John Cusack(I)
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero.
Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has built a
successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while
avoiding the media spotlight. John was born in Evanston, Illinois, to
an Irish-American family. With the exception of mom Nancy (née
Carolan), a former math teacher, the Cusack clan is all show business:
father Dick Cusack was an actor and
filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack,
Ann Cusack,
Bill Cusack and
Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade.
Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven
Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he
already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and
industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17,
acting alongside Rob Lowe and
Andrew McCarthy in the romantic
comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a
member of Anthony Michael Hall's
geek brigade in
Sixteen Candles (1984), put him
on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the
periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of
most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like
The Sure Thing (1985) and
Better Off Dead (1985).
Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered
his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in
Say Anything (1989). A year
later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man
caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in
The Grifters (1990).
The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled
in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several
shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he
founded in 1988 (modeling it after
Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los
Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years
later, Cusack's high school friends
Steve Pink and
D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting
a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first
feature was the sharply written comedy
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997),
which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to
co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his
ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the
girl he stood up on prom night
(Minnie Driver). In an instance of life
imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to
honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life
romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent
(or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action
star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a
movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business
decisions. He followed that with
Clint Eastwood's
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997),
in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder
case.
Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when
he turned up in the fiercely original
Being John Malkovich (1999).
Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in
the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into
the brain of actor John Malkovich. The
convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the
Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven
self in High Fidelity (2000),
another New Crime production. He worked with
Steve Pink and
D.V. DeVincentis to adapt
Nick Hornby's popular novel
(relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the
sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find
out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically
linked with several celebs, including Driver,
Alison Eastwood,
Claire Forlani and
Neve Campbell. He's also something of a
family man, acting frequently opposite sister
Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into
his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of
projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his
ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".
Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has built a
successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while
avoiding the media spotlight. John was born in Evanston, Illinois, to
an Irish-American family. With the exception of mom Nancy (née
Carolan), a former math teacher, the Cusack clan is all show business:
father Dick Cusack was an actor and
filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack,
Ann Cusack,
Bill Cusack and
Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade.
Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven
Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he
already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and
industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17,
acting alongside Rob Lowe and
Andrew McCarthy in the romantic
comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a
member of Anthony Michael Hall's
geek brigade in
Sixteen Candles (1984), put him
on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the
periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of
most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like
The Sure Thing (1985) and
Better Off Dead (1985).
Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered
his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in
Say Anything (1989). A year
later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man
caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in
The Grifters (1990).
The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled
in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several
shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he
founded in 1988 (modeling it after
Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los
Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years
later, Cusack's high school friends
Steve Pink and
D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting
a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first
feature was the sharply written comedy
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997),
which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to
co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his
ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the
girl he stood up on prom night
(Minnie Driver). In an instance of life
imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to
honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life
romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent
(or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action
star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a
movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business
decisions. He followed that with
Clint Eastwood's
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997),
in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder
case.
Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when
he turned up in the fiercely original
Being John Malkovich (1999).
Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in
the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into
the brain of actor John Malkovich. The
convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the
Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven
self in High Fidelity (2000),
another New Crime production. He worked with
Steve Pink and
D.V. DeVincentis to adapt
Nick Hornby's popular novel
(relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the
sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find
out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically
linked with several celebs, including Driver,
Alison Eastwood,
Claire Forlani and
Neve Campbell. He's also something of a
family man, acting frequently opposite sister
Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into
his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of
projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his
ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".
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Star Siblings: Famous Brothers and Sisters
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