|
|
|
|
. |
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||||
| Real Name: Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal, Jacob Gyllenhaal | ||||||||||||||
| Birthday: 12/19/1980 | ||||||||||||||
| Place of Birth: California | ||||||||||||||
| Education: Columbia University, New York, New York, Eastern religion | ||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||
|
Jake Gyllenhaal Biography: Dark haired with good looks, young actor Jake Gyllenhaal made a rousing start with his leading role in the favorite "October Sky” (1999). While this was his leading role debut, he had appeared in many movies in small, supporting roles, starting in "City Slickers" (1999) with a small role that received praise from screen dad Billy Crystal. Jake Gyllenhaal next was seen in the children's adventure "Josh and S.A.M." (1993), portraying a nasty stepbrother to the lead characters. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, the actor was also showcased in two of his dad's movies, "A Dangerous Woman" (1993, written by his mother and "Homegrown" in 1998 appearing with Jamie Lee Curtis and Billy Bob Thornton about three inept stoners who help run master dope-grower Malcoms flourishing marijuana plantation somewhere in northern California. The subsequent year Gyllenhaal made his big screen, leading man debut in "October Sky,” a film based on the true story of NASA engineer Homer Hickham Jr. Jake played Hickham, a young boy attracted to rocket science whose dazzling brain and commitment wrote him a ticket out of his dwindling mining settlement. Although Gyllenhaal had little film know-how, his performance in "October Sky" showed an actor on the rise. Featured in almost every scene, he transformed into a exceedingly viewable screen personality, giving a most convincing and honest performance. While his humble good looks, and academic everyday life, didn't seize many headlines, his flair and reverence for his profession would guarantee the affable new arrival a dazzling future in Hollywood.
Gyllenhaal got an opportunity to shine again, when he starred in the memorable fantasy film "Donnie Darko" in 2001. Also that year, he starred in the wacky comedy "Bubble Boy" as well as the production "Highway" with Jared Leto and Selma Blair. Gyllenhaal then appeared opposite Jennifer Aniston in "The Good Girl" (2002)about a discount store clerk who strikes up an affair with a stock boy who considers himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield. The actor then appeared in the Nicole Holofcener film "Lovely and Amazing." Gyllenhaal's most significant role would appear in "Moonlight Mile" (2002) where he starred with Dustin Hoffman, Holly Hunter and Susan Sarandon. Gyllenhaal played a childish man whose fiancé is unintentionally killed and who finds himself spending a enormous amount of time mourning with the family. Gyllenhaal was almost cast as the superhero Spider-Man for the sequel "Spider-Man 2" (2004) when a disagreement between the characters originator, Tobey Maguire, and the studio nearly resulted in recasting Gyllenhaal was also romantically involved with the films female lead, Kirsten Dunst. Instead, Jake was cast in another blockbuster film that went toe-to-toe alongside the "Spider-Man" sequel: in director Roland Emmerich's catastrophe film "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004). Gyllenhaal played the son of a weatherman (Dennis Quaid) who is ensnared in New York City as a new ice age envelops the globe.
His next film that year was "Jarhead" (2005), director Sam Mendes' astute, emotional variation of former U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's best selling account of his service during the 1990 Gulf War in Iraq, and Gyllenhaal provided a profound and successful portrayal as Swoff, an immature, green adolescence who enters the Marine Corp and is educated to be a sniper, but finds himself hindered by fear, monotony and spiritual torment when he is stationed in Iraq and not permitted to put his talents to use as countries perched on the edge of war. Gyllenhaal was meticulously believable and took his performance to murky, questioning places that had not seemed possible early on in his career, seeming to grow up on screen as the motion picture plays out. Even more convincing was Gyllenhaal's role in Ang Lee's memorable and touching performance "Brokeback Mountain" (2005), a variation and expansion of E. Annie Proulx's well-known story which cast the actor as Jack Twist, who on a 1960's cattle drive across a mountain pass sways into a homosexual bond with his closeted fellow ranch worker Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), a heartbreaking saga that continues intermittently over twenty years. Gyllenhaal's personality is far more open and gay than his partner, and the actor believably showed the long-term emotion in a role that showed even more height and understanding than any he had tried until that time. After a snub at the Golden Globes, he was not nominated, Gyllenhaal received an Oscar statue for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
After “Brokeback Mountain,” Gyllenhaal starred in “Zodiac” (2007), David Fincher’s view of the legendary Zodiac Killer, who was suspected of five ghastly murders in the Bay Area during the late 1960's. An mysterious killer who enjoyed taunting the media and investigators, the Zodiac’s character was never revealed, while quite a few other related murderers were attributed to the killer, adding an exciting thriller for a movie age greatly in need of modernization. Gyllenhaal played Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of the killings who got caught up in the case, and later became the primary authority on the killer. Next was the drama thriller "Rendition" (2007) with Reese Witherspoon, about a CIA analyst who questions his assignment after witnessing an unorthodox interrogation at a secret detention facility outside the US. Gyllenhaal followed with another war drama "Brothers" (2008) about a young man who comforts his older brother's wife and children after he goes missing in Afghanistan. Based on Susanne Bier's film, "Brothers". Gyllenhaal then moved to a comedy role in "Nailed" (2009) starring Jessica Biel about a small town waitress who gets a nail accidentally lodged in her head causing unpredictable behavior that leads her to Washington, DC, where sparks fly when she meets a clueless young senator who takes up her cause.
Family
Significant Others
Education
Add Your Link / Exchange Links
| ||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
The actor then had his most
artistically dynamic year in 2005,
appearing four feature films. First was "Proof,"
director John Madden's film variation of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize
winning play, in which Jake played a self destructive mathematics student who
idolizes his bright but insane teacher (Anthony Hopkins), and forms
a shaky attachment with his troubled daughter 