Jeff Goldblum

Jeff Goldblum
Goldblum at the Japan premiere of Independence Day: Resurgence, June 2016
Born	Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum (1952-10-22) October 22, 1952 West Homestead, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1974–present
Spouse(s)	Patricia Gaul (m. 1980–86) Geena Davis (m. 1987–90) Emilie Livingston[1] (m. 2014)
Children	1

Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum (/ˈɡoʊldbluːm/; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor who has received nominations for an Oscar, an Emmy, a Genie and a Drama Desk Award throughout his career and is best known for starring in the highest-grossing films of his era, Jurassic Park (1993) and Independence Day (1996), as well as their respective sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016).

Goldblum starred in films including Invasion of Body Snatchers (1978), The Big Chill (1983) and Into the Night (1985) before coming to the attention of wider audiences in David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) which earned him a Saturn Award for Best Actor.

His other films include The Tall Guy (1989), Deep Cover (1992), Powder (1995), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Cats & Dogs (2001), Igby Goes Down (2002), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Adam Resurrected (2008), Le Week-End (2013) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He also starred in several TV series including eighth and ninth seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Zack Nichols.

Early life

Goldblum was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Homestead, Pennsylvania. His mother, Shirley (née Temeles), was a radio broadcaster who later ran a kitchen equipment and appliances sales firm, and his father, Harold L. Goldblum, was a medical doctor.^[2][3] He has a sister, Pamela, and an older brother, Lee. Another older brother, Rick, died of kidney failure when he was 23.^[4] His family is Jewish, and had emigrated from Russia and Austria to the U.S.^[5][6] During his childhood, Goldblum belonged to an Orthodox synagogue and had a bar mitzvah.^[7]

Goldblum's parents were interested in show business.^[8] Goldblum moved to New York City at 17 to become an actor. He worked on the stage and studied acting at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse under the guidance of acting coach Sanford Meisner. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Two Gentlemen of Verona. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist and declared that if he did not act, he would have become a professional musician. He made his film debut as a thug in the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish. He briefly appeared as a protester in the TV movie Columbo: A Case of Immunity (1975).

Career

Goldblum in 1985

Goldblum after a performance of The Pillowman, May 2005

In 1974, Goldblum appeared in Death Wish as Freak #1. Later in his career, as Lacey Party Guest in Annie Hall (1977), Goldblum is seen saying into the telephone at a Hollywood party, "This is Mr. Davis. I forgot my mantra." Goldblum has had leading roles in films such as The Fly (1986), The Lost World (1997), Earth Girls Are Easy, The Tall Guy, Vibes (1988) and Into the Night (1985). Goldblum's strong supporting roles include those in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Big Chill (1983), and Jurassic Park (1993), Independence Day (1996), as well as the Wes Anderson films The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and the cult films The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984) and Igby Goes Down (2002).

For several years, Goldblum was the voice for most U.S. Apple commercials, including advertisements for the iMac and iBook. He also voices some U.S. Toyota commercials as well as Procter & Gamble's facial cream line. He has recently appeared on Irish TV in commercials for the National Lottery.

Goldblum taught acting at Playhouse West in North Hollywood with Robert Carnegie. It was with several actors from this acting company that he improvised and directed the live action short film Little Surprises, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996.

Goldblum got the role of Adam in Adam Resurrected, a film adaptation of the Yoram Kaniuk novel about a former German entertainer who becomes the ringleader to a group of Holocaust survivors in an asylum after World War II.

In September 2006, it was announced that Goldblum was one of the founding members of a new theater company in New York called The Fire Dept.

His guest appearance was on Sesame Street in 1990 as Bob's long-lost brother Minneapolis (parody of Indiana Jones) where Big Bird's friend Snuffleupagus had "the golden cabbage of Snuffertiti" hidden in his cave. He has also appeared on Tom Goes to the Mayor, The Colbert Report, and Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!.

In 2014, Goldblum's jazz band did a weekly show at the Carlyle Hotel.^[9]

Goldblum replaced Chris Noth as a senior detective on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.^[10] In the series, Goldblum plays the role of Detective Zack Nichols. In August 2010, media outlets reported that Goldblum had decided not to return to Criminal Intent due to persistent concerns about the program's future.^[11][12]

Goldblum with former spouse Geena Davis in 1990

In 2014, Goldblum appeared in an episode of Last Week Tonight parodying his role in Law & Order. In 2016, he reprised his role of David Levinson in Independence Day: Resurgence, the sequel to Roland Emmerich's 1996 alien invasion/disaster film, Independence Day.

In November 2015, he joined the ensemble cast of Shane Carruth's third film, The Modern Ocean^[13] alongside Anne Hathaway, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Radcliffe, Chloë Grace Moretz, Tom Holland, Asa Butterfield and Abraham Attah. In May 2016, Goldblum was cast as The Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok.^[14]

He was featured in a Currys Christmas advert campaign in 2015, November.^[15] Goldblum does the commercials for Apartments.com.^[16]

Personal life

From 1980 to 1986, Goldblum was married to Patricia Gaul, with whom he starred in Silverado (1985), and from 1987 to 1990, he was married to Geena Davis, his co-star in three films: Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), The Fly (1986), and Earth Girls Are Easy (1988).

In summer 2014, he became engaged to Olympic gymnast Emilie Livingston; the couple married on November 8, 2014.^[17] On January 9 2015, Goldblum announced on the Late Show with David Letterman that the couple was expecting a son.^[18] Their son, Charlie Ocean, was born on July 4, 2015.^[19]

Goldblum follows "Eastern religions".^[6]

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Theatre

• Broadway
  • Seminar (2012)
  • The Pillowman (2005)
  • Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • The Play What I Wrote
  • The Moony Shapiro Songbook
  • The Exonerated
  • City Sugar
  • El Grande de Coca Cola
• London and Broadway
  • The Prisoner of Second Avenue
• London and Recklinghausen (Germany)
  • Speed-the-Plow
• Pittsburgh
  • The Music Man at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jeff Goldblum.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jeff Goldblum

• Jeff Goldblum at the Internet Movie Database
• Jeff Goldblum at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Jeff Goldblum at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• April 2005 Interview with Goldblum from New York magazine
• Goldblum resurrects fond memories, a July 2004 article (with accompanying audio commentary) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Jeff Goldblum: the Buddha of Hollywood from The Guardian, 12 July 2010