Cuba Gooding Jr.

Biography

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

Mike Peterson

Judgment Night

Cpl. Carl Hammaker

A Few Good Men

Tré Styles

Boyz n the Hood

Doris Miller

Pearl Harbor

Arlo

Chill Factor

Salim Adel

Dirty

For NYC

Frank Sachs

As Good as It Gets

Blue

The Weapon

Nicky Barnes

American Gangster

Darrin Hill

The Fighting Temptations

Ben Doyle

Lightning Jack

Luke Gibson

Hardwired

Major Salt

Outbreak

Ben Carson

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

Billy Roberts

The Tuskegee Airmen

Isaac

Lies & Illusions

Senior Chief Carl Brashear

Men of Honor

Buck (voice)

A Dairy Tale

Ted Brooks

Snow Dogs

Dr. Theo Caulder

Instinct

Albert Lewis

What Dreams May Come

Joshua

Wrong Turn at Tahoe

Alex Thomas

End Game

Deion Hughes

Norbit

Jerry Robinson

Boat Trip

Tom

What Love Is

Rod Tidwell

Jerry Maguire

Cuba Gooding Jr.

Zoolander

Mikey

Shadowboxer

Cromer

Harold

Eddie Hughes

Losing Isaiah

Buck (voice)

Home on the Range

Radio

Radio

Charlie Hinton

Daddy Day Camp

Liquor Store Clerk

Trading Favors

Officer Alvarez

Judgement

Michael Dixon

Linewatch

Sheriff Jacobs

Dog Patrol: Operation Santa Paws

David Wolfe

The Way of War

Abraham Lincoln Haines

Gladiator

Stanley

Sing

Liam Case

Hero Wanted

Mack

The Devil's Tomb

Torch

Daybreak

Lawson Russell

A Murder of Crows

Lewis Hicks

Ticking Clock

Major Emanuelle Stance

Red Tails

John Hebron

Sacrifice

Jonas Arbor

The Hit List

DJ

Firelight

El Camaleon

Machete Kills

Ray Carver

One in the Chamber

Carter Wilson

The Butler

Detective Callendar

Summoned

Eugene Brown

Life of a King

John Nelson

Absolute Deception

Hollywood Actor #2

Don Jon

Samuel Wilson

The Firing Squad

Samuel

Freedom

Draven

In the Shadows

Fred Gray

Selma

Andres

Skeletons in the Closet

Break the Cycle

Tyree

Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story

Self (archive footage)

TMZ Presents: The Downfall of Diddy

(archive footage)

2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift

Shadoweyes

Timmy Muldoon and the Search for the Shadoweyes Bandit

Balthazar

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace

Quantum Supremacy

Narrator (voice)

Double Victory: The Tuskegee Airmen at War

Xavier

Life in a Year

Cuba Gooding Jr.

Welcome to Hollywood

Boy Getting Haircut

Coming to America

Rodney Jones

Bayou Caviar

Loofah (voice)

The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends

Self

The Enduring Significance of 'Boyz n the Hood'

Self

Friendly Fire: Making of an Urban Legend

Bomb Squad Class Member

Blown Away

Self

America | A Tribute to Heroes

Himself

Making Rat Race

Javier Cardona

A Line of Fire

Calvin

Giving Thanks

Atlas King

Frank Kitner

Above the Break

The Madness of Judge Jeremiah Doherty

Owen Templeton

Rat Race