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Jamie Foxx

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Jamie Foxx at Naval Air Station North Island prior to a premiere screening of the Stealth movie.

Jamie Foxx (born Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967 in Terrell, Texas), is an American Oscar-winning actor, Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling R&B singer, and comedian. He won the 2004 Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Ray, a biopic about the life of the late musician Ray Charles.

Comedy and Acting Career

Foxx started his career as a comedian. He changed his name from Eric to "Jamie Foxx" in order to get more opportunities to perform at comedy clubs (since he had noticed that unknown female comedians had an easier time getting booked than unknown men did, he opted for a gender-neutral alias), and he became known for his appearances on comedic TV series such as In Living Color (during the third season) and Def Comedy Jam. In Living Color launched the careers of a number of comedians, including Jim Carrey and the Wayans brothers. When the show ended, Foxx was given his own show, The Jamie Foxx Show, in which he played an aspiring actor who came from Texas to work in his Aunt and Uncle's hotel. His love interest was the beautiful but reluctant Fancy and his rival was white-wash Braxton Hartnabrigg, the show produced 100 episodes from 1996-2001 and still runs in syndication. Foxx's film debut came in Toys (1992) with Robin Williams.

Foxx had many guest roles in movies such as in Toys, the Truth About Cats and Dogs, Booty Call, and The Players Club. His first prominent dramatic role came in 1999 when Oliver Stone cast him as the flashy, bull-headed,star quarterback Willie Beaman in the football-based film Any Given Sunday. He then starred in the movies Bait and Held Up. He then would star in Ali as Drew Brown and a date book editor in Breakin' All the Rules along side Gabrielle Union. He would then receive critical acclaim, and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, for his role in the 2004 action film Collateral, where he played an ordinary cab driver who was hired for a night by a hitman (Tom Cruise) on a killing spree.

Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 film Ray earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. This made him only the third African-American male actor to win the award (the others being Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington). He also received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Collateral, making him only the tenth person to have been nominated for both acting categories in the same year. Foxx also became the first black actor to have double nominations in one year.

In recognition of his work in 2004, Foxx received an unprecedented three Golden Globe Award nominations in acting categories. He was nominated for his lead role in Ray, his supporting role in Collateral and for his portrayal of Stanley Williams in the television movie Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story.

He also starred in the war film, Jarhead with Jake Gyllenhaal in 2005. Before starring in Jarhead, Foxx played Lt. Henry Purcell in the relatively unsuccessful film Stealth.

Foxx was seen at many Miami Heat playoff games in the 2005 campaign. Along with Colin Farrell, he starred in a film version of Miami Vice. He also has two films scheduled to open in 2007 called Damage Control and The Kingdom.

In 2006 it was speculated that Foxx is set to play another musical icon in a biopic, late reggae superstar Bob Marley. However, during an interview at the BET Awards, Foxx denied that he would be portraying Marley in any film.

Music Career

Jamie Foxx
Years active1994-present

Jamie Foxx is also a singer and accomplished musician. He started playing piano at a young age, and later took classical piano lessons while attending college. In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the Fox record label) entitled Peep This, which was only mildly successful. In 2001, he hosted the MTV Video Music Awards.

His music career went into a higher gear when, in 2004, he was featured on rapper Twista's song, "Slow Jamz", also featuring Kanye West. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, as well as number three on the UK singles chart. Foxx's second collaboration with Kanye West, "Gold Digger", in which he sang the Ray Charles-influenced hook, went straight to #1 on the Billboard Top 100, and remained there for 10 weeks straight. In 2005, Foxx was featured on the hit single "Georgia" by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob. The song sampled Ray Charles' hit "Georgia on My Mind".

During the 2005 Grammy Awards, Foxx performed live with Alicia Keys and Quincy Jones singing "Georgia on My Mind" in tribute to the late Ray Charles. Foxx received a nomination for a 2006 Grammy Award for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance ("Creepin").

Unpredictable is Jamie Foxx's second studio release. It sold over 598,000 copies in its first week but reached the U.S. #1 spot in its 2nd week.

After debuting in the first week at No. 2, Unpredictable rose to the top of the Billboard pop album chart, with 2nd-week sales of 200,000 copies in the United States. The album also charted in the UK top 10 album chart, peaking at No. 9. It has since been certified silver.

Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award for acting (for his portrayal of Charles in Ray) and achieved a No. 1 album in the US. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) Foxx's first single from the album, the title track, "Unpredictable" (featuring Ludacris) samples "WildFlower" by New Birth. The song peaked inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and also made the UK top 20 singles chart. The second US single from the album was "DJ Play A Love Song", which reunited Foxx with Twista. In the UK, however, the second single was "Extravaganza", which saw Foxx once again collaborate with Kanye West. He was not, however, featured in the song's music video.

At the BET Awards of 2006, Jamie Foxx won two awards: Best Collaboration w/ Kanye West for "Gold Digger" and Video of the Year for the same video. Kanye's video tied with Mary J. Blige (Be Without You) for Video of the year.

Arrest

In April of 2003 Foxx was involved in an incident with two police officers who were attempting to escort him and his sister out of Harrah's casino in New Orleans. Employees claimed they had failed to show identification upon entry. [1] Originally charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace, battery on police officers and resisting arrest, Foxx plead no contest to disturbing the peace in exchange for the other charges being dropped, and was sentenced to community service.

Trivia

  • No relation to Redd Foxx whose real name was John Sanford. However, Jamie used the last name Foxx as a tribute to Sanford.
  • His selection for the title role in Ray was personally approved by Ray Charles himself. Charles had helped train Foxx in understanding his process at the piano.
  • Has a daughter that he took with him to the 2005 Academy Awards
  • He had a very minor role as a soldier in Eddie Murphy's 1988 comedy motion picture, Coming to America.
  • He claims in a comedic way that he was the person who covered Janet Jackson's breast in a semi-nude photoshoot including his own nude photo with his genitalia covered by "Michael Jackson's" hand. The photos he presented in MTV Icon are obviously digitally edited. The special does not repeat anymore due to the Jackson trial.
  • Cousin of Arena Football League quarterback Michael Bishop, who's also played for the New England Patriots and Toronto Argonauts of the CFL.

Filmography

Upcoming:

Preceded by Academy Award for Best Actor
2004
for Ray 		Succeeded by

Discography

Albums

  • 1995: Peep This #78 US (sold 200,000 copies)
  • 2005: Unpredictable #1 (3 weeks) US [Certified: 2xPlatinum], #9 UK [Certified: Silver]

Singles

Solo Singles

Year Title Chart Positions
US Hot 100 US R&B/Hip-Hop UK Singles Chart
1994 "Infatuation"
 #92 #36 -
1994 "Experiment"
 - #88 -
2005 "Unpredictable"
(featuring Ludacris) 		#8 #2 #16
2006 "Extravaganza" [2]
(featuring Kanye West) 		- #52 #43
2006 "DJ Play A Love Song"
(featuring Twista) 		#45 #5 TBR
2006 "Can I Take U Home "
 - #48 -

Collaborations

Year Title Chart Positions
US Hot 100 US R&B/Hip-Hop UK Singles Chart
2004 "Slow Jamz"
(Twista featuring Jamie Foxx & Kanye West) 		#1
[1 Week] 		#1 #3
2005 "Gold Digger"
(with Kanye West) 		#1
[10 Weeks] 		#1
[8 Weeks] 		#2
2005 "Georgia"
(Ludacris featuring Jamie Foxx & Field Mob) 		#39 #31 -

Guest vocals

Album appearances

Compilation appearances

  • 2005: "Creepin'" (from So Amazing)
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