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Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola on January 7, 1964) is an award-winning American actor. Cage has also worked as a director and producer through his production company Saturn Films.Saturn Films, Cage's production company
As of 2006, he has been nominated twice for an Academy Award as Best Actor in a Leading Role, winning one of them for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas.
Biography: Early life
Nicolas Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola in Long Beach, California. He is of Italian descent on his father's side, and English and German descent on that of his mother.http://back-track.blogspot.com/2006/08/more-castles-for-nic.html His parents are August Floyd Coppola, a comparative literature professor and brother of influential director Francis Ford Coppola, and Joy Vogelsang, a choreographer and dancer. His brother is Michael "The Cope" Coppola, a New York radio personality (currently airing on WAXQ 104.3 (also known as Q104.3). His cousin is Sofia Coppola, director of Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette.
Cage, who went to the same high school as fellow entertainers Albert Brooks, Angelina Jolie, Lenny Kravitz, Slash, Rob Reiner, and David Schwimmer, aspired to act from an early age. His first (non-cinematic) acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy.
Career
In order to avoid cries of nepotism as the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, Cage changed his name from Nicolas Coppola early in his career. The assumed surname is inspired by Marvel Comics character Luke Cage, a streetwise African-American superhero. Since his feature film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in which he had a minute role opposite Sean Penn, Cage has appeared in a wide range of films, both mainstream and offbeat.
Cage has twice been nominated for an Academy Award and won once, for his performance as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. His other nomination was for playing real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Kaufman's fictional twin Donald in Adaptation.. Both of those films were offbeat, low-budget films to which Cage lent his superstar clout. Despite these successes, most of his lower-profile films have performed poorly at the box office compared with his more mainstream, action-filled efforts. In 2005, for example, audiences ignored two offbeat, non-mainstream films he headlined, Lord of War and The Weather Man. Despite good reviews for his acting and nationwide releases for both films, neither found a significant audience.
Most of his financial successes have come from his forays into the action-adventure genre. In his highest grossing film to date, National Treasure, he played a neurotic historian who goes on a dangerous adventure to find treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Other action hits in which Cage has starred include The Rock, in which he played a young FBI chemical weapons expert who infiltrates Alcatraz Island in hopes of neutralizing a terrorist threat, and World Trade Center, director Oliver Stone's controversial film regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In recent years, Cage has experimented in other film-related fields besides acting. He made his directorial debut with Sonny, a low-budget drama starring James Franco as a male prostitute whose mother (Brenda Blethyn) serves as his pimp. Cage had a small role in the grim film, which received poor reviews and a short run in a limited number of theatres.
Cage's producing career has seen more success. Shadow of the Vampire, the first film produced by Saturn Films, the company he founded with partner Norm Golightly, was nominated for an Academy Award. He also produced The Life of David Gale, a death penalty-themed thriller with Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet.
Personal life
Family and relationships
In his early 20s, he dated Jenny Wright for two years and was later involved with Uma Thurman. Cage has been married three times.
His first wife was Patricia Arquette (April 8 1995 to May 18 2001), to whom he proposed to on the day he met her in the early 80's. Arquette thought he was strange, but played along with his antics by creating a list of things Cage would have to do to "win her hand," including obtaining the autograph of reclusive author J.D. Salinger. However, when he seriously started moving through the list of demands, Arquette became scared and avoided him. However they met again many years later and went on to marry.
He later married Lisa Marie Presley (August 10 2002 to May 16 2004), daughter of Elvis Presley of whom Cage is a fan and based his performance in Wild at Heart on. He later said they shouldn't have been married in the first place. His third (and current) wife, Korean American Alice Kim, is a former sushi waitress, with whom he has a son, Kal-El (born October 3, 2005). He was also related to Mark Clemmons and Randy Jackson of Seton Hall University.
Miscellaneous
- The name of his second child, Kal-El is also the birth name of Superman in the DC Comics universe. Cage is a long-term fan of comics and considers them to be the modern equivalent of mythology. He was once attached to play Superman in a film to be directed by Tim Burton, but the project died due to budget and screenplay concerns, and has a tattoo of Ghost Rider on his body (which, in an ironic twist, had to be covered with makeup when he played the character in a big-budget film adaptation).
- Cage's favorite film is director Stanley Kubrick's controversial A Clockwork Orange.
- Cage has many close friends within the entertainment industry, including Jim Carrey (whom he met on the set of Peggy Sue Got Married), late musician Johnny Ramone, and Tom Waits.
- Cage trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under instructor Royce Gracie.
- Cage was given an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Fullerton in May 2001. Cage delivered a speech at the commencement.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | U.S. box office gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Fast Times at Ridgemont High | Brad's Bud | $27,092,880 |
| 1983 | Valley Girl | Randy | $17,343,596 |
| Rumble Fish | Smokey | $2,494,480 | |
| 1984 | Racing with the Moon | Nicky and Bud | $6,045,647 |
| The Cotton Club | Vincent Dwyer | $25,928,721 | |
| Birdy | Sergeant l Columbato | $1,455,045 | |
| 1986 | The Boy in Blue | Ned Hanlan | $275,000 |
| Peggy Sue Got Married | Charlie Bodell | $41,382,841 | |
| 1987 | Raising Arizona | H. I. McDunnough | $22,847,564 |
| Moonstruck | Ronny Cammareri | $80,640,528 | |
| 1988 | Never on Tuesday | Man In Red Sports Car | N/A |
| 1989 | Vampire's Kiss | Peter Leow | $725,131 |
| 1990 | Time to Kill | Enrico Silvestri | N/A |
| Fire Birds | Jake Preston | $14,760,451 | |
| Wild at Heart | Sailor | $14,560,247 | |
| Zandalee | Johnny | N/A | |
| 1992 | Honeymoon in Vegas | Jack Singer | $35,208,854 |
| 1993 | Amos & Andrew | Amos Odell | $9,745,803 |
| Deadfall | Eddie | $18,369 | |
| 1994 | A Century of Cinema | N/A | |
| Red Rock West | Michael Williams | $2,502,551 | |
| Guarding Tess | Doug Chesnic | $27,058,304 | |
| It Could Happen to You | Charlie Lang | $37,939,757 | |
| Trapped in Paradise | Bill Firpo | $6,017,509 | |
| 1995 | Kiss of Death | Little Junior Brown | $14,942,422 |
| Leaving Las Vegas | Ben Sanderson | $32,029,928 | |
| 1996 | The Rock | Dr. Stanley Goodspeed | $134,069,511 |
| 1997 | Sean Connery, an Intimate Portrait | Himself | N/A |
| Con Air | Cameron Poe | $101,117,573 | |
| Face/Off | Castor Troy | $112,276,146 | |
| 1998 | City of Angels | Seth | $78,685,114 |
| Snake Eyes | Rick Santoro | $55,591,409 | |
| Junket Whore | Himself | N/A | |
| 1999 | 8mm | Tom Welles | $36,663,315 |
| Bringing Out the Dead | Frank Pierce | $16,797,191 | |
| 2000 | Gone in Sixty Seconds | Randall "Memphis" Raines | $101,648,571 |
| The Family Man | Jack Cambell | $75,793,305 | |
| Welcome to Hollywood | Himself | N/A | |
| 2001 | Italian Soldiers | Himself | N/A |
| Captain Corelli's Mandolin | Captain Antonio Corelli | $25,543,895 | |
| Christmas Carol: The Movie | Jacob Marley (Voice) | N/A | |
| 2002 | Windtalkers | Sgt. Joe Enders | $40,914,068 |
| Adaptation. | Charlie and Donald Kaufman | $22,498,520 | |
| Sonny | Acid Yellow (Also director) | $30,005 | |
| 2003 | Matchstick Men | Roy Waller | $36,906,460 |
| 2004 | National Treasure | Ben Gates | $173,008,894 |
| 2005 | Lord of War | Yuri Orlov | $24,149,632 |
| The Weather Man | David Spritz | $12,482,775 | |
| 2006 | The Ant Bully | Zoc (Voice) | $27,918,618 |
| World Trade Center | Sgt. John McLoughlin | $70,278,893 | |
| The Wicker Man | Edward Malus | $23,440,031 |
Films under development
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Ghost Rider | Johnny Blaze |
| Big Hit in Bangkok | ||
| Next | Cris Johnson | |
| Sadhu | James Jenson | |
| National Treasure 2 | Ben Gates | |
| 2008 | The Dance | Billy "The Kid" Roth |
References
Gone in sixty seconds Year:2000 Box office gross :$242 million
