Jamie Foxx Biography

Jamie Foxx was born Eric Bishop on December 13, 1967 in Terrell, Texas. Grammy Award-nominated multi-platinum selling R&B singer, and comedian.

Jamie Foxx won the 2004 Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Ray, a biopic about the life of the late musician Ray Charles. He is the fourth person in history to have both scored a #1 album and won an Academy Award.

Jamie 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 when he joined the cast of In Living Color during the third season. In Living Color launched the careers of a number of comedians, including Jim Carrey and the Wayans brothers.

Jamie Foxx was then given his own show, The Jamie Foxx Show, which produced 100 episodes from 1996-2001 and still runs in syndication. Foxx's film debut came in Toys (1992) with Robin Williams. Foxx's first prominent dramatic role came in 1999 when Oliver Stone cast him as the star quarterback in the football-based film Any Given Sunday. He also received 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.

Jamie 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).

Jamie Foxx 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.

Jamie Foxx 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.

Jamie Foxx was seen at many Miami Heat playoff games in the 2005 campaign. Along with Colin Farrell, he will star in a film version of Miami Vice, scheduled for release in mid-2006. He also has a film opening in 2007 called Damage Control.

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