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Forest Steven Whitaker
(born July 15, 1961) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe and SAG Award
winning American actor of film, stage and television, as well as a producer and
director. He has won Screen Actors Guild award for his performance as the brutal
Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the movie "The Last King of Scotland".
****
Birth name Forest Steven
Whitaker
Born July 15, 1961 (age
45)
Longview, Texas
Spouse(s) Keisha Whitaker
Academy Awards
Nominated for Best Actor:
1988 Bird
2007 The Last King of
Scotland
****
Biography
Early
life
Whitaker was born in
Longview, Texas to Forest Whitaker, Jr. the son of novelist Forest Whitaker,
Sr., an insurance man, and Laura Francis Smith, a teacher. His mother put
herself through college and earned two Masters degrees while raising her
children (Forest has two younger brothers, Kenn and Damon, and an older sister
Deborah). The family moved to the Los Angeles area when Whitaker was a toddler.
Whitaker commuted from Carson to Palisades High School, where he was all-league
defensive tackle on the football team quarterbacked by Jay Schroeder, a future
NFL player. [1]
Whitaker attended
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona on a football scholarship, but
left due to a debilitating back injury. He was accepted to the Music
Conservatory at the University of Southern California to study opera as a tenor,
and was then accepted into the Drama Conservatory. He graduated from USC in
1982. He also earned a scholarship to the Berkeley, California branch of the
Drama Studio London.
His first agent
discovered Whitaker singing in a production of The Beggar's Opera.[2]
Career
Whitaker's first onscreen
role of note was in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High alongside the likes of
Nicolas Cage, Phoebe Cates and Sean Penn. He followed with notable roles in
Platoon, Good Morning, Vietnam, and The Color of Money. In 1988, Forest played
the role of musician Charlie Parker in the Clint Eastwood directed film, Bird,
for which he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a
Golden Globe award. Whitaker was originally called upon to write and direct a
live-action movie adaptation of Bill Cosby's cartoon, Fat Albert, but
differences between the two led to Whitaker leaving production.[3]
Whitaker branched out
into producing and directing in the 1990's. He co-produced and co-starred in A
Rage in Harlem in 1991. He executive produced the 2002 Emmy-award winning
made-for-television movie, Door to Door, starring William Macy . He made his
directorial debut with a grim film about inner-city gun violence, Strapped, for
HBO in 1993. In 1995, he directed his first feature, Waiting to Exhale, and also
directed co-star Whitney Houston's music video of the movie's theme song ("Shoop
Shoop"). In 2004, he directed the romantic comedy, First Daughter.
In 2002, Whitaker was the
host and narrator of The Twilight Zone, which lasted one season. In January
2006, he joined the cast of FX's cop serial The Shield, as Lieutenant Jon
Kavanaugh. His performance as a tormented internal affairs cop was
well-received. In the fall of 2006, Whitaker started his multi-episode story arc
on ER, playing a man who comes into the ER with a cough, but quickly faces the
long-term consequences of a paralyzing stroke. He then takes out his anger on
Doctors Luka Kovac and Abby Lockhart. He also had a small role in the BMW Film
from Season 1 promoting the BMW 330ci, directed by Wong Kar Wai.
Also in 2006, he appeared
in T.I.'s video "Live in the Sky" alongside Jamie Foxx. On December 27, 2006
TheMagazine named Whitaker as its actor of the year in its 2006 "Year in Review"
issue for his work in The Last King of Scotland, The Shield and ER.[4]
Whitaker received
critical acclaim for his performance as dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The
Last King of Scotland, winning the best actor award from the New York Film
Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of
Review and the Broadcast Film Critics Association, among many critics awards. On
January 15, 2007, Whitaker won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion
Picture Drama. On January 23, 2007 he was nominated for the Best Actor Academy
Award. He was also nominated for Best Actor by the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts, and on January 28 won the Screen Actors Guild Award.
For the role Whitaker
immersed himself in research, reading books about Amin, watching documentary
footage, and meeting with Amin's friends and family. He mastered the East
African accent and learned swahili which he convincingly uses throughout the
film.
Personal life
In 1996, Whitaker married
fellow actress Keisha Whitaker. They have two daughters, Sonnet and True. He has
a son named Ocean from a previous relationship and a stepdaughter named Autumn
from a previous relationship of Keisha's. Forrest's distinct look is aided by
the eye condition he was born with. He is also a vegetarian and a 1st Degree
Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He recently opened a raw food/vegan restaurant in
West Los Angeles called Taste of the Goddess.
Selected filmography
Actor:
The Air I Breathe (2007)
The Shield (2006)
The Last King of Scotland
(2006)
A Little Trip to Heaven
(2005)
Mary (2005)
American Gun (2005)
Deacons for Defense
(2003)
Phone Booth (2002)
Panic Room (2002)
Four Dogs Playing Poker
(2000)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Light It Up (1999)
Ghost Dog: The Way of the
Samurai (1999)
Phenomenon (1996)
Species (1995)
Smoke (1995)
The Enemy Within (1994)
Prêt-à-Porter (1994)
Blown Away (1994)
Jason's Lyric (1994)
The Crying Game (1992)
A Rage in Harlem (1991)
Downtown (1990)
Bloodsport (1988)
Bird (1988)
Good Morning, Vietnam
(1987)
Platoon (1986)
North and South, Book II
(1986)
The Color of Money (1986)
Fast Times at Ridgemont
High (1982)
Director:
First Daughter (2004)
Hope Floats (1998)
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
Footnotes
1. Inside the Actors
Studio, Bravo, Jan. 4, 2007
2. Joshua Rich,
"Spotlight: Forest Whitaker," EW.com; Inside the Actors Studio.
3. Josh Grossberg, Na,
Na, Na! "Fat Albert" Shelved, E!News, April 5, 2002.
4. http://www.wearethemagazine.com/0103/themagazine.htm
****
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
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