Jamie Foxx Bio
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Jamie Foxx BioThis Jamie Foxx biography contains information believed to be accurate as extracted from sources around the internet including Wikipedia. If you believe there are errors or omissions in this Jamie Foxx bio, please let us know so that we can correct any inaccuracies.
Jamie Foxx (born December 13, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, Grammy Award-nominated singer, and stand-up comic. Foxx is possibly best known for his portrayal of musician Ray Charles in Ray, and for his collaborations with director Michael Mann. With Ray, he became one of the few African Americans to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Jamie studied at Juilliard and San Diego's United States International University in music. Foxx received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 14, 2007. Jamie Foxx: Early lifeFoxx was born Eric Marlon Bishop in Terrell, Texas, the son of Louise Annette Talley Dixon and Darrell Bishop, who sometimes worked as a stockbroker and changed his name to Shahid Abdula after converting to Islam. Shortly after his birth, Foxx was adopted and raised by his mother's adoptive parents, Esther Marie (née Nelson), a domestic worker and nursery operator, and Mark Talley, a yard worker. He has had little contact with his birth parents, who were not part of his upbringing. Foxx was raised in the black quarter of Terrell, Texas, at the time a racially segregated community (In The Kingdom, Foxx makes reference to Terrell). He had a strict Baptist upbringing. He has frequently cited his adoptive grandmother's influence on his life. At his grandmother's urging, Foxx began piano lessons at the age of five. He went on to play for church groups in Terrell, and studied classical music in college. He also played football (quarterback) at Terrell High School, and had an ambition to play for the Dallas Cowboys. Jamie Foxx: CareerJamie Foxx's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Foxx changed his name while doing stand up once he found out that female comedians were often called first to perform. He felt Jamie Foxx was an ambiguous enough name to disallow any biases. His last name was chosen as a tribute to Redd Foxx. Jamie Foxx - In Living ColorAfter a small part on the TV series Roc, Foxx joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991. Here he won over viewers with many unusual characters and impressions, which included: ugly girl Wanda; fictitious boxer Carl "The Tooth" Williams; and The Dirty Dozens champion T-Dog Jenkins. His impersonation of Garrett Morris would eventually find him starring against the former Saturday Night Live cast member in his sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show. Jamie Foxx - Acting careerFoxx's first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone's 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where he played a heavy-partying football player. He was cast in the role in part because of his background as a football player. Foxx has since evolved into a respected dramatic actor. Following Any Given Sunday, Foxx was featured as taxi driver Max Durocher in the film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His standout performance, however, was his portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Foxx is the second male, and the first African American, in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies, Collateral and Ray. The only other male actor to achieve this was Al Pacino. In 2005, Foxx was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Following this success, Foxx appeared in three more movies: Jarhead, Miami Vice, and Dreamgirls which were hits at the box office and lifted Foxx even higher as a bankable star in Hollywood. 2007 brought him the lead role in the film The Kingdom, opposite Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner. In September 2007, Foxx was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He said, upon receiving the honor, "[it was] one of the most amazing days of my life." Jamie Foxx - Music careerFoxx began piano lessons at age five, and later took classical piano lessons while attending college. In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the FOX record label) entitled Peep This. In 2001, he hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. His music career went into a higher gear when, in 2004, he was featured on rapper Kanye West's song, "Slow Jamz", which also featured Twista. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, as well as number three on the UK singles chart. Foxx's second collaboration with Kanye West, "Gold Digger", in which he sang the "I Got a Woman" Ray Charles-influenced hook, went straight to #1 on the Billboard Top 100, and remained there for 10 weeks. In 2005, Foxx was featured on the hit single "Georgia" by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob. The song sampled Ray Charles' hit "Georgia on My Mind". Unpredictable is Jamie Foxx's second studio release. It sold over 598,000 copies in its first week but reached the U.S. number one spot in its 2nd week. Debuting at number two, Unpredictable rose to the top of the Billboard pop album chart, with 2nd-week sales of 200,000 copies in the United States. The album also charted in the UK top 10 album chart, peaking at number nine. It has since been certified Platinum. Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for acting and to have achieved a number-one record album in the US. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) Foxx's first single from the album, the title track, "Unpredictable" (featuring Ludacris) samples "WildFlower" by New Birth. The song peaked inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and also made the UK top 20 singles chart. The second US single from the album was "DJ Play A Love Song", which reunited Foxx with Twista. In the UK, however, the second single was "Extravaganza", which saw Foxx once again collaborate with Kanye West. He was not, however, featured in the song's music video. At the 2006 BET Awards, Foxx won two awards: Best Duet/Collaboration with Kanye West for "Gold Digger" and Video of the Year for the same video. Kanye's video tied with Mary J. Blige's (Be Without You) for Video of the year. On December 8, 2006, Foxx received a 4 Grammy nominations:
On January 22, 2007, Foxx was on Sirius Satellite Radio, announcing his new "Foxxhole" channel. This channel now features comedy and music by Jamie but also music and comedy by those Jamie respects most. Foxx recorded a song with country superstars Rascal Flatts entitled "She Goes All The Way" for their album, "Still Feels Good". Foxx also does background vocals for artist/songwriter Tank. Jamie Foxx: Legal issuesIn April of 2003 Foxx was involved in an incident with two police officers who were attempting to escort him and his sister out of Harrah's casino in New Orleans. Employees claimed they had failed to show identification upon entry. Originally charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace, battery on police officers and resisting arrest, Foxx pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace in exchange for the other charges being dropped, and was sentenced to a six month suspended jail term with two years probation and a $1500 fine., |
