John Cusack: Biography
John Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois on June 26, 1966. He was the son of an Irish Catholic family and the fourth entity to make its emergence into the world, John was fortunate to have been born into a family teeming with talent and ambition. Dad is an actor and documentary filmmaker. Mom is a teacher. All of his siblings are also actors; three sisters and one brother.
At the ripe old age of eight, John joined the Piven Theatre Workshop. By twelve, he'd earned a nice place with other talented heavy-weights who had successfully completed industry films, radio spots and commercial voice overs. At seventeen came his first big break, working on the film 'Class.'
John Cusack: Career
After making his film debut in 1983's Class, he had a brief but painfully memorable appearance as a member of Anthony Michael Hall's nerd posse in Sixteen Candles (1984). Bigger and better opportunities came Cusack's way the following year, when he achieved a measure of stardom with his portrayal of a sexually anxious college freshman in The Sure Thing (1985). The same year, he gained further recognition with his starring roles in Better Off Dead (which also granted him a degree of cult status) and The Journey of Natty Gann.
Cusack spent the rest of the 1980s carving out a niche for himself as both a solid performer and something of a lust object for unconventional girls everywhere, a status aided immeasurably by his portrayal of lovable underachiever Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's 1989 ....Say Anything. He also began winning critical acclaim for his parts in more serious films, notably as a disgraced White Sox third baseman in John Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988) and as a con artist in Stephen Frears' The Grifters (1990).
Cusack enjoyed steady work throughout the 1990s, with particularly notable roles in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994), which featured him as a struggling playwright; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), in which he starred as a journalist investigating a murder; Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which cast him as the film's protagonist, a neurotic hit man; and the impressively cast The Thin Red Line, in which he played a World War II soldier. Just about all of Cusack's roles allowed him to showcase his quirky versatility, and the films he did to close out the century were no exception: in 1999 he first starred as an air-traffic controller in the comedy Pushing Tin and then appeared as Nelson Rockefeller in Cradle Will Rock, Tim Robbins' exploration of art and politics in 1930s America; finally, in perhaps his most unique film to date, he starred in Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich as a puppeteer who discovers a way to enter the mind of the famous actor. The wildly original film turned out to be one of the year's biggest surprise hits, scoring among both audiences and critics. Cusack had yet another triumph the following year with High Fidelity, Stephen Frears' adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel of the same name. The actor, who co-wrote the script for the film in addition to starring in it, earned some of the best reviews of his career for his heartfelt comic portrayal of Rob, the film's well-meaning but oftentimes emotionally immature protagonis
John Cusack: Films
The Ice Harvest (2005), Must Love Dogs (2005), Runaway Jury (2003), Identity (2003), Max (2002), Serendipity (2001), America's Sweethearts (2001), High Fidelity (2000), The Jack Bull (1999), Cradle Will Rock (1999), Being John Malkovich (1999), This Is My Father (1999), Pushing Tin (1999), The Thin Red Line (1998), Chicago Cab (1998), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Anastasia (1997), Con Air (1997), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), City Hall (1996), Floundering (1994), The Road to Wellville (1994), Bullets Over Broadway (1994),
Money for Nothing (1993), Map of the Human Heart (1993), Bob Roberts (1992), The Player (1992), Roadside Prophets (1992), Shadows and Fog (1992), True Colors (1991), The Grifters (1990), Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), Say Anything (1989), Tapeheads (1988), Eight Men Out (1988), Broadcast News (1987), Hot Pursuit (1987), One Crazy Summer (1986), Stand By Me (1986), Better Off Dead (1985), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), The Sure Thing (1985), Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), Sixteen Candles (1984), Class (1983)
