James Woods

He married Kathryn Morrison in the year 1980, but they got divorced three years later. She was a costume designer and worked for films and popular TV series.

He married Sarah Owens, a horse trainer and 16 years his junior, in 1989. They got divorced within a year after a messy affair with dirty details making it to the tabloids.

James Woods was born to Gail Peyton Woods, an Army Intelligence Officer, and Martha Woods. His father passed away following a surgery, when James was barely a teenager.

He grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he went to Pilgrim High School and graduated with top performance. He is rumored to have obtained a perfect SAT score of 800 in the verbal section and 779 in the Math section.

His brilliant academic potential was reflected in the fact that he was nominated for the ‘United States Air Force Academy’ and earned scholarships from ‘Tufts University’ as well as ‘John Hopkins University’. But he ultimately chose to major in Political Science from ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology’.

While at ‘MIT’, he got involved with the ‘Theta Delta Chi Fraternity’ which strives to improve intellectual, moral and social well-being through friendship. He also joined ‘Dramashop’, a student theatre club, in which he participated in plays and also directed a few.

It was in his sophomore year that he realized his true passion for acting. He decided to quit university and went to New York City, with hopes to make it big in the acting field.

James Woods did several plays before he could debut at the ‘Broadway’. He acted in the US production ‘Borstal Boy’ in Lyceum Theatre, Manhattan, New York.

He pursued a career in theatre for four years, after which he got his break in films with a role in ‘All the Way Home’ in the year 1971. A few minuscule supporting roles followed, and this went on for a few years.

It was in the year 1979 that he was finally recognized for his role as the sadistic cop-killer in the film, ‘The Onion Field’, based on a novel by ‘Joseph Wambaugh’. This was followed by another Wambaugh adaptation, ‘Black Marble’, in the next year.

In 1983, he acted in the film called ‘Videodrome’ in which he played an unstable cable television owner. The very next year, he grabbed the role of gangster Max Berkovicz in the famous film ‘Once Upon a Time in America’.

It was in 1986 that James Woods got nominated for the Academy Award for his unforgettable performance in the film ‘Salvador’. He acted as photo-journalist Richard Boyle who chronicled the Salvadorian Civil War.

James Woods’ best rated work has been ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ in which he plays a Jewish ghetto youth along with Robert De Niro. This classic has been ranked No.78 in the IMDB chart of top 250.

His role as Lester Diamond in the Martin Scorsese film of 1995, ‘Casino’ is about mobster friends in the glittering gaming world of Las Vegas. Woods plays his role of a pimp to perfection, creating a strong impression on the viewer.

His 2001 movie, ‘True Believer’ made such an impact that it inspired a TV series on the same lines. He plays the role of a civil rights activist, and along with Robert Downey Junior who acts as the attorney, solves cases.