Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor,
producer, and
director. Whitaker won an
Academy Award for his performance as
Ugandan dictator
Idi Amin in the 2006 film
The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker has also won a
Golden Globe, and a
BAFTA. He became the fourth
African American man to win an
Academy Award for Best Actor, following in the footsteps of
Sidney Poitier,
Denzel Washington, and
Jamie Foxx.
["Forest Whitaker wins Best Actor Oscar for Idi Amin role." ABCNewsOnline. February 26, 2007.]
He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as
Bird and
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
["In general, he rules." The Boston Globe. October 1, 2006.]["Forest Whitaker: The King Of The Oscars?" CBS News. February 4, 2007.] However, for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant
Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television series,
The Shield, Whitaker merely had to draw on his childhood years growing up in
South Central Los Angeles,
California.
[Sternbergh, Adam. "Out of the Woods: How Forest Whitaker escaped his career slump." New York. January 9, 2006.]
Early life
Whitaker was born in
Longview,
Texas and his family moved to
South Central Los Angeles due to racism in 1965, when he was four.
[Patterson, John. "The bigger picture." The Guardian. April 20, 2002.] His father, Forest Whitaker, Jr., was an insurance salesman and the son of novelist Forest Whitaker, Sr. His mother, Laura Francis (
née Smith), was a special education teacher who put herself through college and earned two Masters degrees while raising her children.
["Forest Whitaker Biography (1961-)." FilmReference.com.] Whitaker has two younger brothers, Kenn and Damon, and an older sister, Deborah.
As a teenager, Whitaker commuted from
Carson to wealthy
Palisades High School on LA's
West Side.
There, he was all-league defensive tackle on the football team quarterbacked by
Jay Schroeder, a future
NFL player.
While in high school, he also took voice lessons, performed in musicals, and caught the "acting bug"; his first role as an actor was the lead in
Dylan Thomas' play,
Under Milk Wood.
Whitaker graduated from "Pali High" in 1979.
["Bringing Home the Oscars." Palisadian-Post. February 28, 2007.]
Whitaker then attended
Cal Poly Pomona on a football scholarship, but left due to a debilitating back injury when he was hurt in training by defensive end Manny Duran. He was accepted to the Music Conservatory at the
University of Southern California (USC) to study opera as a tenor, and subsequently was accepted into the University's Drama Conservatory.
He graduated from USC in 1982. He also earned a scholarship to the
Berkeley, California branch of the
Drama Studio London.
[Joshua Rich. "Spotlight: Forest Whitaker." EW.com.]
Career
Film work
Whitaker has a long history of working with well-regarded film directors and fellow actors. In his first onscreen role of note, he played a football player in the 1982 film version of
Cameron Crowe's
coming-of-age teen-
retrospective,
Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
He co-starred alongside
Nicolas Cage,
Phoebe Cates, and
Sean Penn. In 1986, he appeared in
Martin Scorsese's film,
The Color of Money (with
Paul Newman and
Tom Cruise), and in
Oliver Stone's Platoon. The following year, he co-starred with
Robin Williams in the comedy
Good Morning, Vietnam.
In 1988, Whitaker played in the film
Bloodsport alongside
Jean-Claude Van Damme and he had the lead role as musician
Charlie Parker in the
Clint Eastwood-directed film,
Bird. To prepare himself for the part, he sequestered himself in a loft with only a bed, couch, and saxophone,
having also conducted extensive research and taken alto sax lessons.
[Longino, Bob. "The power of Forest Whitaker." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. October 12, 2006.] His performance, which has been called "transcendent,"
earned him the
Best Actor award at the
1988 Cannes Film Festival and a
Golden Globe nomination. Whitaker continued to work with a number of well-known
directors throughout the 1990s. He starred in the 1990 film
Downtown with
Anthony Edwards and
Penelope Ann Miller.
Neil Jordan cast him in the pivotal role of "Jody" in his 1992 film,
The Crying Game. Todd McCarthy, of
Variety, described Whitaker's performance as "big-hearted," "hugely emotional," and "simply terrific."
[McCarthy, Todd. "The Crying Game (Review)." Variety. September 11, 1992.] In 1994, he was a member of the cast that won the first ever
National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble for
Robert Altman's film,
Prêt-à-Porter. He gave a "characteristically emotional performance"
[Stratton, David. "Smoke (Review)." Variety. February 20, 1995.] in
Wayne Wang and
Paul Auster's 1995 film,
Smoke.
Whitaker played a serene, pigeon-raising,
bushido-following,
mob hit man in
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, a 1999 film written and directed by
Jim Jarmusch. Many consider this to have been a "definitive role" for Whitaker.
In a manner similar to his preparation for
Bird, he again immersed himself in his character's world—he studied Eastern philosophy and meditated for long hours "to hone his inner spiritual hitman."
Jarmusch has told interviewers that he developed the title character with Whitaker in mind; the
New York Times review of the film observed that "
[1]t's hard to think of another actor who could play a cold-blooded killer with such warmth and humanity."
[Scott, A.O. "'Ghost Dog': Passions of Emptiness in an Essay on Brutality." New York Times. March 3, 2000.]
Whitaker next appeared in what has been called one of the "
worst films ever made,"
[Campbell, Duncan. "Cult Classic." Guardian Unlimited. May 31, 2005.] the 2000 production of
Battlefield Earth, based on the novel of the same name by
L. Ron Hubbard. The film was widely criticized as a notorious commercial and critical disaster.
[Ebert, Roger. "Battlefield Earth." Chicago Sun-Times. May 12, 2000.] However, Whitaker's performance was lauded by the film's director,
Roger Christian, who commented that, "Everybody's going to be very surprised" by Whitaker, who "found this huge voice and laugh."
[Graham, Bob. "What on Earth Are These Guys Doing?" San Francisco Chronicle. April 30, 2000.] BattleField Earth "won" seven
Razzie Awards; Whitaker was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to his co-star,
Barry Pepper.
In 2001, Whitaker had a small, uncredited role in the
Wong Kar-wai-directed
The Follow, one of five short films produced by
BMW that year to promote its cars.
[The Follow. MSN Movies.] He co-starred in
Joel Schumacher's 2002
thriller,
Phone Booth, with
Kiefer Sutherland and
Colin Farrell. That year, he also co-starred with
Jodie Foster in
Panic Room. His performance as the film's "bad guy" was described as "a subtle chemistry of aggression and empathy."
Whitaker's greatest success to date is the 2006 film,
The Last King of Scotland. To prepare for his role as dictator
Idi Amin, Whitaker gained 50 pounds, learned to play the
accordion, and immersed himself in research.
["Forest Whitaker: The King Of The Oscars?" CBS News/ February 4, 2007.] He read books about Amin, watched news and documentary footage, and spent time in Uganda meeting with Amin's friends, relatives, generals, and victims; he also learned
Swahili and mastered Amin's
East African accent.
His performance earned him the 2007
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the fourth African-American actor in history to do so. For that same role, he also received multiple other awards, including
Golden Globe,
Screen Actors Guild,
BAFTA Awards, and accolades from the
New York Film Critics Circle, the
Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the
National Board of Review and the
Broadcast Film Critics Association. In 2007, Whitaker also played Dr. James Farmer Sr. in
The Great Debaters.
In 2008, Whitaker appeared as a business man known only as Happiness, who likes butterflies, in the film
The Air I Breathe, as rogue police captain Jack Wander in
Street Kings, and heroic tourist Howard Lewis in
Vantage Point.
Television work
In 1985, Whitaker played a bully who loses his girlfriend to Arnold on the
Diff'rent Strokes episode "Bully for Arnold". That same year, Whitaker also played the part of a comic book salesman in the
Amazing Stories episode "Gather Ye Acorns".
In 2002, Whitaker was the host and narrator of 44 new episodes of the
Rod Serling classic,
The Twilight Zone, which lasted one season on
UPN.
[The Twilight Zone (2002). epguides.com.]
Whitaker returned to television in 2006 when he joined the cast of
FX's police serial
The Shield, as Lieutenant
Jon Kavanaugh, who was determined to prove that the lead character,
Vic Mackey, is a dirty cop. He received rave reviews for his performance —
Variety called it a "crackling-good guest stint"
[Lowry, Brian. "The Shield (Review)." Variety. March 27, 2007.] — and he reprised the role in the show's 2007 season.
In the fall of 2006, Whitaker started a multi-episode story arc on
ER as Curtis Ames, a man who comes into the ER with a cough, but quickly faces the long-term consequences of a paralyzing
stroke; he then takes out his anger on Doctors
Luka Kovač and
Abby Lockhart. Whitaker received a 2007
Emmy nomination for his performance on the series. Also in 2006, Whitaker appeared in 's video "Live in the Sky" alongside
Jamie Foxx.
Whitaker hosted
Saturday Night Live,
which featured his singing skills in several sketches, including a sketch about a singing waiter who can sing notes that can only be heard by dogs.
Whitaker has lent his voice to three episodes of the animated sitcom
American Dad! in 2008 and 2009, as the recurring character Ron Turlington. The character parodies Whitaker's performances in
The Shield, and is seen in the episodes "
Meter Made", "
Chimdale" and "
Live and Let Fry".
Producing and directing
Whitaker branched out into producing and directing in the 1990s. He co-produced and co-starred in
A Rage in Harlem in 1991. He made his directorial debut with a grim film about inner-city gun violence,
Strapped, for
HBO in 1993. In 1995, he directed his first
feature,
Waiting to Exhale, which was based on the
Terry McMillan novel of the same name.
Roger Ebert observed that the tone of the film resembled Whitaker's own acting style: "measured, serene, confident."
[Ebert, Roger. "Waiting to Exhale (review)." Chicago Sun-Times. December 22, 1995.] Whitaker also directed co-star
Whitney Houston's music video of the movie's theme song ("Shoop Shoop").
Whitaker continued his directing career with the 1998 romantic comedy,
Hope Floats, starring
Sandra Bullock and
Harry Connick, Jr. He directed
Katie Holmes in the
romantic comedy,
First Daughter in 2004; he had co-starred with Holmes in
Phone Booth in 2002. Whitaker also served as an
executive producer on
First Daughter. He had previously executive produced several
made-for-television movies, most notably the 2002
Emmy-award winning
Door to Door, starring
William H. Macy. He produced these projects through his production company, Spirit Dance Entertainment, which he shut down in 2005 to concentrate on his acting career.
Recent honors
In addition to the numerous awards Whitaker won for his performance in
The Last King of Scotland, he has also received several other honors. In September 2006, the 10th Annual Hollywood Film Festival presented him with its "Hollywood Actor of the Year Award," calling him "one of Hollywood's most accomplished actors."
["Press release." Hollywood Film Festival News. September 28, 2006.] He was honored at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2007, where he received the American Riviera Award.
["Festival 2007 Tributes." Santa Barbara International Film Festival. sbiff.org.] Previously, in 2005, the Deauville (France) Festival of American Film paid tribute to him.
[Nesselson, Lisa. "Deauville tips hat." Variety. August 18, 2005.]
Whitaker was the recipient of a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 16, 2007.
He also received an Honorary Degree from
Xavier University of Louisiana on May 9, 2009 at the 82nd Commencement Ceremony, along with Democratic political stategist
Donna Brazile.
Personal life
In 1996, Whitaker married actress Keisha Nash, whom he met on the set of
Blown Away.
The Whitakers have four children: two daughters together (Sonnet and True), his son (Ocean) from a previous relationship, and her daughter (Autumn) from a previous relationship. Whitaker studies yoga and has a black belt in
karate.
On
Inside the Actors Studio, Whitaker said that a genetic test indicated he was of
Igbo descent on his father's side, and
Akan descent on his mothers side.
Whitaker, who is a
vegetarian,
recorded a
public service announcement with his daughter, True, promoting vegetarianism on behalf of
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
[PSA for PETA PETA TV.] In politics, Whitaker supported and spoke on behalf of Senator
Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign.
Whitaker's left eye
ptosis has been called "intriguing" by some critics
[Wloszczyna, Susan. "'Last King' demanded obedience to their craft." USA Today. October 2, 2006.] and "gives him a sleepy, contemplative look."
[Zackarek, Stephanie. "Jim Jarmusch adds lyrical violence to a Zen meditation on warriors hip-hop and ancient." Salon.com. March 9, 2000.] Whitaker has explained that the condition is hereditary and that he has considered having surgery to correct it, not for cosmetic reasons but because it affects his vision.
[Sager, Mike. "What I've Learned: Forest Whitaker." Esquire. February 26, 2007.]
On April 6, 2009, Whitaker was given a chieftancy title in
Imo State,
Nigeria. Whitaker, who was named a chief among the
Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria, was given the title
Nwannedinamba of Nkwerre, which means
A Brother in a Foreign Land.
Filmography
Actor
Director
Television
| Year
| Film
| Role
| Notes
|
| 1982
| Making The Grade
|
| Episode "Marriage David Style"
|
| 1983
| Cagney & Lacey
| Night Manager
| Episode "The Grandest Jewel Thief of Them All"
|
| 1984
| Trapper John, M.D.
| Lewis Jordan
| Episode "School Nurse"
|
| Hill Street Blues
| Floyd Green
| Episode "Blues for Mr. Green"
|
| 1985
| Diff'rent Strokes
| Herman
| Episode "Bully for Arnold"
|
| The Grand Baby
|
| Television movie
|
| The Fall Guy
| Friend
| Episode "Spring Break"
|
| 1986
| Amazing Stories
| Jerry
| Episode "Gather Ye Acorns"
|
| 1987
| Hands of a Stranger
| Sergeant Delaney
| Television movie
|
| 1990
| Criminal Justice
| Jessie Williams
| Television movie
|
| 1993
| Lush Life
| Buddy Chester
| Television movie
|
| Last Light
| Fred Whitmore
| Television movie
|
| 1994
| The Enemy Within
| Colonel MacKenzie 'Mac' Casey
| Television movie
|
| 1996
| Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault
| Mr. Rucker
| Television movie
|
| 1999
| Witness Protection
| Steven Beck
| Television movie
|
| 2001
| Feast of All Saints
| Daguerreotypist Picard
| Television movie
|
| 2003
| Deacons for Defense
| Marcus Clay
| Television movie
|
| 2002-2003
| The Twilight Zone
| Host / Narrator
| 44 episodes
|
| 2006-2007
| ER
| Curtis Ames
| 6 episodes
|
| The Shield
| Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh
| (Seasons 5 and 6)
|
| 2007-2009
| American Dad!
| Turlington
| 3 episodes
|
