James Woods Biography

Birthday: 1947-04-18
Place of Birth: Vernal, Utah USA
Height: 6' (1.83 m)
Mini Biography James Woods
Wiki Biography: James Woods grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he graduated from Pilgrim High School in 1965 near the top of his class. Afterwards, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He pledged the Theta Delta Chi fraternity on campus. Woods later dropped out to pursue his acting career during his sophomore year in 1967. He left for New York with his fraternity brother Martin Donovan, also a sophomore. He is most known for his dark, intense roles in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Salvador (1986), Casino (1995), Nixon (1995), and Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
Mini Biography James Howard Woods was born on April 18, 1947 in Vernal, Utah, the son of a United States Army intelligence officer. Leanly built, strangely handsome actor-producer-director with intense eyes, swarthy complexion, and a sometimes untrustworthy grin has been impressing audiences for over three decades with his compelling performances. He earned a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; dropping out of MIT during his sophomore year, he then headed off to New York with his fraternity brother Martin Donovan to pursue aspirations to appear on the stage. After appearing in a handful of New York City theater productions, Woods scored his first film role in All the Way Home (1971) (TV) and followed that up with meager supporting roles in The Way We Were (1973) and The Choirboys (1977).
However, it was Woods' coldblooded performance as the cop killer in The Onion Field (1979), based on a Joseph Wambaugh novel, that seized the attention of cinemagoers to his on-screen power. Woods quickly followed up with another role in another Joseph Wambaugh film adaptation, The Black Marble (1980), as a sleazy and unstable cable-TV-station owner in David Cronenberg's mind-bending and prophetic Videodrome (1983), as gangster Max Bercovicz in Sergio Leones mammoth epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984), and scored a best actor Academy Award nomination as abrasive journalist Richard Boyle in Oliver Stone's gritty and unsettling Salvador (1986).
There seemed to be no stopping the rise of this star as he continued to amaze cinema-goers with his remarkable versatility and his ability to create such intense, memorable characters. The decade of the 1990s started off strongly with high praise for his role as Roy Cohn in the television production of Citizen Cohn (1992) (TV). Woods was equally impressive as sneaky hustler Lester Diamond who cons Sharon Stone in Casino (1995), made a tremendous H.R. Haldeman in Nixon (1995), portrayed serial killer Carl Panzram in Killer: A Journal of Murder (1995), and then as accused civil rights assassin Byron De La Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996).
Not to be typecast solely as hostile hoodlums, Woods has further expanded his range to encompass providing voiceovers for animated productions including Hercules (1997), Hooves of Fire (1999) (TV), and Stuart Little 2 (2002). Woods also recently appeared in the critically praised The Virgin Suicides (1999), in the coming-of-age movie Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), as a corrupt medico in Any Given Sunday (1999), and in the comedy-horror spoof Scary Movie 2 (2001). A remarkable performer with an incredibly diverse range of acting talent, Woods remains one of Hollywood's outstanding leading men.
James WoodsPhotos & Pictures






Filmography
TV Title | Appeared As | Year | Genre |
---|---|---|---|
Against All Odds | 1984 | Action | |
True Believer | Eddie Dodd | 1989 | Drama |
Disney's Hercules | Hades | 1998 - 1999 | |
Shark | Sebastian Stark | 2007 - 2008 | Crime |
Mary And Martha | Mary's Father | 2013 | Family |
Movies Title | Appeared As | Year | Genre |
---|---|---|---|
Eyewitness | Aldo | 1956 | Comedy |
The Specialist | Ned Trent | 1975 | 0 |
The Disappearance of Aimee | 1976 | Drama | |
Holocaust | Karl Weiss | 1978 | Drama, History, Romance |
The Hard Way | Detective Lt. John Moss, NYPD | 1979 | 0 |
The Onion Field | 1979 | Comedy | |
Fast-Walking | Fast-Walking Miniver | 1982 | |
Hercules | Hades; Lord of the Underworld | 1983 | 0, 0 |
Videodrome | Max Renn | 1983 | Reality Tv, Game Show |
Once Upon a Time in America | Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz | 1984 | 0 |
Against All Odds | 1984 | Action, Adventure, Crime | |
Cat's Eye | Dick Morrison | 1985 | Comedy, Horror, Thriller |
Salvador | Richard Boyle | 1986 | 0, 0 |
Best Seller | 1987 | 0, Comedy, 0 | |
Cop | Lloyd Hopkins | 1988 | |
The Boost | 1988 | Drama, Romance | |
True Believer | Eddie Dodd | 1989 | Comedy |
My Name is Bill W. | 1989 | Drama | |
Immediate Family | Michael Spector | 1989 | Drama |
Citizen Cohn | Roy Marcus Cohn | 1992 | |
Straight Talk | 1992 | Comedy | |
Diggstown | 1992 | Drama, Sport | |
The Getaway | Jack Benyon | 1994 | Action, Adventure, Crime |
For Better or Worse | Reggie Makeshift | 1995 | Action, Comedy, Drama |
Curse of the Starving Class | Weston Tate | 1995 | Drama |
Indictment: The McMartin Trial | Danny Davis | 1995 | Drama, Thriller |
Casino | Lester Diamond | 1995 | Crime, Drama |
Nixon | H.R. Haldeman | 1995 | Drama |
Killer: A Journal Of Murder | 1996 | Crime, Drama | |
Ghosts of Mississippi | Byron De La Beckwith | 1996 | Drama |
The Contact | Michael Kitz | 1997 | |
Kicked in the Head | Uncle Sam | 1997 | Comedy, Crime, Drama |
Another Day in Paradise | Mel | 1998 | |
Vampires | Jack Crow | 1998 | 0, Reality Tv, Game Show, 0 |
Hercules: Zero to Hero | 1998 | ||
Any Given Sunday | Dr. Harvey Mandrake | 1999 | 0, 0 |
True Crime | Alan Mann | 1999 | 0, Game Show |
The Virgin Suicides | Ronald Lisbon | 2000 | 0 |
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within | General Hein | 2001 | Animation, Action, Adventure |
Riding in Cars with Boys | 2001 | Comedy, Drama | |
John Q | Dr. Raymond Turner | 2002 | Game Show, Comedy |
Stuart Little 2 | The Evil Falcon | 2002 | 0, 0, Drama |
Race to Space | 2002 | Drama, Family | |
Mickey's House of Villains | Hades | 2002 | |
Little Warriors | Narrator | 2002 | |
Northfork | Walter O'Brien | 2003 | 0, 0 |
Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story | Rudolph 'Rudy' Giuliani | 2003 | Drama |
Ark | 2004 | ||
The Easter Egg Adventure | Grab Takit | 2004 | Animation, Family |
This Girl's Life | Pops | 2004 | |
Be Cool | Tommy Athens | 2005 | 0, Comedy |
Ark | Jallak | 2005 | Animation, Action, Drama |
End Game | 2006 | Crime, Drama, Mystery | |
Time to Kill | Ozzy Ridisc | 2006 | Horror |
Surf's Up | Reggie Belafonte | 2007 | Drama, 0 |
Straw Dogs | Tom Heddon | 2011 | Thriller |
Jobs | Jack Dudman | 2013 | 0 |
Officer Down | Captain Verona | 2013 | Crime, Drama |
White House Down | Walker | 2013 | Action, Drama, Thriller |
Night Moves | 2014 | Game Show | |
Jamesy Boy | Lt. Falton | 2014 |