Machine 2 | Adam Yates | Cameo (uncredited); unrated extended cut only[citation needed] |
2015 | Chi-Raq | Fr. Mike Corridan | Independent film |
2016 | Cell | Clayton Riddell | Direct-to-video |
2017 | Arsenal | Sal | Direct-to-video |
2017 | Blood Money | Miller | Direct-to-video |
2017 | Singularity | Elias van Dorne | Independent film |
Television[edit]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1996 | Frasier | Greg (voice) | Episode: "Our Father Whose Art Ain't Heaven" |
1999 | The Jack Bull | Myrl Redding | Television film; executive producer |
2014 | Doll & Em | John | Episode: "Three" |
Awards and nominations[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "John Cusack interview". Iofilm.co.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
- ^ "John Cusack Interview-Max Movie". About.com Hollywood Movies. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ Biography.com Editors. "John Cusack Biography". Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
- ^ "Cusack, Richard J". Chicago Tribune. 2003-06-03. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
- ^ "Miss Carolan, Newton Centre, Is Bride of Richard Cusack". Daily Boston Globe. February 14, 1960.
- ^ "Newton Girl Plans February Wedding". Daily Boston Globe. December 6, 1959.
- ^ "Being John Cusack." guardian.co.uk. July 1, 2000.
- ^ John Cusack Biography (1966-). FilmReference.com.
- ^ "Actor John johan on Hitler, politics and his movie 'Max'." Beliefnet.com.
- ^ Johnson, Grace (May 12, 2009). "ETHS boasts celebrity graduates". The Daily Northwestern. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
- ^ Duthel, C. (2012). Angelina Jolie - The Lightning Star. p. 323. ISBN 978-1-4710-8935-0.
- ^ "Actor John Cusack." NPR.org.
- ^ "Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Sarah Gadon Join Robert Pattinson and in Maps to the Stars". Retrieved 20 July 2013.
- ^ John Cusack - Politics on The Huffington Post.
- ^ "John Cusack Stars In MoveOn's New McCain Ad". Huffington Post. Associated Press. June 11, 2008.
- ^ "John Cusack Talks 'Love & Mercy,' Drug Trips, and the Ways Obama Is 'Worse Than Bush'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ "John Cusack on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ "John Cusack on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ Roy, Arundhati (28 November 2015). "Edward Snowden meets Arundhati Roy and John Cusack: 'He was small and lithe, like a house cat'". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
- ^ "Things That Can and Cannot Be Said". Penguin Books. 5 October 2016.
- ^ @johncusack (7 November 2017). "What you mean join ;)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Ukidokan Black Belts and Levels Archived 2010-03-12 at the Wayback Machine.. URL accessed on March 19, 2010.
- ^ Accused John Cusack stalker, Emily Leatherman, accepts plea deal. New York Daily News. October 10, 2008.
- ^ Andrew Goldman, "Being John Cusak", Elle magazine, November 23, 2009. URL accessed on January 20, 2018.
Further reading[edit]
- Barnes, Henry John Cusack: ‘Hollywood is a whorehouse and people go mad’ The Guardian, 26 September 2014. Accessed 27 February 2015
- Robinson, Tasha Onion A.V. Club interview, November 27, 2007
External links[edit]
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- John Cusack at AllMovie
- John Cusack on IMDb
- John Cusack on Twitter
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors
- 1966 births
- American anti–Iraq War activists
- American bloggers
- American film producers
- American male kickboxers
- American male film actors
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- American male television actors
- American people of Irish descent
- American Roman Catholics
- American television producers
- Best Supporting Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
- Cusack family (United States)
- Evanston Township High School alumni
- Living people
- Male actors from Chicago
- Male actors from Evanston, Illinois
- Transcendental Meditation practitioners
- Tisch School of the Arts alumni
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