|
|
|
|
Nicolas Cage
|
| |
|
| |
Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola; January 7, 1954) is an American Academy Award-winning actor, film director, and producer, who currently manages his own production company, Saturn Films.
was born in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, is a professor of literature, while Cage's mother, Joy Vogelsang, is a dancer and choreographer; the two divorced in 1976. Cage's mother is of German descent and his father is of Italian descent (his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata).
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Nicolas Cage' Start a new discussion about 'Nicolas Cage' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola; January 7, 1954) is an American Academy Award-winning actor, film director, and producer, who currently manages his own production company, Saturn Films.
Early life
Cage was born in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, is a professor of literature, while Cage's mother, Joy Vogelsang, is a dancer and choreographer; the two divorced in 1976. Cage's mother is of German descent and his father is of Italian descent (his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata). His paternal grandparents are Carmine Coppola, a composer, and Italia Pennino, an actress. Through his father, Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, as well as the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. Cage's two brothers are Christopher Coppola, a director; and Marc "The Cope" Coppola, a New York radio personality. Cage was born into a Roman Catholic household and remains Catholic to this day, although he said in the mid-1990s that he was not religious.
Cage, who attended Beverly Hills High School (the same high school as fellow entertainers Albert Brooks, Angelina Jolie, Lenny Kravitz, Slash, Rob Reiner, Bonnie Franklin and David Schwimmer), aspired to act from an early age. Cage also attended UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy. He is also good friends with fellow actor Johnny Depp, whom he advised to get into acting.
Career
In order to avoid the appearance of nepotism as the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, he changed his name from Nicolas Coppola to Nicolas Cage early in his career. The assumed surname is inspired by Marvel Comics character Luke Cage, a streetwise superhero. Since his cameo feature film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, with Sean Penn, Cage has appeared in a wide range of films, both mainstream and offbeat. He tried out for the role of Dallas Winston in his uncle's film The Outsiders, based on S.E. Hinton's novel, but lost to Matt Dillon. He was also in Coppola's film Rumble Fish.
Cage has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, and won once, for his performance as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. His other nomination was for his portrayal of real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Kaufman's fictional twin Donald in Adaptation. Despite these successes, most of his lower-profile films have performed poorly at the box office compared to his mainstream action/adventure roles. The suspense thriller 8mm (1999) was not a box office success, but is now considered a cult film. In 2005, two offbeat films he headlined, Lord of War and The Weather Man, failed to find a significant audience despite nationwide releases and good reviews for his acting in those roles. Poor reviews for The Wicker Man resulted in low box office sales. The much criticized Ghost Rider (2007), based on the Marvel Comics chararacter, was a significant hit, earning more than $45 million (the top earner) during its opening weekend and over $208 million worldwide through the weekend ending on 25 March 2007. Also in 2007, he starred in Next, which shares the concept of a glimpse into an alternate timeline with The Family Man (2000).
Most of Cage's movies that have achieved financial success were in the action/adventure genre. In his second-highest grossing film to date, National Treasure, he plays an eccentric historian who goes on a dangerous adventure to find treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Other action hits include The Rock, in which Cage plays a young FBI chemical weapons expert who infiltrates Alcatraz Island in hopes of neutralizing a terrorist threat, Face/Off, a John Woo film where he plays both a hero and a villain, and World Trade Center, director Oliver Stone's film regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. He had a small but notable role as the Chinese criminal mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu in Rob Zombie's fake trailer Werewolf Women of the S.S. from the B-movie double feature Grindhouse.
In recent years, Cage 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 includes Shadow of the Vampire, the first film from Saturn Films, Cage is listed as the executive producer of the The Dresden Files on the Sci-Fi Channel.
In November 2007, Cage was spotted backstage at a Ring of Honor wrestling show in New York City researching his role for the upcoming movie "The Wrestler". Ultimately, Nicolas Cage was replaced in "The Wrestler" with Mickey Rourke, in a role that has earned 'Best Actor' Academy Award nomination for Rourke.
Cage will star in a sci-fi thriller titled Knowing directed by Alex Proyas, scheduled to begin production on 17 March 2008, in Melbourne, Australia. He is to play a teacher who examines the contents of a time capsule unearthed at his son's elementary school. Startling predictions found inside the capsule that have already come true lead him to believe the world is going to end at the close of the week, and that he and his son are somehow involved in the destruction.
In the summer of 2008, Nicolas Cage shot the film "Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans" for acclaimed German director Werner Herzog. In the film, Cage will play a corrupt police officer with gambling, drug and alcohol addictions. This film will also reunite Cage with Eva Mendes, who also played his love interest in "Ghost Rider."
Cage will also star in the period piece "Season of the Witch" playing a 14th century knight transporting a girl accused of causing the Black Plague to a monastery.
In 2008 he appeared as Joe, a contract killer who undergoes a change of heart while on a work outing in Bangkok, in the film Bangkok Dangerous. The film is shot by the Pang Brothers and has a distinct South-East Asian flavor. Cage is the only Caucasian in the film and his hair is styled in a way that makes him look slightly Asian too.
Personal life
In his early 20s, he dated actress/singer Elizabeth Daily for two years, and was later involved with actress Uma Thurman. In 1988, Cage began dating Christina Fulton, mother of their son, Weston Coppola Cage (born December 26, 1990); Weston appeared in Cage's film Lord of War as Vladimir, a young Ukrainian mechanic who quickly disarms a Mil Mi-24 helicopter.
Cage has been married three times. His first wife was the actress Patricia Arquette (married on April 8, 1995 – divorce finalized on May 18, 2001).
Cage's second wife was singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley (married on August 10, 2002 and filed for divorce on November 25, 2002, after 108 days of marriage; their divorce was finalized on May 16, 2004. The divorce proceeding was actually longer than the marriage), the daughter of Elvis Presley, of whom Cage is a fan and who he 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 Alice Kim, a former waitress who previously worked at the Los Angeles restaurant Kabuki, met Cage at the Los Angeles-based Korean nightclub, Le Privé. She is the mother of his son, Kal-El (born October 3, 2005), named after Superman's birth name from the planet Krypton. Cage was once considered for the role of Superman in a film to be directed by Tim Burton. Alice had a minor role in the 2007 movie Next, which Cage produced. They were married at a private ranch in Northern California on July 30, 2004.
Cage had a Malibu home where he and Alice lived, but in 2004 he bought a property on Paradise Island, Bahamas. In 2005, he sold his Malibu home for $10 million. In May 2006, he bought a island in the Exuma archipelago, some southeast of Nassau and close to a similar island owned by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
On July 19, 2006, Cage bought the medieval castle of Schloss Neidstein in the Oberpfalz region in Germany. His grandmother was German, living in Cochem an der Mosel.
In August 2007, Cage purchased a home in Middletown, Rhode Island. The , brick-and-stone country manor, on 26 secluded acres, has 12 bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms and sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean from its perch bordering the Norman Bird Sanctuary. The estate is called the "Grey Craig." The sale ranks among the state’s most expensive residential purchases, eclipsed by the $17.15 million sale last December of the Miramar mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport. Also in 2007, the actor purchased Midford Castle in Somerset, England.
Nicolas was director Sam Raimi's first choice to play Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the movie Spider-Man. He has even created a comic book, with his son Weston, called Voodoo Child, which is published by Virgin Comics.
According to Cage, he owns the "Most Haunted House in America", a home located in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The home is known as the "The LaLaurie house" after its former owner Delphine LaLaurie.
Cage was close friends with Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone. And Cage can be found driving a Ferrari 360 Modena.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | U.S. Box Office Gross | Worldwide Box Office Gross |
|---|
| 1980 | Brubaker | uncredited | $25,928,721 | | | 1981 | Best Of Times | Nicholas | $15,062,351 | | | 1982 | Fast Times at Ridgemont High | Brad's Bud | $27,092,880 | | | 1983 | The Outsiders | uncredited | $25,600,000 | | | 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 Al 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 | Tempo di uccidere | Enrico Silvestri | N/A | | | Fire Birds (Also known as Wings of the Apache) | 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 | Himself | 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 | Con Air | Cameron Poe | $101,117,573 | | | Face/Off | Castor Troy/Sean Archer | $112,276,146 | | | 1998 | City of Angels | Seth | $78,685,114 | | | Snake Eyes | Rick Santoro | $55,591,407 | | | 1999 | 8mm | Tom Welles | $36,663,315 | | | Bringing Out the Dead | Frank Pierce | $16,797,191 | | | 2000 | Gone in Sixty Seconds | Randall "Memphis" Raines | $103,748,921 | $242,901,103 | | The Family Man | Jack Campbell | $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 | Benjamin Gates/Paul Brown | $173,008,894 | $347,512,149 | | 2005 | Lord of War | Yuri Orlov | $24,149,632 | $48,467,436 | | The Weather Man | David Spritz | $12,482,480 | | | 2006 | The Ant Bully | Zoc (Voice) | $28,142,535 | | | The Wicker Man | Edward Malus | $23,649,127 | | | World Trade Center | John McLoughlin | $70,278,893 | $162,970,240 | | 2007 | Ghost Rider | Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze | $115,802,596 | $228,738,393 | | Grindhouse | Dr. Fu Manchu - segment Werewolf Women of the S.S. | $25,031,037 | | | Next | Cris Johnson | $28,149,968 | $73,713,174 | | National Treasure: Book of Secrets | Benjamin Gates | $247,216,391 | $457,346,486 | | 2008 | Bangkok Dangerous | Joe | $15,298,133 | $38,678,923 | | 2009 | Knowing | John Koestler | completed | | | G-Force | Speckles (voice) | post-production | | | Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans | The Lieutenant | post-production | | | Astro Boy | Dr. Tenma (voice) | filming | | | Kick-Ass | Damon Macready | filming | | | 2010 | Season of the Witch | Lavey | filming | |
See also
External links
|
| |
|
|
