| Jon Favreau | |
|---|---|
Favreau at the Austin, Texas premiere of I Love You, Man, March 13, 2009 |
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| Born | Jonathan Kolia Favreau October 19, 1966 Flushing, Queens, New York City |
| Occupation | Actor, director, screenwriter, comedian |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Spouse | Joya Tillem (2000–present) |
Jonathan Kolia "Jon" Favreau[1] (pronounced /ˈfævroʊ/; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and comedian. As an actor, he is best known for his roles in Rudy, Swingers (which he also wrote), Very Bad Things, and The Break-Up. His notable directorial efforts include Elf, Iron Man, its sequel, and Cowboys & Aliens. His most prominent television role was that of Pete Becker, Monica Geller's boyfriend during season three of the television sitcom Friends.
Favreau is close friends with actor Vince Vaughn and the two have collaborated on several films.
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Jon Favreau was raised in Flushing, Queens, New York, the son of Madeleine, an elementary school teacher who died of leukemia in 1979, and Charles Favreau, a special education teacher.[2] Favreau's mother was Jewish and his father is a Catholic of Italian and distant French-Canadian ancestry.[3][4][5] Favreau attended Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah.[6]
Favreau graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1984 and attended Queens College from 1984 to 1987, before dropping out. His friend from college, Mitchell Pollack, said that Favreau went by the nickname "Hack" because of his talent in the game, Hacky Sack.[7] He briefly worked for Bear Stearns on Wall Street before returning to Queens College for a semester in early 1988. He dropped out of college for good (a few credits shy of completing his degree),[8] and in the summer of 1988, moved to Chicago to pursue a career in comedy. He performed at several Chicago improvisational theaters, including the ImprovOlympic and the Improv Institute.
While in Chicago, Favreau landed his first film role alongside Sean Astin as the pudgy tutor D-Bob in the classic sleeper hit Rudy (1993). Favreau met Vince Vaughn – who played a small role in this film – during shooting. The next year, he appeared in the college film PCU alongside Jeremy Piven, and also stepped into the world of television in the 1994 episode of Seinfeld titled "The Fire" as Eric the Clown. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he made his breakthrough in 1996 as an actor-screenwriter with the film Swingers, which was Vaughn's breakthrough role as the glib and extremely confident Trent Walker, a perfect foil to Favreau's heartbroken Mike Peters. In 1997, he appeared on the popular TV sitcom Friends, portraying Pete Becker, whom Monica Geller dates for several episodes, and who competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
He rejoined Piven in 1998 as part of Very Bad Things (1998). In 1999, he starred in the TV movie Rocky Marciano, based on the life of the only undefeated world heavyweight champion. He later appeared in Love & Sex (2000), co-starring Famke Janssen. Favreau got some screen time as lawyer Foggy Nelson in the 2003 movie Daredevil (2003) (considerably more in the Director's Cut version). In 2003, he also starred in The Big Empty, directed by Steve Anderson. His character was John Person, an out of work actor given a strange mission to deliver a blue suitcase to a man named Cowboy in the desert. Earlier, Favreau appeared in 2000's The Replacements as maniacal linebacker Daniel Bateman. He was a guest-director for an episode of the college dramedy Undeclared in 2001.
In 2000, he played himself in a Sopranos episode as a Hollywood director who feigns interest in developing mob associate Christopher Moltisanti's own screenplay in order to collect material for his own screenplay.
In 2001, he made his (film) directorial debut with another self-penned screenplay, Made. Made once again teamed him up with his Swingers co-star Vince Vaughn. In the fall of 2003, he scored his first financial success as a director of the hit comedy Elf starring Will Ferrell and James Caan. Also in 2003, Favreau had a small part in Something's Gotta Give (a film starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson); Favreau played Leo, Harry Sanborn's (Nicholson) personal assistant, who visited Harry in the hospital. In 2005, Favreau directed the film adaptation of Zathura. Never to turn his back on acting, Favreau still makes regular appearances in film and television. He recently reunited with friend Vince Vaughn in the much-hyped hit romantic comedy The Break-Up and appeared in My Name Is Earl as a reprehensible fast food manager. Favreau also made a guest appearance in Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show.
Also in 2005, Favreau appeared as a guest judge and executive representative of Sony corporation in week five of NBC primetime reality TV business show, The Apprentice. He was called upon to judge the efforts of the show's two teams of contestants, who were assigned the task of designing and building a float to publicise his 2005 Sony Pictures movie, Zathura.
Favreau also has a TV series called Dinner for Five which airs on the cable TV channel IFC. On April 28, 2006, it was announced that Favreau was signed to direct the long awaited Iron Man movie.[9] Released on May 2, 2008, the film was a huge critical[10] and commercial[11] success, solidifying Favreau's reputation as a director. Favreau was the third director attached to John Carter of Mars, the film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' swashbuckling space hero. Robert Rodriguez and Kerry Conran were previously attached within the last two years. Mark Protosevich and Ehren Kruger have both written drafts. The Marshal in Revelation has been in development since Swingers was released. It's a western about a Hasidic gunslinger. At one time both Favreau and Vince Vaughn were to co-direct. Neanderthals is a CG animated film that Favreau will write and produce. Johnny Zero will cover the birth of the hot rod movement following World War II. Favreau will write and direct. Iron Man was the first Marvel-produced movie under their alliance with Paramount, and Favreau served as the director and an executive producer. He recently told MTV that he would like to be at the helm of an Avengers film. During early scenes in Iron Man Favreau appears as Tony Stark's loyal friend, and driver, Happy Hogan. He also wrote a mini-series for Marvel Knights titled Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas, that started in September 2008,[12] and directed the sequel Iron Man 2.
Favreau co-starred in 2009's Couples Retreat, a comedy chronicling four couples who partake in therapy sessions at a tropical island resort, which he also wrote. The film saw him reunited with co-star Vince Vaughn, and Kristin Davis played his wife.[13]
He voices the character Pre Vizsla in the episodes of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Favreau said in December 2010 that he would not direct Iron Man 3, opting to direct Magic Kingdom instead. He remained an executive producer of director Joss Whedon's planned spin-off movie The Avengers.[14][15]
In July 2011, Favreau was featured in a YouTube video by visual effects artist Freddie Wong (known on YouTube as the popular channel, "freddiew"), which was a spoof of his upcoming summer blockbuster, Cowboys & Aliens. He lent the gauntlet prop to Wong to use it in the short.
Favreau married Joya Tillem on November 24, 2000. The couple have three children: a son, Max, born July 25, 2001, and two daughters, Madeleine, born April 2003, and Brighton Rose, born August 2006. Joya Tillem is a physician and is the niece of KGO (AM) lawyer/talk show host Len Tillem.[16]
Favreau is also a very close friend of actor Vince Vaughn.
Favreau credits Dungeons & Dragons with giving him "...a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance."[17]
| Year | Film | Credited as | Role | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Actor | |||
| 1992 | Billy | No | No | Yes | Director |
| 1993 | Rudy | No | No | Yes | D-Bob |
| 1994 | Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle | No | No | Yes | Elmer Rice |
| Seinfeld | No | No | Yes | Eric the Clown (1 episode) | |
| PCU | No | No | Yes | Gutter | |
| 1996 | Swingers | No | Yes | Yes | Director |
| 1997 | Friends | No | No | Yes | Pete Becker (6 episodes) |
| 1998 | Very Bad Things | No | No | Yes | Kyle Fisher |
| Deep Impact | No | No | Yes | Dr. Gus Partenza | |
| 1999 | Rocky Marciano | No | No | Yes | Director |
| 2000 | AlmostFamous | No | No | Yes | Director |
| The Replacements | No | No | Yes | Daniel "Danny" Bateman | |
| 2001 | Made | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bobby Ricigliano |
| The Sopranos | No | No | Yes | Himself | |
| 2002 | The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest | No | Yes | No | |
| 2003 | Elf | Yes | No | Yes | Doctor |
| Something's Gotta Give | No | No | Yes | Leo | |
| Daredevil | No | No | Yes | Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson | |
| The Big Empty | No | No | Yes | John Person | |
| 2004 | The King of Queens | No | No | Yes | Sean McGee |
| Wimbledon | No | No | Yes | Ron Roth | |
| 2005 | Zathura | Yes | No | No | |
| 2006 | My Name Is Earl | No | No | Yes | Mr. Patrick |
| The Break-Up | No | No | Yes | Johnny O | |
| Open Season | No | No | Yes | Reilly (Voice) | |
| Monk | No | No | Yes | Dr. Oliver Bloom (season 4, episode Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist) | |
| 2008 | Iron Man | Yes | No | Yes | Happy Hogan |
| Four Christmases | No | No | Yes | Denver McVie | |
| 2009 | I Love You, Man | No | No | Yes | Barry |
| G-Force | No | No | Yes | Hurley the Guinea Pig (voice) | |
| Couples Retreat | No | Yes | Yes | Joey | |
| 2010 | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | No | No | Yes | Pre Vizsla (voice, 3 episodes in Season 2) |
| Iron Man 2 | Yes | No | Yes | Happy Hogan | |
| 2011 | Zookeeper | No | No | Yes | Bear (Voice) |
| Cowboys & Aliens | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2012 | John Carter | No | No | Yes | Cameo[18] |
| The Avengers | No | No | No | Executive Producer | |
| Magic Kingdom | Yes | No | No | ||
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