Biography

John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero. Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has built a successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while avoiding the media spotlight. John was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American family. With the exception of mom Nancy (née Carolan), a former math teacher, the Cusack clan is all show business: father Dick Cusack was an actor and filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Bill Cusack and Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade. Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17, acting alongside Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in the romantic comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a member of Anthony Michael Hall's geek brigade in Sixteen Candles (1984), put him on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like The Sure Thing (1985) and Better Off Dead... (1985). Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything... (1989). A year later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in The Grifters (1990).

The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he founded in 1988 (modeling it after Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years later, Cusack's high school friends Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first feature was the sharply written comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the girl he stood up on prom night (Minnie Driver). In an instance of life imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent (or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business decisions. He followed that with Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder case.

Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when he turned up in the fiercely original Being John Malkovich (1999). Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven self in High Fidelity (2000), another New Crime production. He worked with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis to adapt Nick Hornby's popular novel (relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically linked with several celebs, including Driver, Alison Eastwood, Claire Forlani and Neve Campbell. He's also something of a family man, acting frequently opposite sister Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".

- IMDb Mini Biography By: IMDb Editors

Dark, unruly hair

Offbeat, quirky characters

Brother of Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Susie Cusack and Bill Cusack. Son of Dick Cusack (actor, documentary filmmaker) and Nancy Cusack (teacher).

Has a production company called New Crime Productions (that produced Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and The Jack Bull (1999) among various stage productions) which he founded with two of his high school buddies Steve Pink & D.V. DeVincentis.

Attended Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Ill.

Turned down Bill Paxton's role in Apollo 13 (1995).

Is the product of a passionately liberal Irish Catholic family, visited the radical Berrigan brothers when he was growing up, and, like them, his mother still gets arrested for her anti-militarism and pro- human rights protests.

Tested for the role of Madmartigan in Willow (1988) but lost to Val Kilmer.

The novel, "Love In The Time Of Cholera", by author Gabriel García Márquez, is prominently referenced in two John Cusack movies (High Fidelity (2000) and Serendipity (2001).

Was originally set to play Walter Eberhart in the The Stepford Wives (2004). Due to conflicts, he had to drop out and Matthew Broderick got the role.

Attended a theatre school in Chicago with sisters Joan Cusack and Ann Cusack. The theatre school was run by the parents of his best friend, Jeremy Piven

Ranked #15 on Tropopkin's Top 25 Most Intriguing People [Issue #100]

Most famous member of the Cusack family.

Was, for a long time, attached to play the role of "Nite Owl" in the doomed movie adaptation of Alan Moore's comic-book mini-series, Watchmen (2009).

Was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson and nearly got to play him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).

His performance as "Lloyd Dobler" in Say Anything... (1989) is ranked #72 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

During the famous "boom box serenade" scene in Say Anything... (1989), he is actually playing his favorite Fishbone tape on the boom box, while Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" is played in the movie. (source: Cameron Crowe commentary on the DVD).

Considers the scripts to Max (2002) and Being John Malkovich (1999) the best he has read.

Beat out Christian Slater for the role of "Lloyd" in Say Anything... (1989).

Was considered for the role of "Billy Flynn" in Chicago (2002). However, he ended up losing the role to Richard Gere.

In 1994, he attended his 10th year high school reunion in Illinois. He and the producers of the film had made a bet that if they came up with financing for Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), they would all attend their high school reunions.

Has homes in Malibu, California, and Chicago.

He was awarded the 1990 Joseph Jefferson Award Citation for Director of a Play for "Methusalem" at the New Crime Productions Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Appeared in two movies as a limo driver, Identity (2003) and 2012 (2009), both with co-star Amanda Peet.

I was a teen star. That's disgusting enough.

"Nope, no sex scandals yet. But I am open to offers!" (January 14, 2004)

I'm aware of the affection those characters inspired. I feel close to Lloyd in Say Anything... (1989). He was like a super-interesting version of me. Only I'm not as good as him. Whatever part of me is romantic and optimistic, I reached into that to play Lloyd. Of course, now it's all gone. Now I'm just bitter.

You think about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died and all the soldiers who have come back wounded and maimed. You read the paper and four more soldiers last week died and mercenaries have killed 27 people in Baghdad, mercenaries who are getting money from our tax dollars that should be going to protect the troops, and I'm depressed about the Cubs game. There's a disconnect there. My point in all seriousness is that it's such an abstraction, and this government has asked us to sacrifice nothing for this. The troops are sacrificing everything. It just seems like an obscenity.

(On why he lives in L.A.) I kept saying that I'd never live in L.A., and I didn't think I would. But that's where the work is, and I ended up making a lot of friends there, and my old friends moved out to Los Angeles too. And also, I think when you're famous, its hard to live in a small town. Not that Chicago is a 'small' town, but when I'm there, which I am it lot because I love it and I still have an apartment there, people stare at me. It's like I'm more famous in Chicago. In L.A. and New York, nobody gives a fuck; in a big city, you can quietly do your thing."

Martian Child (2007) was just a movie the studio [New Line Cinema] offered me and it was the best job I could get at the time. It was about a relationship between a guy and another kid, and I thought that was good. It was a sweet movie. They offered it to me and that was the extent of that. Grace Is Gone (2007) was something I REALLY wanted to do.

If I feel they're playing with the tiger too much, I'm like: don't go there. Don't get into it. That stuff only goes one way. If people are constantly reading about you, and you're overexposed, they've got no reason to go see your movies. Also, it's not pleasant or nice to have your privacy invaded.

I probably believed in it a bit when I was younger. Actors are weird enough as it is. We don't need to act tortured. I'm probably tortured enough. -- on actors being 'tortured' people.

It's sort of the way the business is. If you do one type of movie it makes it a lot easier to do other kinds of movie that you want to do. It's just reality. But it's nice to get that call. 'It's Sony's big release of the year, you've got the lead role.' I thought, 'Why not?' -- on doing "2012"

[at the Maine political delegation breakfast on July 26, 2004, seeing Al Franken in the audience] I'm not going to try and be funny. (Franken replied, "I'm not going to try and act.")

L.A. is a town full of so many desert crazies, snake-oil salesmen, carnival barkers and fake spiritualists that it's impossible to spot a real one.