Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination.

He was born in Bronx, New York to Shirley, a singer with the Sweethearts, and Cuba Gooding, Sr., a lead vocalist of soul group The Main Ingredient. He has two brothers, musician Tommy Gooding and fellow actor Omar Gooding, and sister, April Gooding. His family moved to Los Angeles after Gooding Sr.'s music group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972 but abandoned his family two years later. Gooding Jr. was raised by his mother and attended four different high schools: North Hollywood High School, Tustin High School, Apple Valley High School, and John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills in Los Angeles. He served as class president in three of them.

His first job as a professional entertainer was as a break-dancer performing with singer Lionel Richie at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. After high school, Gooding studied Japanese martial arts for three years, before turning his focus toward acting. Early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues (1981) and MacGyver (1985).

His first major role was in the John Singleton's box office surprise and critical hit Boyz n the Hood (1991). He followed this success with roles in major films like A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994), Outbreak (1995), Men of Honor (2000), Rat Race (2001), and The Fighting Temptations (2003) in which he co-starred alongside Beyoncé Knowles.

In 1996, he was cast as an arrogant football player on the brink of a career-ending injury in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996). The film was a success and earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His "Show Me The Money" line in the film became a nationwide catchphrase. In 1997, he had a notable supporting role in As Good As It Gets (1997). The next several years, his films were inconsistently successful; Boat Trip (2002), Norbit (2007), and Daddy Day Camp (2007), all of which had received extremely negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office.

Gooding also starred in a film titled A Murder of Crows, which he co-produced with his long time friend and business partner Derek Broes. The film was Gooding's first attempt at producing.  Since then, he has had series of starring roles in grittier films released direct-to-DVD such as the revenge dramas Hero Wanted and Wrong Turn at Tahoe, as well as the sci-fi action pic Hardwired and the action comedy Lies & Illusions.

A well-received performance as Ben Carson in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) and a small supporting role in Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007) both proved to be exceptions to this trend. An appearance in the World War II film, Red Tails, produced by George Lucas and with other prominent actors such as Terrence Howard, will mark his only return to the big screen since American Gangster.

Cuba Goodin Jr a débuté à la télévision : Capitaine Furillo (Hill Street Blues) en 1987 et quatre épisodes de Mac Gyver entre 1989 et 1991. Il débute au cinéma en 1988, dans le film Un prince à New York (Coming to America) de John Landis, où il tient un petit rôle aux côtés d'Eddie Murphy. Il enchaîne, ensuite, les rôles secondaires dans de grosses productions comme Des hommes d'honneur (A Few Good Men) de Rob Reiner (1992) et Alerte ! (Outbreak) de Wolfgang Petersen (1995).

L’année 1997 marque un tournant dans sa carrière lorsqu'il remporte l’Oscar du meilleur acteur dans un second rôle pour Jerry Maguire de Cameron Crowe. Dans ce film, il incarne un footballeur professionnel, Rod Tidwell, qui rend la vie dure à son agent, incarné par Tom Cruise.

Bien reçu par la critique, il reçoit plusieurs prix : le Screen Actors Guild Award, le Chicago Film Critics Award, le Broadcasters Film Critics Award, le Blockbuster Entertainement Award, le Black Oscars Award et le Americain Comedy Award, tous pour le meilleur acteur dans un second rôle. Il a aussi été nommé pour le Golden Globe et honoré du prestigieux ShowWest Award, ainsi que le NAACP Image Award comme acteur d'exception.

Depuis, il joue dans des genres très divers allant de la comédie telle que Pour le pire et pour le meilleur (As Good as It Gets) de James L. Brooks (1997) au thriller comme Instinct de Jon Turteltaub (1999) en passant par le film de guerre, Pearl Harbor de Michael Bay (2001) et le drame à l’exemple des Chemins de la dignité (Men of Honor) de George Tillman Jr. (2000), Radio de Michael Tollin (2003) sans même oublier le dessin animé La ferme se rebelle (Home on the Range) de Will Finn et John Sanford (2004).

En 2002, il obtient son étoile sur le Walk of Fame d'Hollywood.

À partir de 2005, il se cantonne principalement aux films d'action dont la plupart sont des Direct To Video (DTV).

Cuba Gooding Jr., 1968 in New York geboren, ist ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler. Nach mehreren Nebenrollen in kleineren Produktionen kann Gooding 1991 mit der Hauptrolle im Überraschungserfolg Boyz’n the Hood – Jungs im Viertel seinen Durchbruch feiern.

Es folgen Engagements in Blockbustern wie Eine Frage der Ehre und Outbreak – Lautlose Killer. Seinen weltweiten Durchbruch kann Cuba Gooding Jr. jedoch erst 1996 mit der oscarprämierten Nebenrolle in Jerry Maguire – Spiel des Lebens feiern. Als arroganter Footballspieler Rod Tidwell prägt er den Ausspruch „Show Me The Money!“ („Führ mich zum Schotter“). In den folgenden Jahren zählt der US-Amerikaner zu den gefragtesten Schauspielern in Hollywood. Mit Rollen in Besser geht’s nicht, Men of Honor und Pearl Harbor kann er diverse Erfolge verzeichnen.

Zu Beginn des neuen Jahrtausends beginnt der Stern des Cuba Gooding Jr. langsam zu sinken. Der Großteil seiner Filme kann weder beim Publikum noch bei den Kritikern punkten. Seit Mitte der 00er Jahre ist der Schauspieler, bis aus wenige Ausnahmen, nur noch in Billigproduktionen zu sehen, die es oftmals nicht einmal in die Kinos schaffen.

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Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (Bronx, 2 de janeiro de 1968) é um ator, produtor, roteirista e diretor norte-americano. Após seu papel inovador como Tre Styles em Boyz n the Hood (1991), ele apareceu em A Few Good Men (1992), The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), Outbreak (1995) e Jerry Maguire (1996), pelo qual ganhou o Oscar de Melhor Ator Coadjuvante, e What Dreams May Come (1998). Mais tarde, ele ganhou notoriedade por seus papéis em Men of Honor (2000) como Carl Brashear e no épico Pearl Harbor (2001) como Doris Miller. Em 2016, ele interpretou OJ Simpson na série dramática The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story e co-estrelou a sexta temporada da série American Horror Story: Roanoke.