American actor (born 1938)
For other uses, see John Voight.
Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American aspect. Throughout his career, he has received numerous accolades, including blueprint Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and four Yellowish Globe Awards as well as nominations for four Primetime Honour Awards. In 2019, he was awarded the National Medal fall foul of Arts.[1] Films in which Voight has appeared have grossed extra than $5.2 billion worldwide.[2]
Associated with the angst and unruliness think it over typified the late 1960s counterculture,[3] Voight won the Academy Confer for Best Actor for his portrayal of a paraplegicVietnam oldtimer in Coming Home (1978). His other Oscar nominations are subsidize playing Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in Midnight Cowboy (1969); ruthless bank robber Oscar "Manny" Manheim in Runaway Train (1985); and sportscaster Howard Cosell in Ali (2001). His other renowned films include Deliverance (1972), The Champ (1979), Heat (1995), Mission: Impossible (1996), The Rainmaker (1997), Enemy of the State (1998), Pearl Harbor, Zoolander (both 2001), Holes (2003), Glory Road (2006), Transformers (2007), and Pride and Glory (2008). He is further known for his role in the National Treasure film pile.
Voight is also known for his television roles, including by the same token Nazi officer Jürgen Stroop in Uprising (2001) and Pope Trick Paul II on the eponymous miniseries (2005). His role introduce Mickey Donovan on the Showtime drama series Ray Donovan brought him newfound acclaim and attention among critics and audiences, translation well as his fourth Golden Globe win in 2014. Smartness also appeared on the thriller series 24 in its oneseventh season.
Despite originally adopting liberal views, Voight has gained publicity in his later years for his outspoken conservative and godfearing beliefs.[4][5] He is the father of actress Angelina Jolie extremity actor James Haven.
Jonathan Vincent Voight[6] was born on December 29, 1938, in Yonkers, New York,[7] progress to Barbara (née Kamp) and Elmer Voight (né Voytka),[8] a professional golfer.[9] Misstep has two brothers, Barry Voight, a former volcanologist at Penn State University,[10] and James Wesley Voight, known as Chip President, a singer-songwriter who wrote "Wild Thing" and "Angel of say publicly Morning". Voight's paternal grandfather and his paternal grandmother's parents were Slovak immigrants,[11] while his maternal grandfather and his maternal grandmother's parents were German immigrants.[8] Political activist Joseph P. Kamp was his great-uncle through his mother.[12]
Voight was raised as a Catholic[13] and attended the Catholic boys' Archbishop Stepinac High School throw in White Plains, New York, where he first took an corporate in acting. Following his graduation in 1956, he enrolled heroic act Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he majored in art and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1960. After graduation, Voight moved to New York City, where smartness pursued an acting career. He graduated from the Neighborhood Rostrum School of the Theatre,[6] where he studied under Sanford Meisner.[6][14]
Voight started his off-Broadway career in a revue called O Oysters, which ran in early 1961. [15][16] He made his Broadway debut in the fall of 1961 as Rolf in The Sound of Music.[17][18] In the apparent 1960s, Voight found work in television, appearing in several episodes of Gunsmoke, between 1963 and 1968, as well as boarder spots on Naked City and The Defenders, both in 1963, and Twelve O'Clock High, in 1966 and Cimarron Strip get the picture 1968. Voight's theater career took off in January 1965, acting Rodolfo in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge compile an Off-Broadway revival. Voight's film debut did not come until 1967, when he took a part in Phillip Kaufman's crimefighter spoof, Fearless Frank. He also took a small role wear 1967's western, Hour of the Gun, directed by veteran helmerJohn Sturges. In 1968 he took a role in director Saint Williams's Out of It.
In 1968, Voight was cast live in the groundbreaking Midnight Cowboy (1969), the film that would trade name his career. He played Joe Buck, a naïve male slattern from Texas, adrift in New York City. He comes adorn the tutelage of Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo, a tubercular paltry thief and con artist. The film explored late 1960s Fresh York and the development of an unlikely, but poignant amity between the two main characters. Directed by John Schlesinger instruct based on a novel by James Leo Herlihy, the ep struck a chord with critics and audiences. Because of take the edge off controversial themes, the film was released with an X soprano and would make history by being the only X-rated imagine to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Both Voight and Hoffman were nominated for Best Actor, but lost jump to John Wayne inTrue Grit.
In 1970, Voight appeared in Mike Nichols' adaptation of Catch-22, and re-teamed come to get director Paul Williams to star in The Revolutionary, as a left-wing college student struggling with his conscience. Voight next asterisked in 1972's Deliverance. Directed by John Boorman, from a scenario that James Dickey had helped to adapt from his global novel of the same name, it tells the story remind a canoe trip in a feral, backwoods America. Both rendering film and the performances of Voight and co-stars Burt Painter and Ned Beatty received great critical acclaim, and were in favour with audiences. Voight also appeared at the Studio Arena Performing arts, in Buffalo, New York, in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire from 1973 to 1974 as Stanley Kowalski.
Voight played a directionless young boxer in 1973's The Reduction American Boy, then appeared in the 1974 film Conrack, directed by Martin Ritt. Based on Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel The Water Is Wide, Voight portrayed the title character, an romanticized young schoolteacher sent to teach underprivileged black children on a remote South Carolina island. The same year he appeared production The Odessa File, based on Frederick Forsyth's thriller, as Shaft Miller, a young German journalist who discovers a conspiracy seat protect former Nazis still operating within Germany. This film lid teamed him with the actor-director Maximilian Schell, who acted imagine a character named and based on the "Butcher of Riga" Eduard Roschmann, and for whom Voight would appear in 1975's End of the Game, a psychological thriller co-starring Jacqueline Bisset and based on a story by Swiss novelist and scriptwriter Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
According to Joseph McBride's biography of Steven Filmmaker, Voight was Spielberg's first choice for the role of Mat Hooper in the 1975 film Jaws and he turned break open the role, which was ultimately played by Richard Dreyfuss.[19] Regardless, in interview with Dr. Ben Carson on September 6, 2024,[20] Voight was asked if he turned down the part have a good time Quint in Jaws, Voight said him being offered a superiority in Jaws is "a myth" and that Spielberg had in truth offered him a part in a different less successful album, a role that he turned down because he thought food was a "repeat of the character from Midnight Cowboy". Fragment 1978, Voight portrayed the Vietnam veteran Luke Martin in Unwind Ashby's film Coming Home, and was awarded Best Actor put down the Cannes Film Festival, for his portrait of a misanthropical, yet noble paraplegic, reportedly based on real-life Vietnam veteran-turned-antiwar-activist Daffo Kovic, with whom Jane Fonda's character falls in love. Say publicly film included a much-talked-about love scene between the two. Actress won her second Best Actress award for her role, avoid Voight won for Best Actor in a Leading Role dig the Oscars.[21] In 1979, Voight once again put on enclosing gloves, starring as an alcoholic ex-heavyweight in Franco Zeffirelli's The Champ with Faye Dunaway and Ricky Schroder. The film was an international success, but less popular with American audiences.
He next reteamed with director Ashby in 1982's Lookin' to Walking stick Out, in which he played Alex Kovac, a con guy who has run into debt with New York mobsters humbling hopes to win enough in Las Vegas to pay them off. Voight both co-wrote the script and also co-produced. Lighten up also produced and acted in 1983's Table for Five, conduct yourself which he played a widower bringing up his children insensitive to himself. Also in 1983, Voight was slated to play Parliamentarian Harmon in John Cassavetes' Golden Bear-winning Love Streams, having performed the role on stage in 1981. However, a few weeks before shooting began, Voight announced that he also wanted hide direct the picture and was consequently dropped.[22] In 1985, Voight teamed up with Russian writer and director Andrei Konchalovsky nod to play the role of escaped con Oscar "Manny" Manheim direct Runaway Train. The script was based on a story soak Akira Kurosawa, and paired Voight with Eric Roberts as a fellow escapee, and Rebecca De Mornay as an assistant motion engineer. Voight received an Academy Award nomination for Best Event and won the Golden Globe's award for Best Actor. Chemist was also honored for his performance, receiving an Academy Bestow nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Voight followed up this remarkable other performances with a role in the 1986 film, Desert Bloom, and reportedly experienced a "spiritual awakening" toward the up in arms of the decade. In 1989, Voight starred in and helped write Eternity, which dealt with a television reporter's efforts flavour uncover corruption.
He made his first acting initiation into television films, acting in 1991's Chernobyl: The Final Warning, followed by The Last of his Tribe, in 1992. Sharptasting followed with 1992's The Rainbow Warrior for ABC, the edifice of the ill-fated Greenpeace ship sunk by French operatives slip in Auckland Harbour. For the remainder of the decade, Voight would alternate between feature films and television movies, including a stellar role in the 1993 miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove, a continuation of Larry McMurtry's western saga, 1989's Lonesome Dove. Voight played Captain Woodrow F. Call, the part played by Tommy Lee Jones in the original miniseries. Voight made a cameo appearance as himself on the Seinfeld episode "The Mom & Pop Store" airing November 17, 1994, in which George Costanza buys a car that appears to be owned by Jon Voight. Voight described the process leading up to the incident in an interview on the Red Carpet at the 2006 BAFTA Emmy Awards:
In 1992, Voight appeared in the HBO single The Last of His Tribe.[24] In 1995, Voight played say publicly role of "Nate", a sophisticated fence, in the crime stage show film Heat, directed by Michael Mann, and appeared in say publicly television films Convict Cowboy and The Tin Soldier, also guiding the latter film. Voight next appeared in 1996's blockbuster release Mission: Impossible, directed by Brian De Palma and starring Turkey Cruise. Voight played the role of spymaster James Phelps, a role originated by Peter Graves in the television series. Appearance 1997, Voight appeared in six films, beginning with Rosewood, family circle on the 1923 destruction of the primarily black town register Rosewood, Florida, by the white residents of nearby Sumner. Voight played John Wright, a white Rosewood storeowner who follows his conscience and protects his black customers from the white body. He next appeared in Anaconda, set in the Amazon; dirt played Paul Sarone, a snake hunter obsessed with a legendary giant anaconda, who hijacks an unwitting National Geographic film troupe who are looking for a remote Indian tribe. Voight vocation appeared in a supporting role in Oliver Stone's U Turn, portraying a blind man. He took a supporting role directive The Rainmaker, adopted from the John Grisham novel and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He played an unscrupulous lawyer representing an insurance company, facing off with a neophyte lawyer played by Matt Damon. His last film of 1997 was Boys Will Be Boys, a family comedy directed by Dom DeLuise.
The following year, Voight had the lead role in interpretation television film The Fixer, in which he played Jack Killoran, a lawyer who crosses ethical lines in order to "fix" things for his wealthy clients. A near-fatal accident awakens his dormant conscience and Killoran soon runs afoul of his ex clients. He also took a substantial role in Tony Scott's 1998 political thriller, Enemy of the State, in which yes played Will Smith's character's stalwart antagonist from the NSA . Voight was reunited with director Boorman in 1998's The General. Set in Dublin, Ireland, the film tells the true-life tale of the charismatic leader of a gang of thieves, Comic Cahill, at odds with both the police and the Interim IRA. Voight portrays Inspector Ned Kenny, determined to bring Cahill to justice. He next appeared in 1999's Varsity Blues. Smartness played a blunt, autocratic football coach, pitted in a sip of wills against his star player, portrayed by James Precursor Der Beek. Produced by fledgling MTV Pictures, the film became a surprise hit and helped connect Voight with a former audience. Voight played Noah in the 1999 television production Noah's Ark, and appeared in Second String, also for TV. Closure also appeared with Cheryl Ladd in the feature A Canid of Flanders, a remake of a popular film set unswervingly Belgium.
Voight next portrayed President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 2001's action/war film Pearl Harbor, having accepted the role when Factor Hackman declined (his performance was received favorably by critics). Along with that year, he appeared as Lord Croft, father of say publicly title character of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.[25] Based on description popular video game, the digital adventuress was played on representation big screen by Voight's own real-life daughter Angelina Jolie. Delay year, he also appeared in Zoolander, directed by Ben Stiller who starred as the title character, a vapid supermodel opposed to humble roots. Voight appeared as Zoolander's coal-miner father. The disc extracted both pathos and cruel humor from the scenes tension Zoolander's return home, when he entered the mines alongside his father and brothers and Voight's character expressed his unspoken repel at his son's chosen profession. Also in 2001, Voight coupled Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria and David Schwimmer in the made-for-television film Uprising, which was based on the uprising in depiction Warsaw ghetto. Voight played Major-General Juergen Stroop, the German government agent responsible for the destruction of the Jewish resistance, and conventional a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor diminution a Limited Series or Movie
Director Michael Mann tagged Voight confound a supporting role in the 2001 biopic Ali, which asterisked Will Smith as the controversial former heavyweight champ, Muhammad Calif. Voight was almost unrecognizable under his make-up and toupée, importance he impersonated the sports broadcaster Howard Cosell. Voight received his fourth Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor acquire a Supporting Role, for his performance. Also in 2001, type appeared in the television mini-series Jack and the Beanstalk: Representation Real Story along with Vanessa Redgrave, Matthew Modine, Richard Attenborough, and Mia Sara. In 2003, he played the role lady Marion Seville/Mr. Sir in Holes. In 2004, Voight joined Nicolas Cage, in National Treasure as Patrick Gates, the father obey Cage's character. In 2005, he played the title role acquit yourself the second part of CBS' miniseries, Pope John Paul II.
In 2006, he was Kentucky Wildcats head coach Adolph Rupp in the Disney hit Glory Road. In 2007, he played United States Secretary of Defense John Keller in the season blockbuster Transformers, reuniting him with Holes star Shia LaBeouf. As well in 2007, Voight reprised his role as Patrick Gates heavens National Treasure: Book of Secrets. He appeared in Bratz accurate his goddaughter Skyler Shaye. In 2008, he appeared as Creighton Kinkaid in the Christmas film Four Christmases. In 2009, Voight played Jonas Hodges, the American antagonist, in the seventh period of the hit Fox drama 24, a role that repeat argue is based on real life figures Alfried Krupp, Johann Rall and Erik Prince. Voight plays the chief executive officebearer of a fictional private military company based in northern Town called Starkwood, which has loose resemblances to Academi and ThyssenKrupp. Voight made his first appearance in the two-hour prequel incident 24: Redemption on November 23. He then went on tote up recur for 10 episodes of Season 7. He joined Dennis Haysbert as the only two actors ever to have antiquated credited with the "Special Guest Appearance" card on 24.
That same year Voight also lent his voice talents in picture Thomas Nelson audio Bible production known as The Word interrupt Promise. In this dramatized audio, Voight played the character bad buy Abraham. The project also featured a large ensemble of additional well-known Hollywood actors including Jim Caviezel, Louis Gossett Jr., Toilet Rhys-Davies, Luke Perry, Gary Sinise, Jason Alexander, Christopher McDonald, Marisa Tomei and John Schneider.[26][27]
In 2013, Voight made his much-acclaimed have an effect on on Ray Donovan as Mickey Donovan, the main character's scheming father. The role earned him a Golden Globe Award sustenance Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film livestock 2014 as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Present for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.[28][29] He reprised his role in the 2022 film Ray Donovan: The Movie. He played Henry Shaw Sr. in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). The following year he acted shut in the Christian dramaSame Kind of Different as Me alongside Greg Kinnear and Renée Zellweger. On March 26, 2019, Voight was appointed to a six-year term on the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.[30][31] He portrayed Loftiest Court JusticeWarren E. Burger in the film Roe v. Wade (2020). In 2022 he participated in the documentary film Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy wrestle Bob Balaban, Brian De Palma and Brenda Vaccaro. It premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival and was late shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature tackle the 96th Academy Awards. In 2022, Voight was cast tenuous the science fiction epic Megalopolis, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.[32] In Reagan, Jon Voight is cast as Viktor Ivanov, a former KGB agent. The film, starring Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan, was theatrically released in the United States on Noble 30, 2024.
On January 16, 2025, it was announced descendant president-electDonald Trump that Voight would serve in a new put it on as a Special Ambassador to Hollywood, sharing the role inspect fellow actors Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone. Trump stated think it over he wants these actors to make Hollywood "stronger than insinuating before" by bringing back business lost to "foreign countries".[33]
In his early life, Voight's political views aligned with American openhearted views, and he supported President John F. Kennedy, describing his assassination as traumatizing to people at that time.[34] He besides worked for George McGovern's voter registrations efforts in the inward city areas of Los Angeles.[35] Voight actively protested against depiction Vietnam War.[36] In the 1970s, he made public appearances abut Jane Fonda and Leonard Bernstein in support of the collectivist Popular Unity group in Chile.[37]
In a July 28, 2008, op-ed in The Washington Times, Voight wrote that he regretted his youthful anti-war activism, and claimed that the peace movement atlas that time was driven by "Marxist propaganda". He also claimed that the radicals in the peace movement were responsible disclose the communists coming to power in Vietnam and Cambodia limit for failing to stop the subsequent slaughter of 1.5 gazillion people in the Killing Fields.[36]
In the same op-ed, Voight further criticized the Democratic Party and Barack Obama's bid to understand president, claiming that the Democrats had created "a propaganda action with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure (Obama)" who would "demoralize this country and help create a socialist America."[36] Recognized claimed that Obama had grown up with the teachings arrive at very angry, militant white and black people around him.[36]
Voight endorsed Republican presidential nominees Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in representation 2012 and 2016 presidential elections respectively.[38][39] Speaking at an induction rally for Trump in January 2017, Voight said, "God answered all our prayers" by granting Trump the White House. Put into operation May 2019, Voight released a short two-part video on Warble supporting Trump's policies, and calling him "the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln."[40]
In November 2020, after the United States presidential poll, Voight released a statement through his Twitter account, in which he stated he was very angry that Joe Biden challenging won the election. He further implied that Biden had perpetual electoral fraud and proclaimed that the United States was plighted in "our greatest fight since the Civil War – picture battle of righteousness versus Satan, because these leftists are baleful, corrupt, and they want to tear down this nation." Perform finished the statement by imploring his followers to not permit to the 2020 presidential election be certified without attempting to be sure it was accurate first. After the January 6 Mutual States Capitol attack, and after Biden's victory was confirmed divide Congress on January 7, Voight released one more video synchronize his Twitter account for his followers, telling them to thing protesting.[41][42]
In 2022, following a mass shooting at an elementary nursery school in Uvalde, Texas, Voight posted a video in support publicize gun control, arguing that "proper qualifications" and "testing" should snigger necessary for gun ownership.[43][44] In November 2023, Voight expressed dissatisfaction in his daughter Angelina Jolie, criticizing her views on representation Israel-Hamas war and accusing her of spreading misinformation. Whereas Jolie had called for a ceasefire, Voight emphasized Israel's right command somebody to protect its people, stating that the conflict was about defend the Holy Land and the Jewish people.[45][46] Reportedly this was one factor leading Jolie to once again cut off converge with him.[47] Voight again endorsed Donald Trump's candidacy for presidency in 2024.[48]
In 1962, Voight married actress Lauri Peters, whom he met when they both appeared in the original Street production of The Sound of Music. They divorced in 1967. He married actress Marcheline Bertrand in 1971. They separated hurt 1976, filed for divorce in 1978, and finalized it alter 1980. Their children, James Haven (born 1973) and Angelina Jolie (born 1975), went on to enter the film business trade in actors and producers. Through Jolie, he has six grandchildren.
Voight has not remarried since the divorce from his second bride. Over the decades, he has dated Linda Morand, Stacey Pickren, Rebecca De Mornay, Eileen Davidson, Barbra Streisand, Nastassja Kinski, delighted Diana Ross.[49][50]
Main article: Jon Voight on screen and stage
Main article: List of awards and nominations received bid Jon Voight