Cuba Gooding Jr.
Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination.
He was born in Bronx, New York to Shirley, a singer with the Sweethearts, and Cuba Gooding, Sr., a lead vocalist of soul group The Main Ingredient. He has two brothers, musician Tommy Gooding and fellow actor Omar Gooding, and sister, April Gooding. His family moved to Los Angeles after Gooding Sr.'s music group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972 but abandoned his family two years later. Gooding Jr. was raised by his mother and attended four different high schools: North Hollywood High School, Tustin High School, Apple Valley High School, and John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills in Los Angeles. He served as class president in three of them.
His first job as a professional entertainer was as a break-dancer performing with singer Lionel Richie at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. After high school, Gooding studied Japanese martial arts for three years, before turning his focus toward acting. Early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues (1981) and MacGyver (1985).
His first major role was in the John Singleton's box office surprise and critical hit Boyz n the Hood (1991). He followed this success with roles in major films like A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994), Outbreak (1995), Men of Honor (2000), Rat Race (2001), and The Fighting Temptations (2003) in which he co-starred alongside Beyoncé Knowles.
In 1996, he was cast as an arrogant football player on the brink of a career-ending injury in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996). The film was a success and earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His "Show Me The Money" line in the film became a nationwide catchphrase. In 1997, he had a notable supporting role in As Good As It Gets (1997). The next several years, his films were inconsistently successful; Boat Trip (2002), Norbit (2007), and Daddy Day Camp (2007), all of which had received extremely negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office.
Gooding also starred in a film titled A Murder of Crows, which he co-produced with his long time friend and business partner Derek Broes. The film was Gooding's first attempt at producing. Since then, he has had series of starring roles in grittier films released direct-to-DVD such as the revenge dramas Hero Wanted and Wrong Turn at Tahoe, as well as the sci-fi action pic Hardwired and the action comedy Lies & Illusions.
A well-received performance as Ben Carson in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) and a small supporting role in Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007) both proved to be exceptions to this trend. An appearance in the World War II film, Red Tails, produced by George Lucas and with other prominent actors such as Terrence Howard, will mark his only return to the big screen since American Gangster.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 1.96 |
Birthday | 1968-01-02 |
Place of Birth | The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA |
Also Known As | キューバ・グッディング・ジュニア , |
1993
Judgment Night
6.508/321
Four young friends, while taking a shortcut en route to a local boxing match, witness a brutal murder which leaves them running for their lives.
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1991
Boyz n the Hood
7.615/1891
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2001
Pearl Harbor
6.94/6240
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1992
A Few Good Men
7.535/3404
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1999
Chill Factor
4.909/132
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1997
As Good as It Gets
7.399/3644
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As Good as It Gets
2005
Dirty
5.2/100
Two gangbangers turned cops try and cover up a scandal within the LAPD.
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2007
American Gangster
7.6/5180
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1994
Lightning Jack
5.5/117
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2003
The Fighting Temptations
5.8/121
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2009
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
7.781/610
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1995
Outbreak
6.541/2150
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2009
Lies & Illusions
4/60
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2009
Hardwired
5/82
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2002
Snow Dogs
5.618/701
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1995
The Tuskegee Airmen
7.1/113
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2000
Men of Honor
7.468/2184
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Men of Honor
1999
Instinct
6.439/578
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1998
What Dreams May Come
7.194/2216
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2009
Wrong Turn at Tahoe
5.705/95
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2007
What Love Is
5.3/26
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2001
Zoolander
6.202/4272
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1996
Jerry Maguire
6.96/3143
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2002
Boat Trip
5.3/624
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2006
End Game
5.3/84
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Norbit
5.6/2234
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2001
Rat Race
6.262/1706
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2005
Shadowboxer
5.085/65
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2008
Harold
5.5/40
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1995
Losing Isaiah
6.4/94
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2004
Home on the Range
6.045/1960
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2003
Radio
7.223/683
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2007
Daddy Day Camp
4.8/434
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2008
Linewatch
5.2/45
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2009
The Way of War
3.716/51
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1989
Sing
5.4/7
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Gladiator
7.576/316
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2008
Hero Wanted
5.333/147
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A Murder of Crows
6.065/161
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2009
The Devil's Tomb
4.7/165
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Daybreak
5.339/28
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2011
Ticking Clock
5.229/71
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2012
Red Tails
6.522/603
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2011
Sacrifice
4.4/55
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2011
The Hit List
5.936/241
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2012
Firelight
5.9/12
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2013
Machete Kills
5.61/1834
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2012
One in the Chamber
5.619/155
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One in the Chamber
2013
The Butler
7.347/2788
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2013
Summoned
4.6/31
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2013
Life of a King
7.148/152
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2013
Absolute Deception
4.7/70
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2013
Don Jon
6.003/4176
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Freedom
5.8/24
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2001
In the Shadows
5.4/14
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2014
Selma
7.4/2133
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1992
Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story
5.6/8
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2013
Timmy Muldoon and the Search for the Shadoweyes Bandit
6.3/3
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2012
Double Victory: The Tuskegee Airmen at War
0/0
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2020
Life in a Year
8.27/1771
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Welcome to Hollywood
3.8/9
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1988
Coming to America
6.882/4169
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Bayou Caviar
4.514/35
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2007
The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends
6.2/159
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2011
The Enduring Significance of 'Boyz n the Hood'
0/0
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2003
Friendly Fire: Making of an Urban Legend
7/1
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1994
Blown Away
6.2/509
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2001
America: A Tribute to Heroes
6/8
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2020
For NYC
0/0
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2004
A Dairy Tale
5/6
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1997
Trading Favors
4.4/8
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2023
The Weapon
5.431/29
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1992
Judgement
3.8/4
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2024
Athena Saves Christmas
0/0
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2024
The Firing Squad
0/0
Based on the true story of three Christian prisoners who face execution their joy in Christ stuns the entire prison camp.
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2024
Skeletons in the Closet
4.6/7
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Break the Cycle
0/0
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2024
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0/0
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