Jeff Goldblum - Film & Theater Personalities, Birthday and Facts

Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum was born on October 22, 1952, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a Jewish family to Harold L. Goldblum and Shirlee as one of their four children. His father was a doctor while his mother was a radio broadcaster and an entrepreneur of a kitchen appliances firm.

He was a member of an orthodox synagogue in his childhood. He attended the ‘Taylor Allderdice High School’ in Pittsburgh. He had a passion for acting from young age and toop up drama at the ‘Carnegie Mellon University’ during summer sessions.

At seventeen he moved to New York to pursue acting. He joined the famous ‘Neighbourhood Playhouse’ and attended acting lessons under Sanford Meisner while working on stage.

He is a skilled piano player and according to him he would have been a musician if not an actor.

His first stage performance in ‘Broadway’ was in the musical ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’.

He made his film debut in 1974 with the brutal revenge story of ‘Death Wish’ where he essayed the role of a rapist ‘Freak # 1’. Moving further, he did small roles in films such as ‘California Split’ (1974), ‘Special Delivery’ (1976), ‘Next Stop, Greenwich Village’ (1976), ‘Annie Hall’ (1977) and in the remake ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (1978) .

At the same time, he made appearances in television featuring in each episode of ‘Columbo’ (1975), ‘The Blue Knight’ (1976) and ‘Starsky & Hutch” (1977).

His first television movie was ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ (released in 1980). In the same year he played Lionel Whitney in the television detective series ‘Tenspeed and Brown Shoe’.

His film career started taking off in the 1980s. In 1983, he received favourable reviews for his role Michael Gold in the film ‘The Big Chill’ which was followed by the classic cult film ‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension’ in 1984. In 1985, he earned lead roles in two films - ‘Silverado’ and ‘Into The Night’.

His breakthrough role Seth Brundle came up in 1986 with the film ‘Fly’ that fetched him the ‘Saturn Award for Best Actor’. He also received nominations for ‘National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor’ and ‘New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor’.

He continued getting major roles in films like ‘Vibes’ and ‘Earth Girls Are Easy’ in 1988 and ‘The Tall Guy’ in 1989.

In the 1990s, he featured in some of the biggest blockbusters of the time. In 1993, he essayed the part of Dr. Ian Malcolm in the Steven Spielberg science fiction ‘Jurassic Park’ and reprised the role in the film’s sequel ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ in 1997. In 1996, he played David Levinson in the film ‘Independence Day’.

He co-established and remained a teacher at the North Hollywood, Los Angeles acting school ‘Playhouse West’ in the 1980s. In 1996, he directed a short film ‘Little Surprises’, which featured many actors from the school. The film was nominated for the ‘Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film’.

He was one of the jury members of the 1999 ‘Cannes Film Festival’.

He received critical acclaim for his strong supporting roles in films like ‘Igby Goes Down’ (2002) and ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’ (2004). The latter received nomination for ‘Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Boston Society of Film Critics Award’.

Some of the television series that he undertook in the 2000s concurrently with films include ‘Crank Yankers’ (2003 to 2005), ‘Raines’ (2007) and ‘Tim and Eric Awesome Show and Great Job!’ (2007) among others. In 2005, his role in the series ‘Will & Grace’ won him a nomination for ‘Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series’. From 2009 to 2010, he appeared as senior Detective Zach Nichols in the television series ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent’.

He is the founding member of a new theatre company ‘The Fire Dept’ based in New York.

In 2006, he produced the film ‘Pittsburg’ where he portrayed himself. Some of his other films in 2000s include ‘Perfume’ (2001), ‘Adam Resurrected’ (2009), ‘The Switch’ (2010) and ‘Le Week-End’ (2013) among others.

In 2010, he played a prominent role as Jerry Barnes in the comedy film ‘Morning Glory’ that also starred Diane Keaton and the legendary Harrison Ford.

At present he is working in the sequel film ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ reprising his character David Levinson from the original movie ‘Independence Day’ (1996). The movie is scheduled for a 2016 release and will see him feature opposite Johnny Depp.

He is a skilled jazz pianist and has performed solo and as well as along with actor Peter Weller for the jazz band ‘The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra’.

He is also noted for his work in the theater. His Broadway performances include ‘El Grande de Coca Cola’ – one of his very first stage works, ‘The Moony Shapiro Songbook’, ‘The Pillowman’ and ‘Seminar’ among others. He has performed in the ‘The Prisoner of Second Avenue’ in Broadway and in London, and ‘The Music Man’ at the ‘Pittsburg Civic Light Opera’.

He has also lent his voice for several video games. Some of such portrayals are as David Levinson in ‘Independence Day’ (1997), as Dr. Ian Malcolm in ‘Jurassic Park: Chaos Island’ (1997) and in ‘Lego Jurassic World’ (2015), and as Nero in ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops III’ (2015).

He has rendered his voice for many U.S. commercials like ‘Apple’ ads including ‘iBook’ and ‘iMac’; cream line of ‘Procter & Gamble’ and ‘Toyota ads. At present he features in the commercial of the website, ‘apartments.com’ as its spokesperson.

He married actress Patricia Gaul in on July 4, 1980 but the couple got divorced in 1986. They had starred in the film ‘Silverado (1985)

On November 1, 1987 he got married for the second time to actress Geena Davis, his co-star of two films - ‘Transylvania 6-5000’ (1985) and ‘The Fly’ (1986). After their marriage, the couple did the 1988 film ‘Earth Girls Are Easy’ together. The couple took divorce on October 17, 1990.

From 1995 to 1997 he was engaged to Laura Dern.

In early 2014, he got engaged o Emilie Livingston, an Olympic gymnast and on November 8, 2014 they got married. On July 4, 2015, they welcomed their son, Charlie Ocean.

This popular Hollywood actor has an unusual talent of wiggling his ears one at a time.