John Cusack

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This article is about the actor. For the politician, see John Cusack (Australian politician). For the similarly-named actress, see Joan Cusack.
John Cusack

John Cusack, May 2006
Born John Paul Cusack
June 28, 1966 (1966-06-28) (age 41)
Evanston, Illinois, United States

John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American film actor and writer. He won the 1990 Most Promising Actor CFCA Award for Say Anything..., the 1998 Favorite Supporting Actor Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Con Air, and the 2000 Commitment to Chicago Award.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish American Catholic family.[2][3] His father, Dick Cusack (1925–2003), as well as his siblings Ann, Joan, Bill, and Susie have also been actors; his father was also a documentary filmmaker,[4] owned a film production company[5] and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan.[6] Cusack's mother, Nancy, is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in his belly".[7]

[edit] Career

Cusack first became famous in the mid-1980s for appearing in teen movies such as Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer, and Sixteen Candles. Cusack made a cameo in the 1988 music video for "Trip At The Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies. His biggest success in that genre is arguably his starring role as Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything. He began broadening his choice of roles in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare, such as the political satire True Colors and the noir thriller The Grifters.

Cusack became a proven box office success with his roles in the black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank and the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster Con Air.[citation needed] He has since chosen a diverse range of roles, such as an obsessive puppeteer in Being John Malkovich, a lovelorn record store owner in High Fidelity, and a Jewish art dealer mentoring a young Adolf Hitler in Max. He starred in the horror film 1408, based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. He next appeared as a widowed father in the Iraq War-themed drama Grace is Gone and as assassin Brand Hauser in the dark political satire, War, Inc., along with Hilary Duff and his sister Joan.

His sister Joan and his close friend Jeremy Piven have appeared in many of his films. John and Joan appeared as two geeks in Sixteen Candles: John as one of Farmer Ted's posse, and Joan as the geek with the neck brace. They also appeared together in High Fidelity, Grosse Pointe Blank, Cradle Will Rock and Say Anything. Jeremy and John played opposite one another in One Crazy Summer, Serendipity, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Piven also had roles in Say Anything and Runaway Jury.[8]

[edit] Personal and political life

Cusack is fiercely protective of his private life; he has said that "celebrity is the worst thing that can happen to an actor". Since May 2005, he has been an occasional contributing blogger at The Huffington Post, including interviewing Naomi Klein. He has written extensively on his opposition to the war in Iraq and his disdain for the Bush administration, calling their worldview "depressing, corrupt, unlawful, and tragically absurd".[9] He also starred in a June 2008 Moveon.org ad[10] where he makes the claim that George Bush and John McCain have the same governing priorities.[11]

Cusack has an allegiance to both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, for which, he says, he's "in trouble there for that."[12] He has also led the crowd in a performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field.[12]

Cusack is said to be part of the Malibu Mob, a celebrity group in the same vein as the Brat Pack. Other notable Malibu Mob members include Chris Chelios, John C. McGinley, Tony Danza, tennis star John McEnroe, big wave surf star Laird Hamilton, and beach volleyball pro Gabrielle Reece.

In 2008 police arrested a woman that they believed had stalked Cusack.[13]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Films

[edit] Upcoming films

  • Igor (2008) (voice) (post-production)
  • Shanghai (2008) (pre-production)
  • 2012 (2009) (pre-production)
  • The Factory (2009) (post-production)

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  1. ^ John Cusack - Awards
  2. ^ John Cusack interview
  3. ^ John Cusack Interview-Max Movie
  4. ^ Being John Cusack | Interviews | guardian.co.uk Film
  5. ^ John Cusack Biography (1966-)
  6. ^ Actor John Cusack on Hitler, politics and his movie 'Max' - Beliefnet.com
  7. ^ Actor John Cusack : NPR
  8. ^ One Crazy Summer (1986) - Full cast and crew
  9. ^ John Cusack - Politics on The Huffington Post
  10. ^ Bush-McCain Challenge Ad starring John Cusack
  11. ^ John Cusack Stars In MoveOn's New McCain Ad AP, June 11 2008
  12. ^ a b Inside the Actors Studio, December 3, 2007
  13. ^ "Woman arrested on suspicion of stalking Cusack." CNN.

[edit] External links