Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola on January 07, 1964 and often called Nic Cage) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, director, and producer.

Early Life

Nicolas Cage was born in Long Beach, California (where he spent parts of his youth, along with San Francisco). He is of German and Italian descent. His parents are August Floyd Coppola, a comparative literature professor and influential director Francis Ford Coppola's brother, and Joy Vogelslang, a choreographer and dancer who suffered chronic severe depression. His mother's frequent hospitalization kept her away from the family for long periods of time. Cage's parents eventually divorced.

His first professional (non-cinematic) acting experience was in a school production of "Golden Boy."

Career

Nicolas Cage is famous for his very diverse role choices. Throughout his career he has alternated between big-budget, mainstream epics and low-budget, offbeat fare. Since his feature film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High over two decades ago, he has insisted on appearing in a wide variety of films.

The more mainstream films (which had larger budgets and, often, better box office receipts) include:

Incidentally, all of these films were either produced or co-produced by Buena Vista Pictures.

In addition to these films, Cage has performed in films with smaller budgets and more intimate or even controversial plots as well. These include:

In recent years, Cage has experimented in other film-related fields besides acting, including directing and producing. His directorial debut was Sonny, a prostitution-themed drama starring James Franco, Brenda Blethyn, and Mena Suvari. Cage had a cameo appearance in the film, which received mixed reviews and experienced a short run in theatres. His producing career, on the other hand, has seen more success. The first film produced by Saturn Films, a production company he started with Norm Golightly, was Shadow of the Vampire which was nominated for an Academy Award. Another film Cage produced is the star-studded The Life of David Gale.

He is scheduled to appear in many upcoming films including:

Personal Life

Nicolas Cage has had romantic relationships with Patricia Arquette, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Lisa Marie Presley (he was married to the first and third). He had his first son, Weston (born December 26, 1990), with actress Christina Fulton. He is currently married to former sushi waitress Alice Kim who also well known Banker Descendant in South Korea. They had a child on October 3, 2005 and named him Kal-El, the birth name of Superman in the DC comics universe.

Trivia

Ever since Valley Girl he's been credited as Nicolas Cage instead of Nicolas Coppola. He did this to avoid charges of nepotism as the name led to immediate association with his uncle, The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola. The name Cage is a reference to Luke Cage, an insecure African American superhero from the Marvel comics universe whom Nicolas identifies with.
Trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Royce Gracie.
Is a devoted fan of Elvis Presley and was married to his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
Ranked #40 in Empire magazine's (UK) "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in October 1997.
Got Johnny Depp his first acting job.
Owns a Lamborghini that used to belong to the Shah of Iran.
Proposed to Patricia Arquette on the day he met her in the early 80s. Arquette thought he was a bit strange but played along with his antics by creating a list of things Cage would have to fulfil to win her. When he started to work his way through the list, Arquette got scared and avoided him. They met again many years later and later went on to marry.
He lives in a fake castle on the outskirts of Los Angeles. He wants to import an authentic one from overseas.
Loves to improvise, ocassionally to the annoyance of other cast members.
Did a improvised monologue in SNL, which disappointed Lorne Michaels due to jokes about female breasts and buttocks.
Collects comic books and sees them as being today's equivalent of mythology.
Has a tattoo of comic character Ghost Rider, which ironically required covering makeup to allow Cage to play Ghost Rider in the film.
The Wild at Heart movie poster lists his name as both "Nicolas Cage" and "Nicholas Cage".
Suffers from vertigo.
Tim Burton cast Cage in his doomed Superman project. Cage even did fittings of the costume.
Ate a live roach in Vampire's Kiss.
On his upper back he has a tattoo of monitor lizard with a top hat.
Given an Honory Doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Fullerton in May 2001. Cage spoke at the commencement.
During an A&E Biography on him, the host explained that Nicolas was director Sam Raimi's first choice to play Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the movie Spider-Man. Apparently this was before he met Willem Dafoe.
On "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", he told Jay that he took the name "Cage" from a comic book character named Luke Cage, the "first black superhero." When asked which of the powers he would prefer to have, he said flight was his desire.
Went to the same High School as Angelina Jolie, Lenny Kravitz, David Schwimmer, Gina Gershon, Rob Reiner, Pauly Shore, Albert Brooks, and Crispin Glover.
Close friends with Jim Carrey since they worked on Peggy Sue Got Married together.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2007	''Next	Cris Johnson	Also producer
	''Ghost Rider	Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider
	Time to Kill
	National Treasure 2	Ben Gates
2006	''The Wicker Man	Edward Maulis	Also producer
	''World Trade Center	Sgt. John McLoughlin
	The Ant Bully	Zoc (Voice)
2005	The Weather Man	David Spritz
2005	Lord of War	Yuri Orlov	Also producer
2004	National Treasure	Ben Gates
2003	Matchstick Men	Roy Waller
2002	Adaptation.	Charlie/Donald Kaufman	Nominated for Academy Award - Best Actor
	Sonny	Acid Yellow	Also director and producer
	Windtalkers	Sergeant Joe Enders
2001	The Movie	Jacob Marley (Voice)
	Captain Corelli's Mandolin	Captain Antonio Corelli
	Italian Soldiers		Documentary
2000	Welcome to Hollywood		Documentary
	Gone in Sixty Seconds	Randall "Memphis" Raines
	The Family Man	Jack Campbell
1999	Bringing Out the Dead	Frank Pierce
1999	8mm	Tom Welles
1998	Junket Whore		Documentary
	Snake Eyes	Rick Santoro
	City of Angels	Seth
1997	Face/Off	Caster Troy/Sean Archer
	Con Air	Cameron Poe
	Sean Connery, an Intimate Portrait		Documentary
1996	The Rock	Dr. Stanley Goodspeed
1995	Leaving Las Vegas	Ben Sanderson	Won Academy Award - Best Actor
1995	Kiss of Death	Little Junior Brown
1994	Trapped in Paradise	Bill Firpo
	It Could Happen to You	Charlie Lang
	Guarding Tess	Doug Chesnic
	A Century of Cinema		Documentary
1993	Amos & Andrew	Amos Odell
1993	Deadfall	Eddie
1992	Honeymoon in Vegas	Jack Singer
1992	Red Rock West	Michael Williams
1991	Zandalee	Johnny
1990	Wild at Heart	Sailor
	Fire Birds	Jake Preston
	Time to Kill	Enrico Silvestri
1989	Vampire's Kiss	Peter Leow
1988	Never on Tuesday	Man In Red Sports Car	Cameo
1987	Moonstruck	Ronny Cammareri
1987	Raising Arizona	H. I. McDunnough
1986	Peggy Sue Got Married	Charlie Bodell
1986	The Boy in Blue	Ned Hanian
1984	Birdy	Sergeant l Columbato
	The Cotton Club	Vincent Dwyer
	Racing with the Moon	Nicky/Bud
1983	Rumble Fish	Smokey
1983	Valley Girl	Randy
1982	Fast Times at Ridgemont High	Brad's Bud

External links