Cuba Gooding Jr. Age, Height, Partner, Net Worth & Biography

Cuba Gooding Jr. is an American actor best known as Rod Tidwell, the football player in Jerry Maguire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and delivered the famous line “Show me the money!” Born on January 2, 1968, in The Bronx, New York, Gooding, 58, has built a career in film, television and theatre that includes Boyz n the Hood, As Good as It Gets and American Crime Story.

Quick Facts

Who Is Cuba Gooding Jr.?

Cuba Gooding Jr. is an actor whose most famous performance is also one of the most quoted in modern film. As Rod Tidwell, a wide receiver who wants a better contract and a better life, in Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire (1996), Gooding played a man who is funny, proud and, in the end, deeply human, and his cry of “Show me the money!” became a catchphrase around the world. The performance won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and it made him a star at the age of 28. He has also played in Boyz n the Hood (1991), in which he played Tré Styles, a young man growing up in South Central Los Angeles, and in As Good as It Gets (1997), in which he played Frank Sachs, an art dealer.

Beyond those roles, Gooding has shown a wide range. He played Carl Brashear, the first African-American master diver in the United States Navy, in Men of Honor (2000), opposite Robert De Niro, and he played O.J. Simpson in Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016), a performance that earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series. He has also worked on stage, playing in The Trip to Bountiful on Broadway and in other productions, and he has taken on roles in films such as A Few Good Men, Outbreak, As Good as It Gets and Radio.

Early Life & Background

Cuba Michael Gooding Jr. was born in The Bronx, New York, the son of Cuba Gooding Sr., a soul singer and the lead vocalist of the group The Main Ingredient, best known for the song “Everybody Plays the Fool,” and Shirley Sullivan, a singer. The family moved to Los Angeles when Gooding was a child, and he attended North Hollywood High School, where he played football and became interested in acting. He appeared as a dancer, as a breakdancer, and in music videos, and he worked as a model and as a dancer before becoming an actor.

He made his acting debut on television, playing in the series Hill Street Blues (1987) and in MacGyver (1988), and he appeared in the film Coming to America (1988), in which he had a small, uncredited role as a barber shop customer. He went on to work in Boyz n the Hood, a film directed by John Singleton, which brought him to wide attention, and in A Few Good Men (1992), in which he played Carl Hammaker, a lawyer. He has said that his background as a dancer and as a singer taught him discipline and a respect for performance, and that it gave him a different perspective on acting.

Career

Gooding’s career in film includes Boyz n the Hood, A Few Good Men, Judgment Night (1993), Jerry Maguire, As Good as It Gets, What Dreams May Come (1998), Men of Honor, Rat Race (2001), Radio (2003), in which he played James Robert “Radio” Kennedy, a man with an intellectual disability, and American Crime Story, in which he played O.J. Simpson. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire, and he has been nominated for the Emmy Award for American Crime Story and for The People v. O.J. Simpson.

In recent years, Gooding has worked in American Crime Story, in The Book of Negroes (2015), in Selma (2014), in which he played Fred Gray, a lawyer, and in Life in a Year (2020). He was married to Sara Kapfer, a schoolteacher, from 1994 to 2017, and they have three children together: Spencer, Mason and Piper. He has faced legal issues in recent years, including charges related to alleged sexual misconduct, which he has denied in some cases and which were settled in others; this profile does not repeat those allegations in detail, as they remain disputed and are not the focus of his professional work. He is known for his energy, for his talent as an actor, and for a career that has lasted for more than thirty years.

Facts About Cuba Gooding Jr.

• He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire in 1997.
• He played Tré Styles in Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire (1996).
• He played O.J. Simpson in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016), earning an Emmy nomination.
• His father, Cuba Gooding Sr., was the lead singer of The Main Ingredient, best known for “Everybody Plays the Fool.”
• He was married to Sara Kapfer from 1994 to 2017, and they have three children together.

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