John Cusack Biography

John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American actor, producer, and screenwriter. He has appeared in films such as Say Anything..., Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, 1408, Must Love Dogs, 2012, Martian Child, and America's Sweethearts.

Early life

Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois, to a Catholic Irish-American family. His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. His father, Richard Cusack (1925"2003), was an actor, as are John's siblings, Ann, Joan, Bill, and Susie. His father was also a documentary filmmaker, owned a film production company, and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan. Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in [his] belly".

Career

Cusack gained fame in the mid-1980s after appearing in teen movies such as Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer, and Sixteen Candles. Cusack made a cameo in the 1988 music video for "Trip at the Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies. In 1989 he starred as Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.... His roles broadened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare such as the politically themed True Colors and the film noir thriller The Grifters.

Cusack experienced box office success with his roles in the dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank and the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster Con Air. In the years since, his range of films has diversified, appearing in roles such as an obsessive puppeteer in Being John Malkovich, a lovelorn record store owner in High Fidelity, and a Jewish art dealer mentoring a young Adolf Hitler in Max. He starred in the horror film 1408, based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. He next appeared as a widowed father in the Iraq War-themed drama Grace Is Gone and as assassin Brand Hauser in the dark political satire, War, Inc., along with Hilary Duff and Marisa Tomei.

His sister Joan Cusack and close friend Jeremy Piven have appeared in many of his films. The siblings appeared as two geeks in Sixteen Candles: John as one of Farmer Ted's posse, and Joan as the geek with the neck brace. They also appeared together in Say Anything, Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity, Cradle Will Rock, Martian Child, and War, Inc.. Piven and Cusack play opposite one another in One Crazy Summer, Serendipity, Say Anything, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Cusack also had a brief cameo, seen from behind but speaking a line of dialogue, in Broadcast News, in which Joan also appeared. Piven also had roles in The Grifters and Runaway Jury.

Cusack was next seen in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012, which was released in theaters November 13, 2009; he played Jackson Curtis, a struggling novelist and limo driver, with his Identity and Martian Child co-star Amanda Peet. In 2010, Cusack starred in Hot Tub Time Machine, opposite Rob Corddry, Clark Duke, and Craig Robinson. In the 2012 thriller film The Raven, Cusack portrayed Edgar Allan Poe. In July 2013, Cusack joined the production of David Cronenbergs Maps to the Stars, which is described as dark comic look look at Hollywood excess.Cusack is set to play Beach Boys founding member, Brian Wilson in the upcoming biopic, Love and Mercy. Cusack will play Wilson in his later years while Paul Dano will play a younger Wilson.

Cusack is the founder and owner of New Crime Productions.

Personal life

Cusack is a fan of both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, for which, he says, he is "in trouble there". He has led the crowd in a performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field. He has also been spotted at multiple Chicago Bears games, and attended many of the Stanley Cup Finals games in support of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Cusack has trained in kickboxing for over 20 years, under former world kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez. He began training under Urquidez in preparation for his role in Say Anything... and currently holds the rank of a level 6 black belt in Urquidez's Ukidokan Kickboxing system.

Political views

Between 2005 and 2009, Cusack blogged at The Huffington Post, including an interview with Naomi Klein. He has blogged on his opposition to the war in Iraq and his disdain for the Bush administration, calling its worldview "depressing, corrupt, unlawful, and tragically absurd".

He also appeared in a June 2008 MoveOn.org advertisement, where he made the claim that George W. Bush and John McCain have the same governing priorities. Cusack has also blasted President Barack Obama's administration for its drone policy in the Middle East and its support of the National Defense Authorization Act. In 2012, Cusack became one of the initial supporters of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Stalking incident

In March 2008, police arrested Emily Leatherman outside Cusack's Malibu home for stalking the actor. On October 10, 2008, Leatherman pleaded no contest and received five years' probation and mandatory psychiatric counseling and was ordered to stay away from Cusack, his home and business for the next 10 years.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1983	Class	Roscoe Maibaum
1984	Sixteen Candles	Bryce
1984	Grandview, U.S.A.	Johnny Maine
1985	The Sure Thing	Walter "Gib" Gibson
1985	The Journey of Natty Gann	Harry
1985	Better Off Dead	Lane Meyer
1986	Stand by Me	Denny Lachance
1986	One Crazy Summer	Hoops McCann
1987	Hot Pursuit	Dan Bartlett
1987	Broadcast News	Angry messenger
1988	Eight Men Out	Buck Weaver
1988	Tapeheads	Ivan Alexeev
1989	Say Anything...	Lloyd Dobler	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
1989	Fat Man and Little Boy	Michael Merriman
1990	The Grifters	Roy Dillon
1991	True Colors	Peter Burton
1992	Shadows and Fog	Student Jack
1992	The Player	Himself	Cameo
1992	Bob Roberts	Cutting Edge Live host
1992	Roadside Prophets	Caspar
1993	Map of the Human Heart	The mapmaker
1993	Money for Nothing	Joey Coyle
1994	Floundering	JC
1994	Bullets Over Broadway	David Shayne
1994	The Road to Wellville	Charles Ossining
1996	City Hall	Deputy Mayor Kevin Calhoun
1997	Grosse Pointe Blank	Martin Q. Blank	Writer, co-producer Nominated " Chlotrudis Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
1997	Con Air	U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin	Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor " Action/Adventure
1997	Anastasia	Dimitri	Voice
1997	Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil	John Kelso
1998	This Is My Father	Eddie Sharp
1998	The Thin Red Line	Captain Gaff	Satellite Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble
1999	Pushing Tin	Nick Falzone
1999	Cradle Will Rock	Nelson Rockefeller	Nominated " Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
1999	Being John Malkovich	Craig Schwartz	Nominated " Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor Nominated " London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated " Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated " Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1999	The Jack Bull	Myrl Redding	Executive producer
2000	High Fidelity	Rob Gordon	Writer, co-producer Nominated " American Comedy Award Nominated " BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated " Empire Award for Best Actor Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated " Teen Choice Award for Choice Hissy Fit Nominated " USC Scripter Award 2000 Nominated " Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
2001	America's Sweethearts	Eddie Thomas
2001	Serendipity	Jonathan Trager
2002	Max	Max Rothman	Associate producer
2002	Adaptation	Himself	Uncredited
2003	Identity	Ed Dakota
2003	Breakfast with Hunter	Himself	Documentary
2003	Runaway Jury	Nicholas Easter
2005	Must Love Dogs	Jake Anderson
2005	The Ice Harvest	Charlie Arglist
2006	The Contract	Ray Keene
2007	Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten	Himself	Documentary
2007	Martian Child	David Gordon
2007	1408	Mike Enslin	Nominated " Saturn Award for Best Actor
2007	Grace Is Gone	Stanley Philipps	Producer
2008	Igor	Igor	Voice
2008	War, Inc.	Brand Hauser	Writer, producer
2009	2012	Jackson Curtis	Nominated " Teen Choice Award for Best Sci-Fi Actor
2010	Hot Tub Time Machine	Adam	Producer
2010	Shanghai	Paul Soames
2011	The Factory	Mike Fletcher
2012	The Raven	Edgar Allan Poe
2012	The Paperboy	Hillary Van Wetter
2013	The Numbers Station	Emerson Kent
2013	Adult World	Rat Billings
2013	The Frozen Ground	Robert Hansen
2013	The Butler	Richard Nixon
2013	Motel		Post-production
2014	Maps to the Stars	Dr. Stafford Weiss	Post-Production
2014	Love and Mercy	Brian Wilson	Post-production