Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Kim Coppola, known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. Known for his versatility as an actor, Cage's work across diverse film genres has gained him a significant cult following. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $6.4 billion worldwide.
Born into the Coppola family, Cage began his career in films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Valley Girl, as well as various films by his uncle Francis Ford Coppola such as Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, and Peggy Sue Got Married. He received critical success for his roles in Moonstruck and Raising Arizona, before earning an Academy Award for Best Actor for the dramatic film Leaving Las Vegas. He was Oscar-nominated for playing twins Charlie and Donald Kaufman in the comedy-drama film Adaptation.
Cage established himself in mainstream action films, such as The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, Gone in 60 Seconds, the National Treasure film series, the Ghost Rider film series, and Kick-Ass. He also took on dramatic roles in City of Angels, Bringing Out the Dead, The Family Man, Matchstick Men, and The Wicker Man, voiced characters in The Ant Bully, Astro Boy, The Croods film series, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, and played Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Noir, and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. He earned renewed critical recognition for his starring roles in Mandy, Pig, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Dream Scenario and Longlegs.
Cage owns the production company Saturn Films and has produced films such as Shadow of the Vampire and The Life of David Gale, and has directed Sonny. For his contributions to the film industry, he was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998. He was ranked No. 40 in Empire magazine's The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list in 2007 and was placed No. 37 in Premieres 100 Most Powerful People in Hollywood in 2008. Nicolas Cage was also voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine.
Early life and family
Cage was born in Long Beach, California, to August Coppola, a professor of literature, and Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer. He was raised in a Catholic family. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of mainly German and Polish descent with some English and Scottish ancestry on her father's side. His paternal grandparents were composer Carmine Coppola and actress Italia Pennino, and his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata. Through his father, he is a nephew of both director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and a cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert and Jason Schwartzman.Cage is the youngest of three sons. His two brothers are New York radio personality Marc "The Cope" Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. He attended Beverly Hills High School, which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy. He said he started acting because he "wanted to be James Dean. I saw him in Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden. Nothing affected me—no rock song, no classical music—the way Dean affected me in Eden. It blew my mind. I was like, 'That's what I want to do'."
At age 15, he tried to convince his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, to give him a screen test, telling him "I'll show you acting." His outburst was met with "silence in the car." By this stage of his career, Coppola had already directed Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro. Although early in his career Cage appeared in some of his uncle's films, he changed his name to Nicolas Cage to avoid the appearance of nepotism as Coppola's nephew. His choice of name was inspired by the Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage and composer John Cage.
Career
1981–1988: Early work and breakthrough
Cage made his acting debut in the 1981 television pilot The Best of Times, which was never picked up by ABC. His film debut followed in 1982, with a minor role as an unnamed co-worker of Judge Reinhold's character in the coming-of-age film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, having originally auditioned for Reinhold's part. His experience on the film was marred by cast members endlessly quoting his uncle's films, which inspired him to change his name. Cage's first starring role came opposite Deborah Foreman in the romantic comedy Valley Girl, in which he played a punk who falls in love with the titular valley girl, a plot loosely inspired by Romeo and Juliet. The film was a modest box office success and has been branded a cult classic. He auditioned for the role of Dallas Winston in his uncle's film The Outsiders, based on S.E. Hinton's novel, but lost to Matt Dillon. Cage, however, would co-star in Coppola's adaptation of another Hinton novel, Rumble Fish, in that year.In 1984, Cage appeared in three period films, none of which fared well at the box office. In the drama, Racing with the Moon, Cage featured opposite Sean Penn as friends who are awaiting deployment to the United States Marine Corps. In Coppola's crime drama The Cotton Club he portrayed a fictionalized version of mob hitman Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, earning praise from critic Paul Attanasio for "artfully his few moments to sketch a brawny, violent thug." His final release of the year was Alan Parker's drama Birdy, in which he starred with Matthew Modine. Cage lost weight for the role and had two of his front teeth pulled out to appear disfigured. Despite massively underperforming at the box office, the film, and Cage and Modine's performances, received positive reviews, with The New York Times critic Janet Maslin writing, "Mr. Cage very sympathetically captures Al's urgency and frustration. Together, these actors work miracles with what might have been unplayable."
In 1986, Cage starred in the little-seen Canadian sports drama The Boy in Blue and his uncle's fantasy comedy Peggy Sue Got Married as the husband to Kathleen Turner's character. He then starred in the Coen brothers' crime comedy Raising Arizona as a dim-witted ex-con. Cage's biggest breakthrough came in 1987 with the romantic comedy Moonstruck, in which he starred alongside Cher as a hot-tempered baker. The film was a hit with critics and audiences alike, earning Cage a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy In his retrospective review, Roger Ebert wrote that he felt Cage's performance was worthy of an Oscar.
1989–1994: Career slump
In 1989, Cage starred in the black comedy Vampire's Kiss as a man who falls in love with a vampire and soon begins to believe himself as a vampire. The film was a major box office flop but has developed a cult following largely due to Cage's surrealistic and over-the-top performance appearing in internet memes. Critic Vincent Canby felt the film was "dominated and destroyed by Mr. Cage's chaotic, self-indulgent performance." After filming the Italian drama Time to Kill in Zimbabwe, he starred in David Lynch's romantic crime film Wild at Heart with Laura Dern. Cage was drawn to the project because he was "always attracted to those passionate, almost unbridled romantic characters" and it allowed him to impersonate one of his heroes, Elvis Presley, in scenes in which he sang. Wild at Heart received mixed reviews upon release, despite controversially winning the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Cage would reunite with Lynch and Dern for the avant-garde concert performance Industrial Symphony No. 1.Also in 1990, he starred as a helicopter pilot in the action film Fire Birds, which was panned by critics and negatively compared to Top Gun. Cage's next film, the erotic thriller Zandalee, was released direct-to-video in the United States, where it did not receive a theatrical release. His "goofy 'everyman'" performance in the romantic comedy Honeymoon in Vegas garnered some positive critical notices, including from Roger Ebert, who defended Cage amidst some critics finding his acting "excessive" and earned Cage his second Golden Globe nomination. He hosted an episode of the variety show Saturday Night Live to promote the film, his only time hosting the show.
None of Cage's three films in 1993—Deadfall, Amos & Andrew and Red Rock West—performed well at the box office. The comedy Guarding Tess paired Cage with Shirley MacLaine as a Secret Service agent protecting a former First Lady; however, it was dismissed as being derivative by some critics. He next starred alongside Bridget Fonda in the romantic comedy It Could Happen to You as a cash-strapped police officer who offers to share his lottery winnings with a waitress and then the much-criticized box office flop Christmas comedy Trapped in Paradise with the Saturday Night Live actors Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey. According to Lovitz, Cage directed portions of the film because its director, George Gallo, offered little direction.
1995–2003: Critical success and action star
Cage's performance as a psychopathic criminal kingpin in the crime film Kiss of Death was seen by many critics as the film's strong point, but his most acclaimed performance yet came in the drama Leaving Las Vegas as an alcoholic screenwriter who falls in love with a prostitute in Las Vegas. The role won Cage the Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. To prepare for the part, Cage binge drank for two weeks and studied footage of himself.In 1996, he starred alongside Sean Connery and Ed Harris in Michael Bay's The Rock, the first of a string of action films for Cage. In the film, he played an FBI chemical weapons specialist breaking into Alcatraz federal prison. The Rock was a box office and critical success, with journalist Alexander Larman stating the film "launched Cage into an unexpected vocation as an offbeat action star." Next, he starred in Con Air and Face/Off, two commercially successful action thrillers that were both released in June 1997. In Con Air, Cage led an ensemble cast along with John Cusack and John Malkovich. Jerry Bruckheimer, Con Air
After starring in these action films back-to-back, Cage decided to "return to more serious fare" in the romantic fantasy film City of Angels, a loose remake of the German film Wings of Desire. Critics were split on the film and Cage's performance, with reviews ranging from describing him as "endlessly resourceful" to " a serial killer more than an angel." Brian De Palma's thriller Snake Eyes, his second film of 1998, starred Cage as a corrupt detective. The film was met with mixed reviews, which were largely critical of its screenplay. Cage starred in Martin Scorsese's 1999 New York City paramedic drama Bringing Out the Dead.
Most of Cage's movies that have achieved financial success were in the action/adventure genre. These include The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, and Gone in 60 Seconds, with Cage as a retired car thief. He took the lead role in the 2000 romantic comedy film The Family Man, in which he played a man forced to deal with an alternate life that had a plot similar to the Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life, and the 2001 war film Captain Corelli's Mandolin where he learned to play the mandolin from scratch for the part. In 2002, he was again nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe best actor awards for his portrayal of real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Kaufman's fictional twin Donald in Adaptation.
Cage made his directorial debut in 2002 with Sonny, a low-budget drama starring James Franco as a male prostitute whose mother serves as his pimp. Cage had a small role in the film, which received poor reviews and a short run in a limited number of theaters. Cage's producing career includes Shadow of the Vampire, the first effort from Saturn Films. He starred in Ridley Scott's 2003 black comedy crime film Matchstick Men, in which he played a con artist with obsessive–compulsive disorder.