James Woods

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James Woods
Woods at the 1995 Emmy Awards
Born	James Howard Woods April 18, 1947 (1947-04-18) (age 61) Vernal, Utah, USA
Spouse(s)	Kathryn Morrison (1980-1983) Sarah Owen (1989-1990)
Awards won Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or Movie 1989 My Name Is Bill W Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or Movie 1987 Promise Outstanding Performer - Animated Program 2000 Hercules: The Animated Series Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Televison Mini-Series 1987 Promise Other Awards Saturn Award for Best Actor (film) 1999 Vampires KCFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor 1980The Onion Field Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or TV Film 2000 Dirty Pictures 2003 Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story

James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated, Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe-winning American film, stage and television actor. He is best known for starring in films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Videodrome, John Carpenter's Vampires, Ghosts of Mississippi, Salvador, Hercules, and The Onion Field. He currently stars in the CBS legal drama Shark.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Politics 1.4 Personal 2 In popular culture 3 Filmography 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Woods was born in Vernal, Utah. His father, Gail Peyton Woods, was an army intelligence officer who died in 1960^[1] following routine surgery, and his mother, Martha A. (née Smith), operated a pre-school after her husband's death^[2] and re-married to Thomas E. Dixon. Woods grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he attended Pilgrim High School. Woods, an army brat, had been accepted to attend the United States Air Force Academy with the intention of becoming a fighter pilot. Unfortunately, several weeks before he was to depart, Woods suffered an accident involving a plate glass window which injured his hand tendons severely enough to result in his acceptance being retracted.

Woods received a score of 1580 on the SAT, which included a perfect score of 800 on the verbal section of the test.^[3] He chose to pursue his undergraduate studies at MIT, where he majored in political science (though he originally planned on a career as a surgeon). While at MIT, Woods pledged to Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. He was also an active member of the student theatre group "Dramashop" where he both acted in and directed a number of plays. However, he dropped out of MIT in 1969 just before his graduation in order to pursue a career in acting. Woods headed to New York City, calling his mother to tell her of his plans.

While his mother wasn't thrilled at the news, she gave him her blessing to pursue a career in acting. At the 2006 CBS UpFront James Woods stated that his mother told him that if he was going to switch careers to acting that he needed to be the best actor he could possibly be.

[edit] Career

Woods' career has been noted for the intense characters he has chosen, the earliest of which was his portrayal of a sadistic murderer in 1979's The Onion Field. He appeared in an episode of The Rockford Files, playing a son whose parents were murdered and wants James "Jim" Rockford to find the murderer. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice: the first in 1987 for Best Actor in Salvador and again in 1996 for Best Supporting Actor for his acclaimed performance as Byron De La Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi. He has also garnered critical praise for his voice work for Hades in Disney's Hercules. His personal favorite of all of his roles, however, is as the domineering gangster Max in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon A Time In America (1984).

Woods appeared in 1995 in Casino directed by Martin Scorsese and as H.R. Haldeman in Nixon, the biopic of Richard M. Nixon directed by Oliver Stone.

He was briefly considered for the role of The Joker by Tim Burton and Sam Hamm for the Batman film in 1989. Hamm recalls that he and Burton thought, "James Woods would be good and wouldn't need any makeup, which would save a couple of hours' work every morning." The role ended up going to Jack Nicholson.^[4] Quentin Tarantino wrote a part in Reservoir Dogs with Woods in mind, but his agent rejected the script without showing it to the actor. When Woods learned of this some time later, he fired the agent. Woods was also considered for the part of Donald Kimball in American Psycho, but he turned it down. The part was given to Willem Dafoe.

Woods appeared as himself in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer and Apu" and in two episodes of Family Guy entitled "Peter's Got Woods" and "Back to the Woods". The high school in Family Guy is called James Woods High and a forest that is briefly mentioned in The Fat Guy Strangler called James Woods are named after him. In 2006, Woods starred opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in the political thriller End Game. Also in 2006, Woods played himself in the premiere episode of Entourage's third season. He also starred in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as Mike Toreno and voiced the falcon in Stuart Little 2.

Woods stars in the new CBS legal drama Shark. Woods plays an infamous Los Angeles defense lawyer who, growing disillusioned, becomes a prosecutor. The Shark pilot episode was directed by Spike Lee.

[edit] Politics

Woods is a Republican, and he was a vocal supporter of U.S. President George W. Bush and former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani. Woods lobbied hard to play Giuliani in the biopic Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story, and considers the role one of the favorites of his career. ^[5]

[edit] Personal

Woods plays on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the American Stroke Association charity. In 2006, James finished in 24th place out of 692 at the L.A. Poker Classic for $40,000. Woods has shared an endorsement for the online poker website Hollywood Poker which is run in conjunction with Ongame Network, and "co hosted" with poker enthusiast Vince Van Patten. He can be found playing regularly at Hollywood Poker, and contributes content to the website.

During a press interview for Kingdom Hearts II, Woods noted that he is an avid video game player.

His brother and fellow actor, Michael Jeffrey Woods, died of cardiac arrest on July 26, 2006. This occurred shortly after the two of them returned after James Woods finished 24th at a World Poker Tour event.

Woods reportedly has an I.Q. of 180 (Stanford-Binet) and is a member of Mensa.^[6]

He also volunteers as a Reserve Police Officer for the LAPD.

[edit] In popular culture

Several references to James Woods have been made in the TV series Family Guy, one of the most prominent being that the local high school, James Woods High School, is named after him. Also, an occasionally seen forest is actually named "James Woods."

Woods also guest starred as himself within the same series in the episode "Peter's Got Woods," where he was called upon by Peter Griffin to stop his friend Brian's efforts to rename the high school after Martin Luther King, Jr. to impress his black girlfriend. After doing so, Peter befriends Woods, who steadily overshadows Brian as his friend. Woods eventually grows obsessive over Peter, so Peter and Brian, who have patched things up between themselves, trap him and have him locked away in a Government Warehouse (à la Raiders of the Lost Ark).

In a later episode, "Back to the Woods," Woods returns seeking revenge against Peter by stealing his identity and taking over his life and Woods is once again dealt with by means of a pieces of candy and a heavy wooden box.

Woods also makes guest appearance in Simpsons episode Homer and Apu. When Apu gets fired from Kwik-E-Mart for selling outdated products, James Woods gets the job to prepare himself for his upcoming movie.

Woods also provided the voice of undercover agent Mike Toreno in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• James Woods at the Internet Movie Database

Awards
Preceded by Dustin Hoffman for Death of a Salesman	Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television 1987 for Promise	Succeeded by Randy Quaid for LBJ: The Early Years

v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie Anthony Hopkins (1976) · Hal Holbrook (1976) · Ed Flanders (1977) · Christopher Plummer (1977) · Fred Astaire (1978) · Michael Moriarty (1978) · Peter Strauss (1979) · Powers Boothe (1980) · Anthony Hopkins (1981) · Mickey Rooney (1982) · Tommy Lee Jones (1983) · Laurence Olivier (1984) · Richard Crenna (1985) · Dustin Hoffman (1986) · James Woods (1987) · Jason Robards (1988) · James Woods (1989) · Hume Cronyn (1990) · John Gielgud (1991) · Beau Bridges (1992) · Robert Morse (1993) · Hume Cronyn (1994) · Raúl Juliá (1995) · Alan Rickman (1996) · Armand Assante (1997) · Gary Sinise (1998) · Stanley Tucci (1999) · Jack Lemmon (2000) Complete list: (1952-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)