Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx: biography

Jamie Foxx is an American musician, stand-up comedian, actor who became famous for the films Ray, Law Abiding Citizen, Django Unchained, White House Down, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ali. He is the third black American to won the Oscar Award. Jamie was born on December 13, 1967, in the black quarter of Terrell, Texas.

The boy’s parents, Louise Annette Talley Dixon and broker Darrell Bishop, who after converting to Islam changed his name to Shahid Abdula, called the child, Eric Marlon Bishop. A year later, the mother gave the boy up for adoption, and a foster family raised him. Eric’s new parents were Esther Marie, a nurse, and Mark Talley, a yard worker. In the adoptive family, the parents paid a lot of attention to religion, and they attended together Baptist services. In his youthful years, Jamie was a choir leader in New Hope Baptist Church.

His adoptive grandmother paid much attention to the boy’s upbringing, and she taught Eric to play the piano at the age of five. Later, the boy became interested in music, studying classical works in college. As a student of the Juilliard School, Foxx played in the junior football team and even planned to connect his future with football. But after graduating from college, the young man entered the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at the United States International University in San Diego.

Music

At the university, Eric began to earn extra money working as a stand-up comedian. To become more popular with the spectators, Eric took a stage name, Jamie Foxx, in honor of the famous comedian Redd Foxx. At the same time, the young man created his musical band, which in 1994 released the first album Peep This. Seven years later, Eric won the MTV Video Music Award.

In 2004, Foxx recorded with the rappers Kanye West and Twista the hit song "Slow Jamz," which immediately topped the US singles charts and reached #3 on the UK Singles chart. The next success was the song "I Got a Woman," recorded with Ray Charles. It topped the charts for 2,5 months. In 2005, Jamie Foxx, rapper Ludacris, and the Field Mob released a remix of the next hit "Georgia on My Mind" of the blind black musician.

Foxx featured on the song “Build You Up” recorded for 50 Cent’s album The Massacre. The singer’s second album Unpredictable debuted at the first places of the singles charts in America and Europe and soon was certified Platinum. Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for best-selling album joining Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.

Films

An acting career is uppermost in Jamie’s creative biography. Foxx began it in 1991, joining the cast of the TV series In Living Color. In the 1990s, the young actor starred mainly in the ongoing series Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Moesha, as well as in comedy films: the melodrama The Truth About Cats & Dogs, the comedy Toys, the sports film The Great White Hype, the melodrama Booty Call.

In the 1999 sports drama Any Given Sunday, Jamie was a member of the main cast together with the stars Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, and Dennis Quaid. The same year, the actor played a leading role in the comedy Held Up. Continuing the sports theme, in 2001, Jamie received an invitation from the creators of the biographical film Ali to play the role of Drew Bundini Brown. Will Smith was the partner of Foxx, whose height was 175 cm. Having played in the movies Date from Hell, Shade, Breakin' All the Rules, Jamie Foxx got a role that made him world-famous and brought an Oscar Award.

In 2004, Taylor Hackford’s drama Ray about the fate of the blind genius, Ray Charles (Foxx), was released. While preparing for a role, Jamie attended the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, where he studied finger-reading. Jamie sang and played himself in all the musical movie moments and scenes. The film grossed $ 125 million worldwide. In addition to the Academy Award, Foxx won the BAFTA, Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. It is noteworthy that Jamie Foxx became the second male in history after Al Pacino to receive two acting Oscar nominations and to win them throughout a year.

He received an Academy Award nomination for the film Collateral, where Foxx appeared in a duet with a Hollywood star, Tom Cruise. In the middle of the 2000s, the actor's filmography included the fantasy thriller Stealth, the military drama Jarhead, the crime drama Miami Vice, the musical film Dreamgirls. In 2007, the actor received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, Jamie Foxx played a musician again in the drama The Soloist. This time, the artist portrayed the brilliant cellist, Nathaniel Ayers, who became ill with schizophrenia.

The same year, the actor took part in the creation of the crime thriller Law Abiding Citizen, where Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), who lost his family, opposed the prosecutor, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx). Quentin Tarantino invited Foxx to play a leading role in the box office project Django Unchained after working in the movies Valentine's Day, Due Date, I'm Still Here, Rio. Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio played the companions of Foxx’s hero.

A few months before the premiere, many critics included this revisionist Western film in the lists of the best films of the year. The comedy grossed $ 425 million. In 2014, Jamie Foxx starred in the franchise The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where he played the role of Maxwell "Max" Dillon, supervillain Electro, the antagonist of Spider-Man. Jamie earned $ 5 million for his work in the musical Annie, directed by Will Gluck. Quvenzhané Wallis, Cameron Diaz, and Rose Byrne also played the leading roles in the film.

Personal life

As an adopted child, Jamie Foxx takes care of his children. The actor does not tell about his personal life, but it is known that he has two children from two different women. The oldest daughter, Corinne, is already 23 years old. The father raised the girl alone. In 2015, Corinne won the Miss Golden Globe Award, which is awarded to children of famous actors. Her father attended the ceremony together with the young woman.

The youngest daughter of the artist, Annalise, is seven years old. Her photos often appear on Jamie Foxx’s official Instagram page. There is no information about the girl’s mother either.

In 2016, the information leaked to the media that Jamie Foxx finally decided to marry his secret girlfriend, Katie Holmes. The actor even wore a gold ring on his ring finger for some time. But in October of the same year, Jamie officially denied rumors that Katie became his wife. At the moment, the actors were just friends.

Jamie Foxx now

In 2017, there were two movie premieres with the participation of Jamie Foxx. These are Edgar Wright’s action movie Baby Driver, featuring Ansel Elgort, Lily James and Kevin Spacey as the title characters, and the action movie Sleepless, where Foxx got the leading role of Vincent Downs.

Now the actor is working on the adventure film Robin Hood, which is scheduled to premiere in March 2018. Jamie is also playing in the movie Mean Business on North Ganson Street.

Filmography

• Any Given Sunday - 1999
• Ali - 2001
• Ray - 2004
• Collateral – 2004
• Miami Vice – 2006
• Law Abiding Citizen - 2009
• Django Unchained - 2012
• Annie - 2014
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 2014
• Sleepless - 2017

Discography

• Peep This - 1994
• Unpredictable - 2005
• Intuition - 2008
• Best Night of My Life - 2010