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Forest Whitaker <span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>  Forest Steven Whitaker (b. July 15, 1961, Longview, Texas) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, producer, and director. Whitaker has appeared in several genre roles, perhaps most memorably, his supporting role in Phenomenon alongside John Travolta. Whitaker is best known for his compelling and convincing performances in films such as The Last King of Scotland which earned him an Oscar playing dictator, Idi Amin, Good Morning, Vietnam alongside Robin Williams and The Crying Game with Miranda Richardson. Though Whitaker earned a football scholarship to attend college he left sport behind to concentrate on music at the University of Southern California. He earned scholarships as an operatic tenor and at Berkely, focused on stage performance. He made his film debut in the raunchy classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High as a football player and his genre debut guest starring on Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. Whitaker impressed critics with his performance as pool player, Amos, in The Color of Money alongside Tom Cruise and Paul Newman. He followed up with roles in Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam and Bloodsport with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Whitaker was chosen by director, Clint Eastwood, to play the role of Bird Parker in the 1988 biopic Bird. The role earned Whitaker a Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. Steady roles followed including the Oscar-winning The Crying Game, the 1993 remake of the classic Body Snatchers, The Enemy Within, Jason's Lyric, the genre films Species and Phenomenon and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. In 2000, Whitaker starred alongside Travolta again in Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000. The move was a critical and box office failure. Whitaker also spent time behind the camera. He made his directorial debut on the set of the 1993 movie Strapped and followed up with successful Waiting to Exhale starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett among other well known African-American actors. He also directed Sandra Bullock in Hope Floats and Katie Holmes in First Daughter. He has also produced several films in which he has appeared including 2001's Green Dragon starring Patrick Swayze, Anne Rice's Feast of All Saints, the comedy Chasing Papi and the revamped The Twilight Zone on which he served as a consulting producer and host. Other notable credits on Whitaker's resume include Panic Room with Jodie Foster, Phone Booth starring Colin Farrell and recurring roles on the medical drama ER and The Shield. Upcoming roles include Vantage Point with Matthew Fox, Winged Creatures with Kate Beckinsale, Powder Blue alongside Jessica Biel, The Night Watchman with Keanu Reeves, Where the Wild Things Are based on the Maurice Sendak novel and in 2009, Repossession Mambo with Jude Law.
External Links
To see specific information, such as individual movies, please click the Forest Whitaker category link at the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference Forest Whitaker, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page. Categories: Forest Whitaker | 1961 births | Actors | Actors from the USA | Actors from Texas | 1980s actors | 1990s actors | 2000s actors
2008, SCI FI. All rights reserved.
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