Cuba Gooding Jr.
Date of birth: 1968-01-02
Place of birth: The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as: キューバ・グッディング・ジュニア , کوبا گودینگ جونیور
Biography
Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination. He was born in Bronx, New York to Shirley, a singer with the Sweethearts, and Cuba Gooding, Sr., a lead vocalist of soul group The Main Ingredient. He has two brothers, musician Tommy Gooding and fellow actor Omar Gooding, and sister, April Gooding. His family moved to Los Angeles after Gooding Sr.'s music group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972 but abandoned his family two years later. Gooding Jr. was raised by his mother and attended four different high schools: North Hollywood High School, Tustin High School, Apple Valley High School, and John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills in Los Angeles. He served as class president in three of them. His first job as a professional entertainer was as a break-dancer performing with singer Lionel Richie at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. After high school, Gooding studied Japanese martial arts for three years, before turning his focus toward acting. Early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues (1981) and MacGyver (1985). His first major role was in the John Singleton's box office surprise and critical hit Boyz n the Hood (1991). He followed this success with roles in major films like A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994), Outbreak (1995), Men of Honor (2000), Rat Race (2001), and The Fighting Temptations (2003) in which he co-starred alongside Beyoncé Knowles. In 1996, he was cast as an arrogant football player on the brink of a career-ending injury in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996). The film was a success and earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His "Show Me The Money" line in the film became a nationwide catchphrase. In 1997, he had a notable supporting role in As Good As It Gets (1997). The next several years, his films were inconsistently successful; Boat Trip (2002), Norbit (2007), and Daddy Day Camp (2007), all of which had received extremely negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office. Gooding also starred in a film titled A Murder of Crows, which he co-produced with his long time friend and business partner Derek Broes. The film was Gooding's first attempt at producing. Since then, he has had series of starring roles in grittier films released direct-to-DVD such as the revenge dramas Hero Wanted and Wrong Turn at Tahoe, as well as the sci-fi action pic Hardwired and the action comedy Lies & Illusions. A well-received performance as Ben Carson in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) and a small supporting role in Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007) both proved to be exceptions to this trend. An appearance in the World War II film, Red Tails, produced by George Lucas and with other prominent actors such as Terrence Howard, will mark his only return to the big screen since American Gangster.
Movie Credits
Judgment Night
1993-10-15
Four young friends, while taking a shortcut en route to a local boxing match, witness a brutal murde
A Few Good Men
1992-12-11
When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, are assi
Boyz n the Hood
1991-07-12
In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. Duri
Pearl Harbor
2001-05-21
The lifelong friendship between Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker is put to the ultimate test when the
Chill Factor
1999-09-01
A store clerk and an ice cream truck driver are thrown together when a dying scientist entrusts them
Dirty
2005-11-09
Two gangbangers turned cops try and cover up a scandal within the LAPD.
For NYC
2020-06-01
Noel Ashman and Damon Dash direct a collection of favorite quotes from high profile artists, recorde
As Good as It Gets
1997-12-19
Melvin Udall, a cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer of romantic fiction, is rude to everyon
The Weapon
2023-02-17
Dallas is a one-man killing machine on a mysterious rampage. His attacks on biker gangs and meth lab
American Gangster
2007-11-02
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who
The Fighting Temptations
2003-09-19
Darrin Hill, a slick-talking but down-on- his-luck NYC advertising exec, returns to his hometown in
Lightning Jack
1994-03-11
Lightning Jack Kane is an Australian outlaw in the wild west. During a bungled bank robbery he picks
Hardwired
2009-11-03
After a tragic accident Luke Gibson is left with critical injuries and complete amnesia. A new techn
Outbreak
1995-03-10
A deadly airborne virus finds its way into the USA and starts killing off people at an epidemic rate
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
2009-02-07
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon
The Tuskegee Airmen
1995-08-25
During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate Africa
Lies & Illusions
2009-08-26
When a menacing smuggler coolly insists that best-selling author Wes Wilson take a chauffeured backs
Men of Honor
2000-09-13
Against formidable odds -- and an old-school diving instructor embittered by the U.S. Navy's new, le
A Dairy Tale
2004-09-14
Mrs. Caloway attempts to tell the tale of Three Little Pigs to the four piglets, but Maggie, Buck, a
Snow Dogs
2002-01-18
When a Miami dentist inherits a team of sled dogs, he's got to learn the trade or lose his pack to a
Instinct
1999-06-04
In a prison for the criminally insane, deranged anthropologist Ethan Powell is set to be examined by
What Dreams May Come
1998-10-02
Chris Nielsen dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. Ther
Wrong Turn at Tahoe
2009-11-16
A small-time crime boss kills a drug dealer without realizing that the drug dealer works for the big
End Game
2006-07-27
Alex Thomas was the man in charge of protecting the president but, when the time came to fulfill his
Norbit
2007-02-08
A mild-mannered guy who is engaged to a monstrous woman meets the woman of his dreams, and schemes t
Boat Trip
2002-10-01
Two guys whose love lives are a wreck look forward to finding ladies on the high seas. Unfortunately
What Love Is
2007-03-23
It's Valentine's Day and Tom has big plans. He's about to get engaged and has a surprise party plann
Jerry Maguire
1996-12-13
Jerry Maguire used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get t
Zoolander
2001-09-28
Clear the runway for Derek Zoolander, VH1's three-time male model of the year. His face falls when h
Rat Race
2001-08-17
In an ensemble film about easy money, greed, manipulation and bad driving, a Las Vegas casino tycoon
Shadowboxer
2005-09-09
Mikey and Rose are professional assassins. They are also lovers, and once upon a time Rose also knew
Harold
2008-07-13
A teenager with an early onset of male-pattern baldness befriends his high school's janitor.
Losing Isaiah
1995-03-17
Khaila Richards, a crack-addicted single mother, accidentally leaves her baby in a dumpster while hi
Home on the Range
2004-04-02
When a greedy outlaw schemes to take possession of the "Patch Of Heaven" dairy farm, three determine
Radio
2003-10-24
In the racially divided town of Anderson, South Carolina in 1976, football coach Harold Jones spots
Daddy Day Camp
2007-08-08
Seeking to offer his son the satisfying summer camp experience that eluded him as a child, the opera
Trading Favors
1997-06-04
A seductive woman with a violent lover steals a car and entices a teenage boy to join her on a crime
Judgement
1992-08-05
A juvenile court judge goes out of her way to try to aid a young man whom she believes has innocentl
Linewatch
2008-10-21
Academy Award Winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. is a Border Patrol Officer in the New Mexico desert with a se
Dog Patrol
2025-11-13
Samuel and his friends along with his trusted dog Athena have to go for the adventure of a lifetime,
The Way of War
2009-04-20
Paramilitary operative David Wolfe stumbles upon an international conspiracy connecting presidential
Sing
1989-03-31
When a volatile young street tough with a talent for singing and dancing is tapped by the high schoo
Gladiator
1992-03-06
Tommy Riley has moved with his dad to Chicago from a 'nice place'. He keeps to himself, goes to scho
Hero Wanted
2008-03-28
Liam Case is a garbage man whose life hasn't quite turned out the way he expected it would. In order
The Devil's Tomb
2009-05-26
Captain Mack leads an elite military unit on a search for a missing scientist, and comes face-to-fac
Daybreak
1993-05-08
When a substantial portion of the nation's populace falls victim to a deadly plague, the tyrannical
A Murder of Crows
1999-07-06
In the wake of a career-ending scandal, disgraced lawyer Lawson Russell moves to Key West, where he
Ticking Clock
2011-01-04
A reporter stumbles upon the journal of a murderer with plans to butcher specific girls, and he begi
Red Tails
2012-01-19
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat squadron duri
Sacrifice
2011-04-26
A tough undercover cop inadvertently gets involved in a dangerous heroin ring when a young defector
The Hit List
2011-04-02
A disgruntled man creates a hit list with a stranger during a drunken night out and must then race t
Firelight
2012-04-22
Incarcerated women join a band of volunteers who battle forest fires and assist during natural disas
Machete Kills
2013-09-12
Ex-Federale agent Machete is recruited by the President of the United States for a mission which wou
One in the Chamber
2012-08-21
A seasoned assassin plays both sides in a Russian gang war and becomes the target of an unknown enem
The Butler
2013-08-16
A look at the life of Cecil Gaines, who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler fro
Summoned
2013-06-01
Follow three individuals who served on the jury for one of San Francisco's most high profile serial
Life of a King
2013-06-22
The true story of one man's mission to give inner city kids of Washington DC something he never had
Absolute Deception
2013-06-10
A widowed reporter recruits the help of a federal agent to investigate her late husband's secrets, b
Don Jon
2013-09-12
A New Jersey guy dedicated to his family, friends, and church, develops unrealistic expectations fro
The Firing Squad
2024-08-02
Based on the true story of three Christian prisoners who face execution in a third world country and
Freedom
2014-08-21
Two men separated by 100 years are united in their search for freedom. In 1856 a slave, Samuel Woodw
In the Shadows
2001-06-24
When a stunt man dies in Miami, his uncle, a New York mob boss, sends a hit man to tail the stunt co
Selma
2014-12-25
"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a marc
Skeletons in the Closet
2024-01-24
Haunted by a malevolent spirit since childhood, a desperate mother allows herself to become possesse
Break the Cycle
Two Memphis brothers' childhood is impacted by tragedy. They are raised by their grandmother but fol
Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story
1992-01-06
Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story (TV) Edmund Perry appears to have things all going his
TMZ Presents: The Downfall of Diddy
2024-04-28
A series of lawsuits and allegations have legendary rap mogul P. Diddy on the ropes. TMZ has the tro
2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift
2010-08-03
The team of smart-talkin' toddlers known as Everything Is Terrible! have once again emerged from the
Timmy Muldoon and the Search for the Shadoweyes Bandit
2013-01-01
13-year-old Timmy Muldoon's home movie evolves into the Hollywood film of his dreams.
Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace
2024-07-09
When an Iraq War veteran receives a calling from a higher power, he embarks on a mission to stop a f
Quantum Supremacy
2024-12-02
In the not-so-distant future, a fearless crew aboard a starship patrols the galaxy for threats. But
Double Victory: The Tuskegee Airmen at War
2012-01-13
Double Victory spotlights the historic role of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, revealing th
Life in a Year
2020-11-27
A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in
Welcome to Hollywood
2000-10-27
A film director decides to chart the course of a young actor as he tries to make it in Hollywood...
Coming to America
1988-06-29
An African prince decides it’s time for him to find a princess... and his mission leads him and his
Bayou Caviar
2018-10-05
Rodney is a former boxing champ who, after a deathbed visit to his trainer and mentor, is propelled
The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends
2007-11-27
Littlefoot learns a series of important lessons following an incident that nearly costs his grandmot
Friendly Fire: Making of an Urban Legend
2003-09-02
Cast and crew offer up a nice overview piece, discussing the picture's authenticity, real life in th
The Enduring Significance of 'Boyz n the Hood'
2011-07-19
A wonderful retrospective supplement that features much of the primary cast cast as well as Writer/D
Blown Away
1994-07-01
Blown Away tells the story of Jimmy Dove, who works for the Boston bomb squad. Shortly after Dove le
America | A Tribute to Heroes
2001-09-21
A benefit concert and telethon organized by George Clooney and broadcast uninterrupted and commercia
Making Rat Race
2002-01-29
A Line of Fire
2025-04-05
After working as a secret agent in the FBI for ten years, Jack 'Cash' Conry left it all behind after
Giving Thanks
Follows two best friends working in retail who dream about living on their own while seeking fame an
Atlas King
Ex-fighter returns from exile to bury his best friend and confront old rivalries. Reuniting with his
Above the Break
A grieving teen and his family move to a quiet beach town—only to face a rising shark threat that fo
The Madness of Judge Jeremiah Doherty
A hardened Texas judge survives a brutal cartel assassination attempt only to discover his wife has