Early life

Cusack was born to a Catholic Irish-American family in Evanston, Illinois. His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. His father, Richard Cusack (1925-2003), was an actor, as are Cusack's siblings Ann, Joan, Bill and Susie. Richard was also a documentary filmmaker who owned a film production company and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan. Cusack graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1984, where he met Jeremy Piven, and spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in his belly".

Career

Cusack gained fame in the mid-1980s after appearing in teen films such as Class, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer, Stand By Me and Sixteen Candles. He made a cameo in the 1988 music video for "Trip To The Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies. In 1989, he played Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.... His roles broadened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare such as the politically themed True Colors and the film noir thriller The Grifters. After establishing New Crime Productions, Cusack experienced box office success with his roles in the dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank and the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster Con Air. In the years since, he has appeared in roles such as an air traffic controller in Pushing Tin, an obsessive puppeteer in Being John Malkovich, a lovesick record store owner in High Fidelity and a Jewish art dealer mentoring a young Adolf Hitler in Max.

Cusack starred in the horror film 1408, based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. He played a widowed father in the Iraq War-themed drama Grace Is Gone and as assassin Hauser in the dark political satire, War, Inc.. His sister Joan Cusack and close friend Jeremy Piven appeared in many of his films, such as Say Anything... and Grosse Pointe Blank. The siblings appeared as two geeks in Sixteen Candles, John as one of Farmer Ted's posse and Joan as the geek with the scoliosis brace. They also co-starred in High Fidelity, Cradle Will Rock, Martian Child and War, Inc.. Piven and Cusack starred in One Crazy Summer and Serendipity. Cusack made a brief cameo, seen from behind but speaking a line of dialogue, in Broadcast News, along with Joan. In 2009, Cusack played Jackson Curtis, a struggling novelist and limo driver in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012. He played Adam Yates in Hot Tub Time Machine in 2010, Edgar Allan Poe in the 2012 thriller film The Raven, Richard Nixon in Lee Daniels' 2013 historical film The Butler and Stafford Weiss in David Cronenberg's 2014 satirical film Maps to the Stars, a dark comic look at Hollywood excess. Cusack played older Beach Boys founding member Brian Wilson in the biopic, Love and Mercy.

Personal life

Cusack is a fan of both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, for which he says he is "in trouble" in Chicago. He led the crowd in a performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field. He has also been spotted at multiple Chicago Bears games and attended many Stanley Cup Finals games in support of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Cusack trained in kickboxing under former world kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez for over 20 years. He began training under Urquidez in preparation for his role in Say Anything... and currently holds the rank of a level six black belt in Urquidez's Ukidokan Kickboxing system.

Between 2005 and 2009, Cusack wrote blogs for The Huffington Post, which included an interview with Naomi Klein. He blogged on his opposition to the war in Iraq and his disdain for the Bush administration, calling its worldview "depressing, corrupt, unlawful, and tragically absurd". He also appeared in a June 2008 MoveOn.org advertisement, where he made the claim that George W. Bush and John McCain have the same governing priorities.

Cusack criticized President Barack Obama's administration for its drone policy in the Middle East and its support of the National Defense Authorization Act and became one of the initial supporters of the Freedom of the Press Foundation in 2012. In June 2015, he stated in an interview with The Daily Beast that "when you talk about drones, the American Empire, the NSA, civil liberties, attacks on journalism and whistle blowers, as bad or worse than Bush". However, he later scolded the publication for misquoting him in order to make an interesting headline.

In March 2008, police arrested Emily Leatherman outside Cusack's Malibu, California, home for stalking him. On October 10, 2008, Leatherman pleaded no contest and received five years' probation and mandatory psychiatric counseling, and was ordered to stay away from Cusack, his home and business for the next ten years.

In 2015, he "thought up and organized" a meeting with Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg and Arundhati Roy in Snowden's Moscow hotel room.

Cusack is a follower of the Transcendental Meditation movement, introduced in the mid 1950s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He stated that he is able to more thoroughly explore the depths of his characters through the use of TM.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Class	Roscoe Maibaum
1984	Sixteen Candles	Bryce
1984	Grandview, U.S.A.	Johnny Maine
1985	The Sure Thing	Walter "Gib" Gibson
1985	Better Off Dead	Lane Meyer
1985	The Journey of Natty Gann	Harry
1986	One Crazy Summer	Hoops McCann
1986	Stand by Me	Denny Lachance
1987	Hot Pursuit	Dan Bartlett
1987	Broadcast News	Angry Messenger
1988	Tapeheads	Ivan Alexeev
1988	Eight Men Out	Buck Weaver
1989	Say Anything...	Lloyd Dobler
1989	Fat Man and Little Boy	Michael Merriman
1990	The Grifters	Roy Dillon
1991	True Colors	Peter Burton
1991	Shadows and Fog	Student Jack
1992	The Player	Himself	Cameo
1992	Roadside Prophets	Caspar
1992	Map of the Human Heart	The Mapmaker
1992	Bob Roberts	Cutting Edge Live Host
1993	Money for Nothing	Joey Coyle
1994	Floundering	JC
1994	Bullets over Broadway	David Shayne
1994	The Road to Wellville	Charles Ossining
1996	City Hall	Deputy Mayor Kevin Calhoun
1997	Grosse Pointe Blank	Martin Q. Blank	Also co-writer and producer
1997	Con Air	U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin
1997	Chicago Cab	Scary Man
1997	Anastasia	Dimitri (voice)
1997	Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil	John Kelso
1998	This Is My Father	Eddie Sharp
1998	The Thin Red Line	Captain Gaff
1999	Pushing Tin	Nick Falzone
1999	Cradle Will Rock	Nelson Rockefeller
1999	Being John Malkovich	Craig Schwartz
2000	High Fidelity	Rob Gordon	Also co-writer and producer
2001	America's Sweethearts	Eddie Thomas
2001	Serendipity	Jonathan Trager
2002	Max	Max Rothman	Also associate producer
2002	Adaptation	Himself	Uncredited
2003	Identity	Ed Dakota
2003	Runaway Jury	Nicholas Easter
2005	Must Love Dogs	Jake Anderson
2005	The Ice Harvest	Charlie Arglist
2006	The Contract	Ray Keene
2007	Grace Is Gone	Stanley Philipps	Also producer
2007	1408	Mike Enslin
2007	Martian Child	David Gordon
2008	Summerhood	Narrator	Uncredited
2008	War, Inc.	Brand Hauser	Also co-writer and producer
2008	Igor	Igor (voice)
2009	2012	Jackson Curtis
2010	Hot Tub Time Machine	Adam Yates	Also producer
2010	Shanghai	Paul Soames
2012	The Raven	Edgar Allan Poe
2012	The Paperboy	Hillary Van Wetter
2012	The Factory	Mike Fletcher
2013	The Numbers Station	Emerson Kent
2013	Adult World	Rat Billings
2013	The Frozen Ground	Robert Hansen
2013	The Butler	Richard Nixon
2013	Grand Piano	Clem
2014	The Bag Man	Jack
2014	Maps to the Stars	Dr. Stafford Weiss
2014	Drive Hard	Simon Keller
2014	The Prince	Sam
2014	Love and Mercy	Brian Wilson in the 1980s
2014	Reclaim	Benjamin
2015	Dragon Blade	Lucius
2015	Hot Tub Time Machine 2	Adam Yates	Cameo (uncredited); unrated extended cut only
2015	Chi-Raq	Fr. Mike Corridan
2016	Cell	Clayton Riddell

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Frasier	Greg (voice)	Episode: "Our Father Whose Art Ain't Heaven"
1999	The Jack Bull	Myrl Redding	Television film; executive producer
2014	Doll & Em	John	Episode 1.3

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1989	Chicago Film Critics Association	Most Promising Actor	Say Anything...	Won
1998	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Favorite Supporting Actor - Action/Adventure	Con Air	Won
1998	Satellite Awards	Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble	The Thin Red Line	Won
1999	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Male Lead	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
1999	Online Film Critics Society	Best Ensemble	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
1999	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	BAFTA	Best Adapted Screenplay	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	Empire Awards	Best Actor	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Hissy Fit	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	University of Southern California	Scripter Award	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	Writers Guild of America	Best Adapted Screenplay	Being John Malkovich	Nominated
2000	British Academy Film Awards	Best Screenplay - Adapted	High Fidelity	Nominated
2001	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	High Fidelity	Nominated
2001	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)	High Fidelity	Nominated
2007	Saturn Awards	Best Actor	1408	Nominated
2009	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Actor - Sci-Fi	2012	Nominated
2013	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	The Butler	Nominated
2014	Canadian Screen Awards	Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role	Maps to the Stars	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]