James Woods ~ Driven Towards Something

James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American actor and producer, who is known for his work in theater, television, and film.

Woods was born in Vernal, Utah, on April 18, 1947 and had a brother ten years younger, dying young of a cardiac arrest..[9] His father, Gail Peyton Woods, was an army intelligence officer who died in 1960 after routine surgery. His mother, Martha A. (née Smith), operated a pre-school after her husband’s death and later married Thomas E. Dixon.  Woods grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he attended Pilgrim High School, from which he graduated in 1965. He is of part Irish descent and was raised Catholic, briefly serving as an altar boy.

He pursued his undergraduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Woods stated on Inside the Actors Studio that he originally intended to follow a career as an eye surgeon.) While at MIT, Woods pledged to the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He was also an active member of the student theatre group “Dramashop”, where he both acted in and directed a number of plays. He dropped out of MIT in 1969, one semester prior to graduating to pursue a career in acting.

Woods has said that he owes his acting career to Tim Affleck (father of actors Ben and Casey Affleck), who was a stage manager at the Theatre Company of Boston while Woods was a student there.

In 1980, Woods married costume designer Kathryn Morrison-Pahoa. The couple divorced in 1983.[46] In 1989, when Woods was 42, he married 26-year-old equestrian and boutique owner Sarah Owens, but they divorced four months later.[47] He has not since remarried nor does he have children.

During a press interview for Kingdom Hearts II, Woods said that he is an avid video gamer and poker player. He is a dealer of antiques in Rhode Island. He has a reputation for lawsuits, ranging from stalking to medical negligence to defamation of character.

Woods was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Actor for his work in Oliver Stone’s Salvador (1986) and for Best Supporting Actor for Rob Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). He is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards for the television movies Promise (1987) and My Name Is Bill W. (1989). Woods has also received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and three Independent Spirit Award nominations. On October 15, 1998, Woods was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.

He started his career in about 36 small roles on and off-Broadway. In 1972 he appeared in The Trial of the Catonsville Nine alongside Sam Waterston and Michael Moriarty on Broadway. In 1972 he won the Theatre World Award, for his performance in Moonchildren. In 1978, Woods made his television breakthrough alongside Meryl Streep playing her husband in the critically acclaimed four part miniseries Holocaust. The series went on to receive the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series. In 1972, Woods made his film debut in Elia Kazan’s The Visitors and continued to act on film in supporting roles in Sydney Pollack’s The Way We Were (1973), and Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (1975).  Over the course of his career, he has been nominated at least 30 times for the major awards and won around 10 of them.

In 1979, Woods gained acclaim for his leading role as Gregory Powell in the crime thriller The Onion Field. Critic Roger Ebert praised Woods in the film calling him “a special talent”[3], and Woods received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance. Through the 1980s Woods appeared in films such as David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983), Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984), and Oliver Stone’s Salvador (1986), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination.[4] Through the 1990s he played character roles in Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin (1992), Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995), and Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995). In 1997, Woods received his second Academy Award nomination for his performance as Byron De La Beckwith, the white supremacist murderer of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, in Rob Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi (1996).[5] Woods continued to act in supporting roles in Any Given Sunday (1999), Robert Zemeckis’ Contact (1997), Clint Eastwood’s True Crime and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999).

He is known for his roles in television films such as Bill W. in My Name is Bill W. (1989), Roy Cohn in Citizen Cohn (1992), and Rudy Giuliani in Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story. In 2011, he made a career resurgence as Dick Fuld in Too Big to Fail on HBO.[6] His performance received both a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance. He is also known for his lead role in the CBS drama Shark (2006–2008), and his guest appearances in Showtime’s Ray Donovan (2013). He is also known for his voice roles in the animated features Hercules (1997), Recess: School’s Out (2001), Stuart Little 2 (2002), and Surf’s Up (2007) and for voice-acting as himself on various episodes of Family Guy and The Simpsons.

Woods has spoken in support of U.S. President Donald Trump, and has been described as a “staunch Trump supporter”

On July 4, 2018, The Gersh Agency, Woods’ long–time talent agency, notified him by email that they would no longer represent him. Woods stated that the agency dropped him due to his right-wing political views. Woods has said that there are many conservative stars who did not speak up in defense of conservative values because “the blacklist against conservatives in Hollywood is very real.” He is very active on Twitter and shares his political views extensively.  Twitter has suspended his account on occasion, yet he reappears after a while.

Reportedly, Woods’ has begun to simplify his life.  He has sold off most if not all of his real estate holdings on the West Coasts, and has an East Coast compound that he wants to sell as well.  As a semi-retired personality, with a 184 IQ and $20 million net worth, he isn’t settled anywhere right now, there is no speculation as to what that means.

 

 

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