Early life

Woods was born in Vernal, Utah, and had a brother ten years younger than him. His father, Gail Peyton Woods, was an army intelligence officer who died in 1960 after routine surgery. His mother, Martha A. (née Smith), operated a pre-school after her husband's death and later married Thomas E. Dixon. Woods grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he attended Pilgrim High School, from which he graduated in 1965. He is of part Irish descent and was raised Catholic, briefly serving as an altar boy.

Woods ultimately chose to pursue his undergraduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he majored in political science (though he originally planned a career as an eye surgeon). While at MIT, Woods pledged to Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. He was also an active member of the student theatre group "Dramashop" where he both acted in and directed a number of plays. In order to pursue a career in acting, he dropped out of MIT in 1969 before his graduation. Woods has said that he became an actor thanks to Tim Affleck (father of actor Ben Affleck), who was a stage manager at the Theatre Company of Boston while Woods was a student there.

Career

Theater

Woods appeared in thirty-six plays before making his Broadway debut in 1970 at the Lyceum Theatre, in the first US production of Frank McMahon's Borstal Boy. He got the part by pretending he was British. He returned to Broadway the following year to portray David Darst in Daniel Berrigan's The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. In 1971, he played Bob Rettie in the American premiere of Michael Weller's Moonchildren at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The production moved to Broadway the following year and Woods won a Theatre World Award for his performance. He returned to Broadway in 1973 to portray Steven Cooper in the original production of Jean Kerr's Finishing Touches.

Film and television

A prominent Hollywood character actor, Woods has appeared in over 130 films and television series as of 2013, beginning with his first television appearance All the Way Home in 1971 and his film debut The Visitors in 1972. He is known for his dark, intense characters and villains. Early examples include his portrayals of a sadistic murderer in 1979's The Onion Field, and of serial killer Carl Panzram in 1994's Killer: A Journal of Murder. He appeared in an episode of The Rockford Files, playing a son whose parents were murdered. He has been twice nominated for an Academy Award: first, for Best Actor, for playing a journalist chronicling events in El Salvador in the early Oliver Stone film Salvador (1986), and again in 1996, for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance as real-life white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith in drama Ghosts of Mississippi. One of his favorite film roles is Max, the domineering gangster, in Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). In 1995, Woods took the role of pimp Lester Diamond in Martin Scorsese's Casino. That same year, he portrayed H. R. Haldeman in Nixon, the biopic of Richard M. Nixon, directed by Oliver Stone. In one of his most prominent television roles, Woods starred in the CBS legal drama series Shark, which ran for two seasons between 2006 and 2008. He played an infamous defense lawyer who, after growing disillusioned when his client commits a murder, becomes a successful prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

Woods was offered a leading role in the low-budget film Reservoir Dogs, but his agent rejected the script without showing it to the actor. When Woods learned of this some time later, he fired his agents (CAA), replacing them with ICM. In 2006, Woods starred in End Game. He makes a cameo appearance as himself in the first episode of the third season of Entourage. In 2011, Woods appeared as Richard S. Fuld, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers, in HBO's Too Big to Fail, for which he gained an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Mini-series or Movie.

Voice work

Woods has lent his voice talents to many animated television shows and feature films. He garnered critical praise for his voice work as Hades in the 1997 Disney film Hercules and he won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2000 for the role in the follow-up television series (for the 1999 season). He also voiced Phillium Benedict, the twisted former headmaster who attempts to abolish summer vacation in the 2001 film, Recess: School's Out. He also appeared as a fictional version of himself in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer and Apu" and in seven episodes of Family Guy, which is set in Woods's home state of Rhode Island. Other references in Family Guy include the local high school, James Woods High School, and a forest named James Woods mentioned in the episode "The Fat Guy Strangler". In 2004, Woods voiced Jallak in the animated film Ark and Mike Toreno in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Personal life

During a press interview for Kingdom Hearts II, Woods noted that he is an avid video game player. He is a dealer of antiques in Rhode Island. On December 14, 2015, while Woods was driving alone westbound through an ice storm on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, a driver who was speeding lost control and crashed into five other cars. Woods swerved his Jeep Grand Cherokee to avoid the accident and collided with a retaining wall, but slid backwards into a guard rail 100 feet (30 m) above the Colorado River. Woods suffered a minor concussion from the accident.

Poker

Woods is an avid poker player, playing in cash games and many tournaments. He played in the WPT's Hollywood Home Game series in 2004 for the American Stroke Association charity. As of 2015, he has to his credit over 35 major event finishes, including a seventh place at the 2015 World Series of Poker in the $3000 No Limit Shootout event.

Lawsuits

In 1988, Woods sued Sean Young for $2 million, accusing her of stalking him after they appeared together in the movie The Boost. Young later countered that Woods had overreacted after she had spurned his advances on set. The suit was settled out of court in August 1989. Young was awarded $227,000 to cover her legal costs.

On July 26, 2006, Woods' younger brother, Michael Jeffrey Woods, died from cardiac arrest at the age of 49. Woods sued Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island, alleging negligence. The suit was settled in 2009.

On July 30, 2015, he sued a Twitter user for $10 million over an allegedly libelous tweet. In Oct 2015 James Woods lost his legal bid to learn who was behind the Twitter account who accused him of being a ‘Cocaine Addict.'However, on February 2, 2016, Judge Mel Recana gave the go ahead to pursue the case further. It is believed that this will force Twitter to reveal the identity of the anonymous user.

Politics

Woods's name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (August 17, 2006) that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Lebanon War. He has become well known for supporting conservative political views on Twitter. Early in the 2016 presidential race, Woods endorsed Carly Fiorina for the Republican nomination. However, in November 2015, Woods decided to endorse Sen. Ted Cruz.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972	The Visitors	Bill Schmidt
1972	Hickey & Boggs	Lt. Wyatt
1973	The Way We Were	Frankie McVeigh
1974	The Gambler	Bank Officer
1975	Night Moves	Quentin
1976	The Billion Dollar Bubble	Art Lewis
1976	Alex & the Gypsy	Crainpool
1977	The Choirboys	Harold Bloomguard
1979	The Onion Field	Gregory Ulas Powell
1980	The Black Marble	The Fiddler
1981	Eyewitness	Aldo Mercer
1982	Fast-Walking	Fast-Walking
1982	Split Image	Charles Pratt
1983	Videodrome	Max Renn
1984	Against All Odds	Jake Wise
1984	Once Upon a Time in America	Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz
1985	Cat's Eye	Dick Morrison
1985	Joshua Then and Now	Joshua Shapiro
1986	Salvador	Richard Boyle
1987	Best Seller	Cleve
1988	Cop	Lloyd Hopkins	Also producer
1988	The Boost	Lenny Brown
1989	True Believer	Eddie Dodd
1989	Immediate Family	Michael Spector
1991	The Hard Way	Detective Lt. John Moss, NYPD
1992	Straight Talk	Jack Russell
1992	Diggstown	Gabriel Caine
1992	Chaplin	Joseph Scott
1994	The Getaway	Jack Benyon
1994	Curse of the Starving Class	Weston Tate
1994	The Specialist	Ned Trent
1995	For Better or Worse	Reggie Makeshift
1995	Killer: A Journal of Murder	Carl Panzram
1995	Casino	Lester Diamond
1995	Nixon	H. R. Haldeman
1996	Ghosts of Mississippi	Byron De La Beckwith
1997	Kicked in the Head	Uncle Sam
1997	Hercules	Hades (voice)
1997	Contact	Michael Kitz
1998	Vampires	Jack Crow
1998	Another Day in Paradise	Mel	Also producer
1999	True Crime	Alan Mann
1999	The Virgin Suicides	Ronald Lisbon
1999	Hercules: Zero to Hero	Hades (voice)	Direct-to-video
1999	The General's Daughter	Col. Robert Moore
1999	Any Given Sunday	Dr. Harvey Mandrake
1999	Play It to the Bone	Ringside Fan
2001	Recess: School's Out	Dr. Philliam "Phil" Benedict (voice)
2001	Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	General Hein (voice)
2001	Scary Movie 2	Father McFeely
2001	Riding in Cars with Boys	Mr. Leonard Donofrio
2001	Race to Space	Dr. Wilhelm von Huber
2002	John Q	Dr. Raymond Turner
2002	Stuart Little 2	Falcon (voice)
2002	Mickey's House of Villains	Hades (voice)	Direct-to-video
2002	Rolie Polie Olie:The Great Defender of Fun	Gloominus Maximus (voice)	Replaced by Paul Haddad
2003	Northfork	Walter O'Brien	Also executive producer
2003	This Girl's Life	Pops
2005	Pretty Persuasion	Hank Joyce
2005	Be Cool	Tommy Athens
2005	Ark	Jallak (voice)
2006	End Game	Vaughn Stevens
2007	Surf's Up	Reggie Belafonte (voice)
2008	Big Fat Important Movie	Agent Grosslight
2010	Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths	Owlman (voice)	Direct-to-video
2011	Straw Dogs	Tom Heddon
2012	Officer Down	Captain Verona
2013	White House Down	Martin Walker
2013	Jobs	Dean Jack Dudman
2014	Jamesy Boy	Lt. Falton

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	Kojak	Caz	Episode: "Death Is Not a Passing Grade"
1974	The Rockford Files	Larry Kirkoff	Episode: "The Kirkoff Case"
1975	Welcome Back, Kotter	Alex Welles	Episode: "The Great Debate"
1975	The Streets of San Francisco	Doug	Episode: "Trail of Terror"
1975	The Rookies	Ted Ayres	Episode: "A Time to Mourn"
1976	Barnaby Jones	Danny Reeves	Episode: "Sins of Thy Father"
1976	The Disappearance of Aimee	Asst. Disty. Atty. Joseph Ryan	Movie
1976	Police Story	Lewis Packer	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
1976	Raid on Entebbe	Capt. Sammy Berg	Movie
1977	Family	Dr. Robert Styles	Episode: "An Eye to the Future"
1978	Holocaust	Karl Weiss	4 episodes
1979	The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel	Sin Eater	Movie
1979-1980	Young Maverick	Lem Fraker	2 episodes
1985	Badge of the Assassin	Robert K. Tannenbaum, Assistant District Attorney	Movie
1986	Promise	D.J.	Movie
1987	In Love and War	James B. 'Jim' Stockdale	Movie
1989	My Name Is Bill W.	Bill Wilson	Movie
1991	The Boys	Walter Farmer	Movie
1992	Citizen Cohn	Roy Cohn	Movie
1993	Dream On	Dennis Youngblood	Episode: "Oral Sex, Lies and Videotape"
1993	Fallen Angels	Mickey Cohen	Episode: "Since I Don't Have You"
1994	Jane's House	Paul Clark	Movie
1994	The Simpsons	Himself (voice)	Episode: "Homer and Apu"
1994	Next Door	Matt Coler	Movie
1995	Indictment: The McMartin Trial	Danny Davis	Movie
1996	The Summer of Ben Tyler	Temple Rayburn	Movie
1998-1999	Hercules: The Animated Series	Hades (voice)	27 episodes
2000	Dirty Pictures	Dennis Barrie	Movie
2001	Clerks: The Animated Series	Major Baklava (voice)	Episode: "Leonardo Is Caught in the Grip of an Outbreak of Randal's Imagination and Patrick Swayze Either Does or Doesn't Work in the New Pet Store"
2001-2002	House of Mouse	Hades (voice)	10 episodes
2003	Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story	Rudy Giuliani	Movie
2005	Odd Job Jack	Manny Kowalski	Episode: "Orgy: The Musical"
2005-2014	Family Guy	Himself (voice)	7 episodes
2006	ER	Dr. Nate Lennox	Episode: "Body & Soul"
2006	Entourage	Himself	Episode: "Aquamom"
2006-2008	Shark	Sebastian Stark	38 episodes
2009	iCarly	Security Guard #2	Episode: "iWant My Website Back"
2011	Too Big to Fail	Richard Fuld	Movie
2012	Coma	Dr. Theodore Stark	2 episodes
2013	Mary and Martha	Tom	Movie
2013	Ray Donovan	Patrick Sullivan	6 episodes
2016	Justice League Action	Lex Luthor (voice)	Pre-production

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
1997	Hercules	Hades
2002	Kingdom Hearts
2004	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	Mike Toreno
2005	Kingdom Hearts II	Hades
2006	Scarface: The World Is Yours	George Sheffield
2007	Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+	Hades
2010	Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
2011	Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
2012	Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by James Woods

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1980	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actor	The Onion Field	Won
1980	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama	The Onion Field	Nominated
1980	National Society of Film Critics	Best Supporting Actor	The Onion Field	Nominated
1980	New York Film Critics Circle	Best Supporting Actor	The Onion Field	Nominated
1987	Academy Awards	Best Actor	Salvador	Nominated
1987	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Promise	Won
1987	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Promise	Won
1987	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead	Salvador	Won
1988	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	In Love and War	Nominated
1988	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead	Best Seller	Nominated
1989	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead	The Boost	Nominated
1989	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	My Name Is Bill W.	Won
1990	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Hallmark Hall of Fame	Nominated
1993	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Citizen Cohn	Nominated
1993	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Citizen Cohn	Nominated
1993	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Citizen Cohn	Nominated
1994	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Drama Series	Fallen Angels	Nominated
1995	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Indictment: The McMartin Trial	Nominated
1995	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Indictment: The McMartin Trial	Nominated
1996	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Indictment: The McMartin Trial	Nominated
1996	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Nixon	Nominated
1997	Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Ghosts of Mississippi	Nominated
1997	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor	Ghosts of Mississippi	Nominated
1997	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture	Ghosts of Mississippi	Nominated
1997	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	The Summer of Ben Tyler	Nominated
1997	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	The Summer of Ben Tyler	Nominated
1997	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Motion Picture	Killer: A Journal of Murder	Won
1999	Saturn Awards	Best Actor	Vampires	Won
2000	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program	Hercules	Won
2000	Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Best Supporting Actor	The Virgin Suicides	Nominated
2001	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Dirty Pictures	Nominated
2001	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Dirty Pictures	Won
2001	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Dirty Pictures	Nominated
2003	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story	Nominated
2004	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story	Won
2006	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series	ER	Nominated
2006	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Drama	Shark	Nominated
2006	Spike Video Game Awards	Best Supporting Male Performance	Scarface: The World Is Yours	Nominated
2011	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Too Big to Fail	Nominated
2011	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Too Big to Fail	Nominated
2012	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Too Big to Fail	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]