Forest Whitaker

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Forest Whitaker at San Diego Comic-Con International (2017)

Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961 in Longview , Texas ) is an American actor , film producer and director . In addition to numerous awards, he received the Oscar for best leading role in 2007 for his role as Idi Amin in the film The Last King of Scotland .

life and career

Whitaker received a football scholarship in his youth , but then moved to the University of Southern California at Los Angeles , where he successfully studied music and later came into contact with acting at the University of California at Berkeley . His drooping left eyelid ( ptosis ) quickly became his trademark. In 1982, Whitaker made his American cinema debut with a small appearance in Nick Castle's thriller TAG and the role of a football player in Amy Heckerling's high school comedy I Believe I Stand in the Woods , which Sean Penn used as a career springboard should serve. In the years that followed, Whitaker appeared in supporting roles in award-winning films such as Oliver Stone's Vietnam War drama Platoon (1986), Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986) and Barry Levinson's tragic comedy Good Morning, Vietnam . He already played an important supporting role in Good Morning, Vietnam .

His first acclaimed leading role was in 1988 that of the legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's biography Bird , for which Whitaker received the Acting Award in Cannes and a nomination for the Golden Globe for best drama actor . Despite this success, he did not move up to the ranks of leading character actors.

His subsequent engagements were broad, including supporting roles in Neil Jordan's thriller The Crying Game (1992), Robert Altman's fashion satire Prêt-à-Porter or the independent film Smoke , but also engagements in action and science fiction films such as Bloodsport ( 1988), Explosiv - Blown Away (1994) or Species (1995). His critically acclaimed leading role in Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog (1999) was followed by a role in Battlefield Earth (2000), the film adaptation of a science fiction novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard that was panned by criticism and is considered the low point of his career.

After two successful roles in thrillers, Whitaker received his most important role to date as the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in Kevin Macdonald's feature film debut The Last King of Scotland - In the Clutches of Power . This role brought Whitaker an Oscar in 2007 and numerous prestigious film awards. Less than two months after winning an Oscar, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . In the years that followed, Whitaker was seen again in a wide variety of genres, including Denzel Washington's drama The Great Debaters , David Ayer's police thriller Street Kings and the science fiction film Repo Men .

In addition to productions for the cinema, Whitaker can also be seen regularly in television series. He has made many guest appearances on series such as Emergency Room , Hill Street Police Station and Trapper John, MD. His television film From Door to Door (2002) was awarded an Emmy . In The Twilight Zone he took on the role of presenter and narrator. In 2011 he starred for one season in the series Criminal Minds: Team Red . Tobias Meister has established himself as his German dubbing voice .

In August 2015 it was announced that Whitaker in Rogue One: A Star Wars story , the first Star Wars - a spin-off , as Saw Gerrera will play a leading role. The film was released in December 2016.

In 2018, Whitaker played the role of Zuri in the Marvel film adaptation of Black Panther .

family

Forest Whitaker married Keisha Simone Nash, who was eleven years his junior and who took his name. There are two daughters from the marriage. He already has a son from a previous relationship. He is also the stepfather of Keisha's daughter. He also has two younger brothers, Kenn and Damon Whitaker, who also work as actors.

Filmography (selection)

As an actor

As a director

As a producer

Awards

literature

  • Melvin Burke Donalson: Black directors in Hollywood . University of Texas Press, Austin 2003, ISBN 0-292-70178-0 (English edition).
  • George Alexander: Why we make movies: Black filmmakers talk about the magic of cinema . Harlem Moon, New York 2003, ISBN 0-7679-1181-4 (English edition).

Web links

Commons : Forest Whitaker  - Collection of Images

Interviews

Individual evidence

  1. http://film-dienst.kim-info.de/artikel.php?nr=152612&dest=frei&pos=artikel  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / film-dienst.kim-info.de  
  2. ^ Rogue One — The Daring Mission Has Begun: Cast and Crew Announced . In: StarWars.com . August 15, 2015. Retrieved August 24, 2015.