Nicholas Cage Biography - Nicholas Cage Childhood, Nicholas Cage Profile

Born on: January 7, 1964

Born in: Long Beach, California

Nationality: American

Career: Actor, Producer, Director

Nicolas Cage is a very well-known and extremely acclaimed American actor, who has an Academy Award to his credit. He also owns a production company -Saturn Films, and has been involved in production for quite sometime. Apart from that, he can also be seen working as a director, making him a multi-talented personality. Till date, Nicholas Cage has been most known for his method acting and is also considered a prototype for the same. He made his debut in the year 1981 and since then, has constantly been moving on the path of success.

Childhood

Nicolas Cage was born as ‘Nicolas Kim Coppola’ on 7^th January 1964, in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, is a professor of literature, while Cage's mother, Joy Vogelsang, is a dancer and choreographer. Nicholas’ parents got divorced in 1976, when he was only 12 years old. Through his father, Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire. His mother is of German descent, while his father is an Italian American

Cage is also the cousin of director Sofia Coppola and actors, Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. He has two brothers, Christopher Coppola - a director, and Marc "The Cope" Coppola - a New York radio personality. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and continues to be one till date. He went to Beverly Hills High School, but dropped out before graduation. Thereafter, he started pursuing the career of an actor.

Career

Nicholas Cage made his debut in the year 1981, with the movie ‘The Best of Times’. He changed his name to ‘Nicholas Cage’, from ‘Nicolas Kim Coppola’, early in his career. The reason was that he wanted to avoid being charged with the tag of ‘being favored’ as the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola. His ‘feature film debut’ came with ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’, in which he had a one-minute role opposite Sean Penn. Since then, Cage has done numerous movies till date, some huge successes, while some major flops.

The irony with Cage has been that some of his critically acclaimed films have failed to generate major revenues, while the ones that were rejected by critics have been amongst his highest grosser flicks. For example, in 2005, he starred in two offbeat, non-mainstream films - ‘Lord of War’ and ‘The Weather Man’. Though both of them received good reviews from the critics, they failed to garner significant audience. On the other hand, ‘Ghost Rider’ (2007), was reduced to shreds by critics, but was a major hit worldwide.

Nicholas has received success, in the form of high collections at the box-office, mainly from his forays into the action-adventure genre. Be it ‘National Treasure’, his second highest grossing film to date, or ‘The Rock’, in which he plays a young FBI chemical weapons expert, adventure has always suited him. His other successful films, belonging to the same genre, have been ‘Face/Off’, ‘World Trade Center’, ‘Grindhouse’, etc. His most recent films (2007) were ‘Ghost Rider’, ‘Grindhouse’, ‘Next’ and ‘National Treasure: Book of Secrets’.

Till date, Nicholas Cage has received two Academy Award nominations, one for his role as a suicidal alcoholic in ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ and other for playing real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in ‘Adaptation’. Amongst his most successful films are ‘It Could Happen to You’, ‘Leaving Las Vegas’, ‘The Rock’, ‘Con Air’, ‘Face/Off’, ‘City of Angels’, ‘Gone in Sixty Seconds’, ‘National Treasure 9’, ‘Ghost Rider’, ‘National Treasure: Book of Secrets’, etc.

Direction and Production

Nicholas Cage made his directorial debut with ‘Sonny’, a low-budget drama that starred James Franco as a male prostitute. The film did not receive good reviews and had a short run in a limited number of theatres. His production debut was with the movie ‘Shadow of the Vampire’, which got nominated for an Academy Award. He was also the producer of ‘The Life of David Gale’, a death penalty-themed thriller that had Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet. Cage is presently serving as the executive producer of ‘The Dresden Files’, on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Personal Life

Nicholas Cage dated actress Elizabeth Daily in his early 20s and the affair lasted only two years. Thereafter, he started dating Uma Thurman. The year 1988 saw him going around with Christina Fulton, with whom he now shares the joint custody of their son, Weston Coppola Cage. Cage has been married three times. His first marriage was with Patricia Arquette, with whom he tied the knot in April 1995. The union came to an end six years later, in May 2001. Later he met Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, and married her in August 2002.

The couple separated hardly four months after marriage i.e. in December 2002, and got divorced in 2004. Nicholas Cage met Alice Kim, a waitress at the Los Angeles restaurant Kabuki, while visiting a Korean Nightclub, Le Privé. The couple fell in love and soon had a son, Kal-El (born October 3, 2005). They got married in an island, situated off the coast of New Zealand. Alice also had a minor role in ‘Next’, a movie produced by Cage in 2007. Presently, the couple is living together.

Filmography

1981 - Best Of Times

1982 - Fast Times at Ridgemont High

1983 - The Outsiders, Valley Girl, Rumble Fish

1984 - Racing with the Moon, The Cotton Club, Birdy Sergeant

1986 - The Boy in Blue, Peggy Sue Got Married

1987 - Raising Arizona, Moonstruck

1988 - Never On Tuesday

1989 - Vampire's Kiss

1990 - Time To Kill, Fire Birds, Wild at Heart, Zandalee Johnny

1992 - Honeymoon in Vegas

1993 - Amos & Andrew, Deadfall