James Woods Biography

CIVIL STATUS
Professions Actor, Producer , Executive Producer
Nationality American
Born 18 April 1947 (Vernal, Utah – United States)
BIOGRAPHY
The son of a military man and a schoolteacher, Woods spent most of his childhood on the road before settling in Warwich, Long Island. At school, he discovered a passion for theatre. A brilliant student, he won a scholarship to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Valedictorian of his political science class, he already acted in 36 plays at the same time before finally leaving to try his luck in New York. Very quickly, James Woods was noticed; he even received an Obie Award and the Clarence Derwen Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance in Alan Schneider’s Saved.

In 1972, the actor entered the world of cinema through the front door. He was directed by Elia Kazan in The Visitors, and two years later played in Sydney Pollack’s Our Best Years. In 1977, his performance in Cop Band alongside Robert Aldrich ushered in a long series of villain roles. Thanks to the series Holocaust and then the film Cop Killer by Harold Becker, he gained recognition among the public at the dawn of the 1980s.

However, the year 1984 marked a real turning point thanks to two roles that had marked generations of moviegoers: first as a private detective in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, he became an unscrupulous gangster in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. The real recognition by his peers came in 1986, when the actor was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Oliver Stone’s Salvador, which he reunited with twice in 1995 for Nixon and in 2000 for Sunday Hell.

James Woods then worked with the greatest, including Richard Attenborough in 1993 (Chaplin), Martin Scorsese in 1995 (Casino), and John Carpenter in 1997 (Vampires). A workaholic, he tasted eclecticism and multiplied roles and films of very different kinds: whether they were intimate (Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Michael Polish’s Northfork), for friends (Clint Eastwood’s Guilty Judged, Larry Clarke’s Another Day in Paradise or Nick Cassavetes’ John Q), or bigger-budget entertainment films (The Expert, Contact, Scary Movie 2, Be Cool). The actor even tried his hand at dubbing animated films with success: Hercules, Les Rois de la glisse, etc.

On the small screen, after numerous TV movies (My Name is Bill W., Citizen Cohn), James Wood had his first significant role in 2006, as a cynical and uncompromising lawyer for the series Shark. In 2011, his performance as CEO of Lehman Brothers in Too Big to Fail earned him several nominations. However, his film appearances are becoming rarer and less memorable, with the actor settling for supporting roles, such as with Straw Dogs (2012), White House Down (2013) or Jobs (id.), a biopic on the founder of Apple starring Ashton Kutcher. The actor nevertheless plays a striking character in the first season of the series Ray Donovan carried by Liev Schreiber: a ruthless gangster on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.