Jon Voight is a complex and committed actor who had his greatest screen success in the late 1960s and 1970s. Tall, blond, and blue-eyed, he has mostly shied away from traditional leading-man roles to play characters who live on the fringe of society.
The son of a golf pro, Jon Voight intended to become either a painter or a scenic designer but found his calling in the theater while attending Catholic University, from which he graduated in 1960. He went on to study acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse from 1960 to 1964, receiving both emotional and financial support from his parents. As a result of their generosity, Jon Voight was able to avoid the actor's alternate profession of waiting on tables.
He had his first major break when he joined the Broadway cast of The Sound of Music as a replacement during that hit show's long run, playing the role of Rolf (and singing "You Are Sixteen") for six months. He received far more attention from critics for his leading role in a revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. As it happened, DUSTIN HOFFMAN was the assistant stage manager during that show, and the two actors developed a mutual respect. Later, Hoffman recommended Jon Voight for the role of Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969), turning his friend into an Oscar nominee and a star virtually overnight.
Midnight Cowboy, however, was not Jon Voight's first film role. After acting in stock and on TV, he made his movie debut in Hour of the Gun (1967). Among other earlier films, he also worked with Hoffman in Madigan's Millions, a movie that was made in 1967 before either of them were stars and finally released in 1970 when they were both hot properties.
Jon Voight's film choices during his career have often reflected his liberal and socially conscious beliefs; from the very beginning, he has been rather picky about his movie roles. As a consequence, he hasn't appeared on screen quite as often as he might have. He found his work in the 1970s, with magnificent performances in Deliverance (1972) and Coming Home (1978), winning an Oscar for his performance as a paraplegic Vietnam veteran in the latter film. He was also quite winning in some extremely mediocre movies, including the counterculture exploitation movie The Revolutionary (1970), the sentimental Conrack (1974), and the even more sentimental The Champ (1979).
He continued to work in films during the 1980s but with considerably less success. His best-known movie of the 1980s was Runaway Train (1985), in which he and Eric Roberts wowed the critics with their over-the-top performances. Most of his other films of the 1980s, such as Lookin' to Get Out (1982) and Table for Five (1983), received mediocre reviews and did little business at the box office. He was little seen on the screen in the late 1980s.
Jon Voight regained prominence as a skilled character actor during the 1990s as a result of a great variety of roles, such as the obsessed football coach in Varsity Blues (1999), helping that film to earn $52 million, and as Jim Phelps in BRIAN DE PALMA's Mission Impossible, which earned more than $180 million. Jon Voight specialized in playing distinctive villains, such as the ruthless government thug in Enemy of the State (1998). In 1997, Jon Voight was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a crooked insurance company executive in John Grisham's The Rainmaker.
That same year, he also appeared in U-Turn and Anaconda. In the war epic Pearl Harbor, Jon Voight played President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but his most convincing portrayal of a real-life character was his role as Howard Cosell in Ali (2001), which justly earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Articleinput.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.
Note: This article was sent to us by: Carrie Ordess at 11102010
1. Abbot and Costello were very popular during the sound era
All articles are property of their respective authors. Please read our Privacy Policy!
© 2009 ArticleInput.com.
Partners: Damenmode