honey_comb1
04-17-2005, 06:33 PM
JAMES WOODS
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/honey_comb1/1283658620.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/honey_comb1/987545581.jpg
James Woods was born in Vernal, Utah on April 18, 1947 to Gail and Martha Woods. His father was an army intelligence officer and the family followed him to his postings in Illinois, Virginia and Guam until 1957, the year in which James's brother, Michael, was born, they had finally settled in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Being exceptionally brainy ( - he scored 180 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test!), Woods was always put in classes for the gifted when he went to High School. His brother Michael draws this picture of him: "James was a quiet kid, always in his room with the door closed, studying. He would wear those thin ties and white socks. My brother was the ultimate high school nerd." At 17, James sat for his SAT tests and scored a perfect 800 on the verbal part and 779 on the match portion. Something not all of his acting-peers can put on their CV. James accepted a political science scholarship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his freshman year he joined the MIT's Drama Workshop, where he received training in the classical manner of the English stage rather than in the fashionable "method" techniques derived from Lee Strasberg's famous Actors Studio. By his senior year he had appeared in thirty-six plays both at school and in regional summer-stock productions. In 1968, just two months before graduation, he called his mother to tell her he'd drop out of college and give up the prospect of a high-flying career at the State Department in order to become an actor. After "the longest pause in the history of telephonic communication, Martha Woods gave her blessing and told her son to follow his heart.
During his first two years in New York, James Woods scraped by in fringe theatre and according to his experience "just to get a hearing in the court of theatrical justice was a difficult task." He finally tricked and bluffed himself into his first important part in Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy (1971): "I waited until the stage manager went to the bathroom and then just walked out on stage, said, 'I'm next,' and auditioned. They wanted only resident British actors with real British accents. I said I was from Liverpool, and they said, 'Great,' and hired me." One year later Woods won the lead in Saved which brought him three awards, including an Obie and the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Actor.
In 1970 Woods made his film debut in The Visitors for director Elia Kazan. "I was going to the movies every day," he says. "So I thought I should make them.
In 1978 Woods achieved national recognition through the acclaimed television miniseries Holocaust in which he played opposite Meryl Streep. This paved the way for his breakthrough on the big screen in the following year. Woods was so brilliantly convincing as the psychotic cop killer in The Onion Field that he began winning the villain-parts in movies such as Eyewitness or Sergio Leone's Once upon a Time in America. Thus, The Onion Field became the foundation-stone of his bad-guy-image.
What James Woods needed now was a vehicle that proved his leading-man qualities. It finally came along in 1986: Oliver Stone wanted Woods for the part of the photographer in Salvador but James persuaded Oliver to give him the lead-role of Richard Boyle instead. Resulting in an Oscar nomination for Woods.
Although he lost the Oscar to Paul Newman, James could not complain about lack of personal success that year, because he won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his touching portrayal of James Garner's schizophrenic brother in the television-movie Promise. TV continued to be a friendly field for him with In Love and War (1987), The Boys (1991) and especially My Name is Bill W. (1989). His no-holds-barred turn as Bill Wilson, founder of AA, brought Woods his second well-deserved Emmy Award.
On the big-screen he also continued to give impressive performances as the ruthless detective in Cop, the killer-turned-informer in Best Seller and the burnt-out lawyer in True Believer.
James engaging in a new agent who secured him a showy part in the Sly Stallone-flick The Specialist. This served as a stepping-stone for supporting-roles in Oliver Stone's Nixon and Martin Scorsese's Casino.
James also turned to television once again and shone as the exhausting title-character in Citizen Cohn. His chilling portrait of real-life assassin Byron De La Beckwith in 1996's Ghosts of Mississippi won him his second Oscar nomination this time in the Supporting category.
HOBBIES: Golfing, reading, gardening and playing poker
Actor - filmography
(In Production) (2000s) (1990s) (1980s) (1970s)
End Game (2005) (filming) .... Vaughn Stevens
Night Train (2005) (filming) .... Ash Resnick
The Easter Egg Adventure (2005) (completed) .... Grab Takit
Be Cool (2005) .... Tommy Athens
Pretty Persuasion (2005) .... Mr. Joyce
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) (VG) (voice) .... Mike Toreno
This Girl's Life (2003) .... Pops
Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story (2003) (TV) .... Rudolph 'Rudy' Giuliani
Northfork (2003) .... Walter O'Brien
Legend of the Lost Tribe (2002) (TV) (voice: US version) .... Narrator/The Vikings
... aka Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe (USA) Mickey's House of Villains (2002) (V) (voice) .... Hades
Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun (2002) (V) (voice) .... Gloomius Maximus
... aka William Joyce's Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun (USA: complete title)
Stuart Little 2 (2002) (voice) .... The Evil Falcon
Kingdom Hearts (2002) (voice)HadesJohn Q (2002) .... Dr. Raymond Turner
... aka John Q. (USA: poster title)
Race to Space (2001) .... Dr. Wilhelm von Huber
... aka Race to Space - Mission
There are so many more movies that James has starred in. Just to numerous to mention or list here. I encourage you to check out you browser for more movie listings. It’s easy just type his name in your browser search area.
Again, Happy Birthday to you James and may you have many more birthdays, movies and fans.. as you do here. J~
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/honey_comb1/1283658620.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/honey_comb1/987545581.jpg
James Woods was born in Vernal, Utah on April 18, 1947 to Gail and Martha Woods. His father was an army intelligence officer and the family followed him to his postings in Illinois, Virginia and Guam until 1957, the year in which James's brother, Michael, was born, they had finally settled in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Being exceptionally brainy ( - he scored 180 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test!), Woods was always put in classes for the gifted when he went to High School. His brother Michael draws this picture of him: "James was a quiet kid, always in his room with the door closed, studying. He would wear those thin ties and white socks. My brother was the ultimate high school nerd." At 17, James sat for his SAT tests and scored a perfect 800 on the verbal part and 779 on the match portion. Something not all of his acting-peers can put on their CV. James accepted a political science scholarship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his freshman year he joined the MIT's Drama Workshop, where he received training in the classical manner of the English stage rather than in the fashionable "method" techniques derived from Lee Strasberg's famous Actors Studio. By his senior year he had appeared in thirty-six plays both at school and in regional summer-stock productions. In 1968, just two months before graduation, he called his mother to tell her he'd drop out of college and give up the prospect of a high-flying career at the State Department in order to become an actor. After "the longest pause in the history of telephonic communication, Martha Woods gave her blessing and told her son to follow his heart.
During his first two years in New York, James Woods scraped by in fringe theatre and according to his experience "just to get a hearing in the court of theatrical justice was a difficult task." He finally tricked and bluffed himself into his first important part in Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy (1971): "I waited until the stage manager went to the bathroom and then just walked out on stage, said, 'I'm next,' and auditioned. They wanted only resident British actors with real British accents. I said I was from Liverpool, and they said, 'Great,' and hired me." One year later Woods won the lead in Saved which brought him three awards, including an Obie and the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Actor.
In 1970 Woods made his film debut in The Visitors for director Elia Kazan. "I was going to the movies every day," he says. "So I thought I should make them.
In 1978 Woods achieved national recognition through the acclaimed television miniseries Holocaust in which he played opposite Meryl Streep. This paved the way for his breakthrough on the big screen in the following year. Woods was so brilliantly convincing as the psychotic cop killer in The Onion Field that he began winning the villain-parts in movies such as Eyewitness or Sergio Leone's Once upon a Time in America. Thus, The Onion Field became the foundation-stone of his bad-guy-image.
What James Woods needed now was a vehicle that proved his leading-man qualities. It finally came along in 1986: Oliver Stone wanted Woods for the part of the photographer in Salvador but James persuaded Oliver to give him the lead-role of Richard Boyle instead. Resulting in an Oscar nomination for Woods.
Although he lost the Oscar to Paul Newman, James could not complain about lack of personal success that year, because he won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his touching portrayal of James Garner's schizophrenic brother in the television-movie Promise. TV continued to be a friendly field for him with In Love and War (1987), The Boys (1991) and especially My Name is Bill W. (1989). His no-holds-barred turn as Bill Wilson, founder of AA, brought Woods his second well-deserved Emmy Award.
On the big-screen he also continued to give impressive performances as the ruthless detective in Cop, the killer-turned-informer in Best Seller and the burnt-out lawyer in True Believer.
James engaging in a new agent who secured him a showy part in the Sly Stallone-flick The Specialist. This served as a stepping-stone for supporting-roles in Oliver Stone's Nixon and Martin Scorsese's Casino.
James also turned to television once again and shone as the exhausting title-character in Citizen Cohn. His chilling portrait of real-life assassin Byron De La Beckwith in 1996's Ghosts of Mississippi won him his second Oscar nomination this time in the Supporting category.
HOBBIES: Golfing, reading, gardening and playing poker
Actor - filmography
(In Production) (2000s) (1990s) (1980s) (1970s)
End Game (2005) (filming) .... Vaughn Stevens
Night Train (2005) (filming) .... Ash Resnick
The Easter Egg Adventure (2005) (completed) .... Grab Takit
Be Cool (2005) .... Tommy Athens
Pretty Persuasion (2005) .... Mr. Joyce
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) (VG) (voice) .... Mike Toreno
This Girl's Life (2003) .... Pops
Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story (2003) (TV) .... Rudolph 'Rudy' Giuliani
Northfork (2003) .... Walter O'Brien
Legend of the Lost Tribe (2002) (TV) (voice: US version) .... Narrator/The Vikings
... aka Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe (USA) Mickey's House of Villains (2002) (V) (voice) .... Hades
Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun (2002) (V) (voice) .... Gloomius Maximus
... aka William Joyce's Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun (USA: complete title)
Stuart Little 2 (2002) (voice) .... The Evil Falcon
Kingdom Hearts (2002) (voice)HadesJohn Q (2002) .... Dr. Raymond Turner
... aka John Q. (USA: poster title)
Race to Space (2001) .... Dr. Wilhelm von Huber
... aka Race to Space - Mission
There are so many more movies that James has starred in. Just to numerous to mention or list here. I encourage you to check out you browser for more movie listings. It’s easy just type his name in your browser search area.
Again, Happy Birthday to you James and may you have many more birthdays, movies and fans.. as you do here. J~