Cuba M. Gooding, Jr. is an American film actor.
He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Rod Tidwell in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire,
for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
His performances in films such as Boyz n the Hood, As Good as It Gets, Men of Honor, Rat
Race, Snow Dogs, and The Butler were also well received.
Personal life Gooding Jr., was born in Bronx, New York,
the son of Shirley Gooding, a singer with the Sweethearts, and Cuba Gooding, Sr., a
lead vocalist of the soul group The Main Ingredient.
He has three siblings: April, Omar, and Tommy Gooding.
His paternal grandfather was a native of Barbados.
His family moved to Los Angeles after his father's music group had a hit single with
"Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972; the elder Gooding abandoned his family two years later.
Gooding 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.
He became a born-again Christian at age 13.
In 1994, Gooding Jr. married his high school sweetheart, Sara Kapfer, and they have three
children: Spencer, Mason and Piper.
They live in Pacific Palisades, and Porter Ranch, California.
On April 22, 2014, Kapfer filed for divorce from Gooding.
Career Early career and major success
His first job as an entertainer was as a breakdancer 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, Amen and MacGyver
and also had a tiny part in the popular comedy Coming to America.
Gooding's first major role was in John Singleton's inner-city crime drama Boyz n the Hood, in
which he played the lead, Tré Styles.
A box office surprise and critical hit, the film is now considered a modern classic.
He followed this success with supporting roles in major films such as A Few Good Men, Lightning
Jack, and Outbreak.
In 1996, Gooding reached a new level of prominence when he was cast as an arrogant yet charismatic
football player on the brink of a career-ending injury in Cameron Crowe's blockbuster dramatic
sports comedy Jerry Maguire with co-star Tom Cruise, which was a major critical and commercial
success and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Most significantly, it earned Gooding an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
His exuberant "Show Me the Money" line in the film became a nationwide catch phrase.
Additionally, his Oscar acceptance speech has often been cited for its enthusiasm.
Post-Oscar prominence In 1997, Gooding followed his breakout with
a notable supporting role in the acclaimed Academy Award-winning comedy As Good as It
Gets, but in the following years his career was inconsistently successful.
Some of his best received performances include turns in films such as the mystical drama
What Dreams May Come and the US Naval drama Men of Honor in which he played the lead role
and co-starred with Robert De Niro.
Gooding also received attention for his roles in the epic Pearl Harbor as historical figure
Doris Miller, the ensemble farce Rat Race, the musical The Fighting Temptations in which
he co-starred alongside Beyoncé Knowles, and the football drama Radio, in which he
played the title role.
Additionally, though not well received critically, the family comedy Snow Dogs was a commercial
success.
Other roles of note during this time include a co-lead role alongside Anthony Hopkins in
the psychological thriller Instinct and the voice of Buck in Disney's animated film Home
on the Range.
However, during this stage of his career, he also began to appear in a series of films
which were not critically or commercially successful, such as Chill Factor, Boat Trip,
Norbit, and Daddy Day Camp, all of which had received extremely negative reviews and, with
the exception of Norbit, performed poorly at the box office.
On top of this, Gooding had allegedly turned down roles in successful films such as Amistad
in the aftermath of his Oscar win.
Ultimately, neither his earlier successes nor his leading roles in a couple of smaller
independent films, including Lee Daniels' directorial debut Shadowboxer, were able to
offset these failures and prevent the downward trajectory of his career.
Recent film career Since then, in great contrast to earlier stages
of his acting career, Gooding has appeared in many more gritty, critically ignored, direct-to-DVD
films than theatrical or television releases.
A well received performance as Ben Carson in 2009's Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story,
and small supporting role in 2007's Ridley Scott's American Gangster, both proved to
be exceptions to this trend, it was his last theatrically released film until 2012.
Indeed, when Gooding had a prominent role in the World War II film, Red Tails, produced
by George Lucas and also with other prominent actors such as Terrence Howard and Bryan Cranston,
it was his first significant theatrically released film since 2007's American Gangster.
In 2013, Gooding had roles in several theatrical release films, including a well received supporting
performance in Lee Daniels' The Butler and brief appearances in Don Jon and Machete Kills.
Other work In 2013, Gooding, Jr. made his Broadway theatre
debut alongside Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams in a Tony Award-nominated production of The
Trip to Bountiful.
In 2012, he starred in a TV pilot for FOX called Guilty that was directed by McG.
Though it was well received in screenings, it was ultimately not picked up by the network.
He appeared on Channel 4's Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on August 5, 2011, closing the show
dueting Bad Romance with Lulu.
In 2002, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Filmography References
External links Cuba Gooding, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
Cuba Gooding, Jr. at the Internet Broadway Database
Cinema Confidential interview Hollywood.com interview
Jet interview Ebony interview
JAM!
Movies interview Hanes Backstage Game with Cuba Gooding, Jr.
& Michael Jordan USAToday