Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight (born December 29, 1938) is an American film and television Actor. He has had a long and distinguished career as both a leading man and, in recent years, a character actor, with an extensive and compelling range. He came to prominence at the end of the sixties, with a performance as a would-be hustler in 1969's Best Picture winner, Midnight Cowboy, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination. Throughout the following decades, Voight built his reputation with an array of challenging roles and has appeared in such landmark films as 1972's Deliverance, and 1978's Coming Home, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor. Voight's impersonation of sportscaster/journalist Howard Cosell, in 2001's biopic Ali, earned Voight critical raves and his fourth Oscar nomination. He has starred in the seventh season of 24 as the villain Jonas Hodges.
Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie (Angelina Jolie Voight is her birthname) and actor James Haven, as well as brother of singer-songwriter Chip Taylor and geologist Barry Voight. He has six grandchildren by Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt.
Early life
Voight was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of Barbara (née Kamp; New York, January 7, 1910 – Palm Beach County, Florida, December 3, 1995) and Elmer Voight (October 29, 1909–June, 1973), a professional golfer. His maternal grandparents were German; his paternal grandfather was an immigrant from the city of Košice in Slovakia. Voight attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, where he first took an interest in acting, playing the comic role of Count Pepi Le Loup in the school's annual musical, The Song of Norway. After graduating from high school in 1956, he went to college at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he majored in art and graduated with a B.A. in 1960. At CUA, he demonstrated his artistic skill by designing the cardinal that adorned the center of the floor of the basketball court. This section of floor now resides on display in the school's Pryzbyla University Center.
Early career
After graduation, Voight moved to New York City, where he pursued an acting career. In 1962 he married actress Lauri Peters, whose credits include 1962's Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation and 1963's Summer Holiday. In the early sixties, Voight found work in television, appearing in several episodes of Gunsmoke, between 1962 and 1966, as well as guest spots on Naked City, and The Defenders, both in 1963, and Twelve O'Clock High, in 1966.
Voight's film debut did not come until 1967, when he took a part in Phillip Kaufman's crimefighter spoof, Fearless Frank. Voight also took a small role in 1967's western, Hour of the Gun, directed by veteran helmer John Sturges. That year he and Lauri Peters were divorced, after five years of marriage. In 1968 Voight took a role in director Paul Williams' Out of It.
While Voight pursued acting, his brother Wes found success as a songwriter under the nom de plume Chip Taylor. Taylor penned The Troggs' 1966 hit, Wild Thing, as well as Angel of the Morning. Another of Jon's brothers, Barry Voight, studied geology at Columbia University and became a world-renowned volcanologist at Pennsylvania State University.2
Becoming a star in the 1970s
In 1969, Voight was cast in the groundbreaking Midnight Cowboy, a film that would make his career. Voight played Joe Buck, a naïve male hustler from Texas, adrift in New York City. He comes under the tutelage of Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo, a tubercular petty thief and con artist. The film explored late sixties New York and the development of an unlikely, but poignant friendship between the two main characters. Directed by John Schlesinger and based on a novel by James Leo Herlihy, the film struck a chord with critics. Because of its controversial themes, the film was released with an X rating and would make history by being the only X-rated feature to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Both Voight and co-star Hoffman were nominated for Best Actor but lost out to John Wayne, star of that year's True Grit.
In 1970 Voight appeared in Mike Nichols' adaptation of Catch-22, and re-teamed with director Paul Williams to star in The Revolutionary, as a left wing college student struggling with his conscience.
Voight appeared in 1972's Deliverance, directed by John Boorman, from a script that poet James Dickey had helped to adapt from his novel of the same name. The story of a canoe trip gone awry in a feral, backwoods America. The film and the performances of Voight and co-star Burt Reynolds received great critical acclaimcitation needed and were popular with audiencescitation needed.
On 12 December 1971 Voight married model and actress Marcheline Bertrand. Their son James Haven was born in 1973, followed by daughter Angelina Jolie in 1975. Both children would go on to enter the film business, James as an actor and writer, and Angelina as a movie star in her own right.
Voight played a directionless young boxer in 1973's The All American Boy, then appeared in the 1974 film, Conrack, directed by Martin Ritt. Based on Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel The Water Is Wide, Voight portrayed the title character, an idealistic young schoolteacher sent to teach underprivileged black children on a remote South Carolina island. The same year he appeared in The Odessa File, based on Frederick Forsyth's thriller, playing a young German journalist who discovers a conspiracy to protect former Nazis still operating within Germany. This film first teamed him with the actor-director Maximilian Schell, for whom Voight would appear in 1976's End of the Game, a psychological thriller based on a story by Swiss novelist and playwright, Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
In 1978, Voight portrayed the paraplegic Vietnam veteran Luke Martin in Hal Ashby's film Coming Home. Voight, who was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, for his portrait of an embittered paraplegic, reportedly based on real-lifecitation needed Vietnam veteran-turned-anti-war activist Ron Koviccitation needed, with whom Fonda falls in love. The film included a much-talked-aboutcitation needed love scene between the two. Jane Fonda won her second Best Actress award for her role, and Voight won for Best Actor in a Leading Role.citation needed
Voight's marriage to Marcheline Bertrand failed in 1978. The following year, Voight once again put on boxing gloves, starring in 1979's remake of the 1931 Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper vehicle, The Champ, with Voight playing the part of an alcoholic ex-heavyweight and a young Rick Schroder playing the role of his adoring son. The film was an international successcitation needed, but less popular with American audiences.citation needed
Career in the 1980s
He next re-teamed with director Ashby in 1982's Lookin' to Get Out, in which he played Alex Kovac, a con man who has run into debt with New York mobsters and hopes to win enough in Las Vegas to pay them off. Voight both co-wrote the script and also co-produced. He also produced and acted in 1983's Table for Five, in which he played a widower bringing up his children by himself.
In 1985, Voight hooked up with Russian writer and director Andrei Konchalovsky to play the role of escaped con Manny Manheim in Runaway Train. The script was based on a story by Akira Kurosawa, and paired Voight with Eric Roberts as a fellow escapee. Voight received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe's award for Best Actor. Roberts was also honored for his performance, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Voight followed up this and other performances with a role in the 1986 film, Desert Bloom, and reportedly experienced a "spiritual awakening" toward the end of the decade.citation needed In 1989 Voight starred in and helped write Eternity, which dealt with a television reporter's efforts to uncover corruption.
Work in the 1990s
He made his first foray into television movies, acting in 1991's Chernobyl: The Final Warning, followed by The Last of his Tribe, in 1992. He followed with 1992's The Rainbow Warrior for ABC, the story of the ill-fated Greenpeace ship sunk by French operatives in the Auckland harbour. For the remainder of the decade, Voight would alternate between feature films and television movies, including a starring role in the 1993 miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove, a continuation of Larry McMurtry's western saga, 1989's Lonesome Dove. Voight played Captain Woodrow F. Call, the part played by Tommy Lee Jones in the original miniseries. Voight made a cameo appearance as himself on the Seinfeld episode "The Mom & Pop Store" airing November 17, 1994, in which George Costanza buys a car that appears to be owned by Jon Voight.
In 1995 Voight played a role in the film, Heat, directed by Michael Mann, and appeared in the television films Convict Cowboy, and The Tin Soldier, also directing the latter film.
Voight next appeared in 1996's blockbuster Mission: Impossible, directed by Brian DePalma and starring Tom Cruise. Voight played the role of spymaster James Phelps, a role originated by Peter Graves in the television series.
The year 1997 was a busy time for Voight in which he appeared in six films, beginning with Rosewood, based on the 1923 destruction of the primarily black town of Rosewood, Florida, by the white residents of nearby Sumner. Voight played John Wright, a white Rosewood storeowner who follows his conscience and protects his black customers from the white rage. Voight next appeared in Anaconda. Set in the Amazon, Voight played Paul Sarone, a snake hunter obsessed with a fabled giant anaconda, who hijacks an unwitting National Geographic film crew looking for a remote Indian tribe. Voight next appeared in a cameo role in Oliver Stone's U Turn, portraying a blind man. Voight took a supporting role in The Rainmaker, adopted from the John Grisham novel and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He played an unscrupulous lawyer representing an insurance company, facing off with a neophyte lawyer played by Matt Damon. His last film of 1997 was Boys Will Be Boys, a family comedy directed by Dom DeLuise.
The following year, Voight had the lead role in the television movie The Fixer, in which he played Jack Killoran, a lawyer who crosses ethical lines in order to "fix" things for his wealthy clients. A near-fatal accident awakens his dormant conscience and Killoran soon runs afoul of his former clients. He also took a substantial role in Tony Scott's 1997 political thriller, Enemy of the State, in which Voight played Will Smith's stalwart antagonist from the NSA .
Voight was reunited with director Boorman in 1998's The General. Set in Dublin, Ireland, the film tells the true-life story of the charismatic leader of a gang of thieves, Martin Cahill, at odds with both the police and the IRA. Voight portrays Inspector Ned Kenny, determined to bring Cahill to justice.
Voight next appeared in 1999's Varsity Blues. Voight played a blunt, autocratic football coach, pitted in a test of wills against his star player, portrayed by James Van Der Beek. Produced by fledgling MTV Pictures, the film became a surprise hit and helped connect Voight with a younger audience.citation needed
Voight played Noah in the 1999 television production Noah's Ark, and appeared in Second String, also for TV. He also appeared with Cheryl Ladd in the feature A Dog of Flanders, a remake of a popular film set in Belgium. The following year Voight would watch from the audience as his daughter received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in 1999's Girl, Interrupted.
Recent career
Voight next portrayed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 2001's action/war film, Pearl Harbor, reportedly beating out Gene Hackman for the role (his performance was received favorably by critics). Also that year, he appeared as Lord Croft, father of the title character of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Based on the popular video game, the digital adventuress was played on the big screen by Voight's own real-life daughter, Angelina Jolie.
That year, he also appeared in Zoolander, directed by Ben Stiller who starred as the title character, a vapid supermodel with humble roots. Voight appeared as Zoolander's coal-miner father. The film extracted both pathos and cruel humor from the scenes of Zoolander's return home, when he entered the mines alongside his father and brothers and Voight's character expressed his unspoken disgust at his son's chosen profession.
Also in 2001, Voight joined Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria and David Schwimmer in the made-for-television movie Uprising, which was based on the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. Voight played Major-General Juergen Stroop, the German officer responsible for the destruction of the Jewish resistance, and received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Director Michael Mann tagged Voight for a small but crucial role in the 2001 biopic Ali, which starred Will Smith as the controversial former heavyweight champ, Muhammad Ali. Voight was almost unrecognizable under his make-up and toupee, as he impersonated the sports broadcaster Howard Cosell. Voight received his fourth Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, for his performance, extending his reign as one of Hollywoods most talented actors.
In the critically-acclaimed CBS miniseries Pope John Paul II, released in December 2005, Voight, who was raised a Catholic, portrayed the pontiff from the time of his election until his death, garnering an Emmy nomination for the role.
In 2003, he played the role of Mr. Sir in Holes. In 2004, Voight joined Nicolas Cage, in National Treasure as Patrick Gates, the father of Cage's character. In 2006, he was Kentucky Wildcats head coach Adolph Rupp in the Disney hit Glory Road. In 2007, he played United States Secretary of Defense John Keller in the summer blockbuster Transformers, reuniting him with Holes star Shia LaBeouf. Also in 2007, Voight reprised his role as Patrick Gates in National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
In 2008, Voight played Jonas Hodges, the villain, in the seventh season of the hit Fox drama "24", a role that many argue is based on real life figures Alfried Krupp, Johann Rall and Erik Prince. Voight plays the CEO of a fictitious Arms industry called Starkwood, which has loose resemblances to Blackwater USA and ThyssenKrupp. Voight made his first appearance in the two-hour prequel episode "24: Redemption" on November 27.
Politics
Voight's first roles were almost uniformly counter-cultural roles. In his early life, his political views were liberal and he supported President John F. Kennedy, whose death "traumatized" him.3 He also worked for George McGovern's voter registrations efforts in the inner cities of Los Angeles.4 Voight actively protested against the Vietnam War.5 In the late 1970s, he made public appearances alongside Jane Fonda and Leonard Bernstein in support of the leftist Unidad Popular group in Chile.6
In a July 28, 2008 op-ed in The Washington Times, he wrote that he regrets his youthful anti-war activism, calling it the result of "Marxist propaganda." He pointed in particular to the massive human rights abuses in Vietnam and in Cambodia after the American withdrawal.5 Voight has said about his political transformation that:
We were traumatized in the Sixties and all of that behavior—the dancing in circles, the smoking pot and saying "all we need is love"—it was because we couldn't identify evil; we couldn't believe in evil—we didn't want to believe in evil so we just hid from it. It was a very disturbing time... overwhelmingly, it was a very bizarre, selfish and hedonistic philosophy that wasn't very helpful. It attacked the family—the attack on the family was very severe because not only was there this idea of [indiscriminate love] and that would solve the world's problems, which gave rise to teen pregnancy, but also this idea not to trust anyone over 30. This was from people who were over 30 and bombed out of their minds with every kind of drug they could put into their system. Then there was the romanticization of the drugs—there were people coming out with [pseudo] scientific evidence that [drugs] increase your enlightenment—it was devastating. Today, I find that people look back at that time in a romantic way and that's as dangerous as anything is. It wasn't a romantic time. It was a time of great distortion.
3
Voight endorsed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the 2008 Republican Party nomination. He contacted Giuliani's California finance chairperson and asked to work on the campaign. According to The New York Times, his role in Giuliani's group "brought some high-wattage celebrity to a campaign that was in distress." He worked a variety of supporting side roles in the Florida primary, such as warming up crowds. He stated on that trail that New York City had become a much safer city in the 1990s, once remarking that "God sent an angel, his name was Rudy Giuliani."7 In another interview in Miami with AventuraUSA.com, Voight said he first met Giuliani "years ago" at a movie premiere in New York City and the main reason for his support was Giuliani's public poise in the wake of the September 11 attacks.8
In March 2008, Voight appeared at a rally aboard the USS Midway in San Diego, California for the kick-off of Vets for Freedom's National Heroes Tour.9 In an April 11, 2008, interview on the CNN Headline News Glenn Beck Show Voight stated that he had thrown his support to Republican Senator John McCain for President.10
In May 2008, Voight paid a solidarity visit to Israel in honor of its 60th birthday. "I’m coming to salute, encourage and strengthen the people of Israel on this joyous 60th birthday" said Voight. “This week is about highlighting Israel as a moral beacon. At a time when its enemies threaten nuclear destruction, Israel heals."11 On July 28, 2008, he wrote an editorial in The Washington Times critical of then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.5
In September 2008 Voight appeared in a video available on YouTube from the Republican National Convention admonishing viewers to support the American Troops. He also provided the narration for a video biography of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, that appeared on John McCain's campaign website. Voight was a guest at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Voight also starred with fellow Republican-leaning actors Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, and James Woods in the conservative-leaning comedy film An American Carol, which opened on October 3, 2008.
On June 8, 2009, Voight hosted a Republican congressional fundraiser, and he also made his own speech within the event. Furthermore, he described his most pressing concern to be for Israel's safety, stating that he believed the Palestinian peoples' only agenda to be wiping Israel off the map.12 Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised Voight's speech.13 McConnell told Voight about his speech: "I really enjoyed that." 14 Voight had said about criticism of the previous President, George W. Bush, in an April 27, 2007 interview with Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor that: "And they — what I hear, you know, talking about our president. When I hear people saying quite unthinkable things about our president, when I see our president defaced, which is defacing our country. He's the leader of our country. He's the leader of the free world. It — my heart is very heavy." 15 In a June 13, 2009 article, New York Times columnist Frank Rich said of Voight's fundraiser speech: "This kind of rhetoric, with its pseudo-Scriptural call to action, is toxic." 16
Filmography
References
- ^ "Jon Voight bio". The New York Times online. http://movies.nytimes.com/person/115561/Jon-Voight/biography. Retrieved on June 10, 2009.
- ^ Barry Voight bio from Penn State
- ^ a b Holleran, Scott (September 8, 2007). "Interview: Actor Jon Voight". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/features/?id=2381&pagenum=all&p=.htm. Retrieved on June 9, 2009.
- ^ Tina Sinatra; Jeff Coplon (2000). My father's daughter. Simon and Schuster. pp. 140. ISBN 9780684870762.
- ^ a b c "My Concerns for America". The Washington Times. July 28, 2008. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/28/voight/. Retrieved on July 30, 2008.
- ^ Gosse, Van (2003). The World the Sixties Made. Temple University Press. pp. 107. ISBN 9781592132010.
- ^ "Star of the Silver Screen And a Political Entourage". The New York Times. February 1, 2008. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE0D61E38F932A35751C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1. Retrieved on June 9, 2009.
- ^ "Twenty Questions: Academy Award winner Jon Voight". AventuraUSA.com. January 19, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080124154956/http://www.aventurausa.com/miami/magazine/black/jonvoight.shtml. Retrieved on June 11, 2009.
- ^ "Operation Never Forget". Veteran Journal Online. February 25, 2009. http://www.veteranjournal.com/operation-never-forget/. Retrieved on June 11, 2009.
- ^ "Jon Voight Video". CNN Headline News Glenn Beck Show. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/04/10/beck.jon.voight.cnn. Retrieved on April 21, 2008.
- ^ "Jon Voight to pay Sderot a solidarity visit". Ynet. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3540214,00.html. Retrieved on June 11, 2009.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Evans, Ben (June 8, 2009). "Sarah Palin Shows Up At GOP Fundraiser Despite Lack of a Speaking Role". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/08/sarah-palin-shows-up-at-g_n_212904.html. Retrieved on June 8, 2009.
- ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aFfk5skijH5s
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268940,00.html
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14rich.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
Further reading
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Voight, Jon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Voight, Jonathan Vincent |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
1938-12-29 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Yonkers, New York, U.S. |
| DATE OF DEATH |
|
| PLACE OF DEATH |
|
![Conrack [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21SAD3MHCKL._SL160_.jpg)
![Clip Actor Jon Voight explains the origins of the Seinfeld episode that bears his name and his car, live from the Red Carpet at the 2006 BAFTA Emmy ... Video](/viewVideo.html?title=Jon Voight on making the Seinfeld "Jon Voights Car"episode&videoType=YouTube&summary=Actor Jon Voight explains the origins of the Seinfeld episode that bears his name and his car, live from the Red Carpet at the 2006 BAFTA Emmy ...&link=http://www.youtube.com/v/b8o140TFyAA&fs=1&hl=en&source=uds&autoplay=1&thumb=http://0.gvt0.com/vi/b8o140TFyAA/default.jpg&celebrity=Jon Voight)
