John Cusack Biography

Born into a passionately liberal Irish-Catholic family, his father, Dick Cusack, was an actor and his mother, Nancy, a former teacher and political activist.

Along with siblings Joan, Ann, Susie and Bill, Cusack’s love of acting began in childhood. He attended the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago, run by his best friend Jeremy Priven’s parents, whilst still in elementary school. By the age of 12, he had appeared in stage productions, industrial films and provided voice-overs for commercials. He graduated from the Evanston Township High School and made his feature film debut as Roscoe Maibaum in the comedy ‘Class’ (1983), with Jacqueline Bisset, Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy.

His next film was ‘Grandview, U.S.A.’ (1984) a drama with Jamie Lee Curtis and Patrick Swayze, but Cusack soon found himself cast once more in a ‘teen flick’, playing Bryce in ‘Sixteen Candles’ (1984) with Molly Ringwald. He starred as Walter (Gib) Gibson in Rob Reiner’s romantic adventure comedy ‘The Sure Thing’ (1985) and was Harry in ‘The Journey of Natty Gann’ (1985), a family adventure with Meredith Salenger. Cusack played the depressed Lane Meyer in yet another teen movie ‘Better Off Dead...’ (1985), written and directed by Savage Steve Holland.

In Rob Reiner’s gripping drama ‘Stand By Me’ (1986), based on Stephen King’s short story, ‘The Body’, about four young friends who go looking for the body of a missing teenager, Cusack plays the role of older brother Denny Lachance opposite Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell and Keifer Sutherland. After a string of films, ‘One Crazy Summer’ (1986), ‘Hot Pursuit’ (1987), ‘Broadcast News’ (1987), ‘Eight Men Out’ (1988) and ‘Tapeheads’ (1988), Cusack founded the avant-garde and political theatre group, The New Criminals, in 1988 and has since directed several of their productions. His last big screen adolescent role, was the stereo-blaring hopeless romantic Lloyd Dobler in ‘Say Anything...’ (1989), for which Cusack was ranked number 72 in Premier magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

During the 1990s, he was prolifically busy, with no less than 24 roles. He generally sought those films that cast him as an anti-hero, often neurotic or suffering ethical conflicts, however he has mastered a wide variety of characters. Beginning the decade as con artist Roy Dillon, with Anjelica Huston, in ‘The Grifters’ (1990), a screen adaption of the Jim Thompson novel of the same name, he went through a run of mediocre movies, including ‘True Colors’ (1991), ‘Roadside Prophets’ (1992), ‘Bullets Over Broadway’ (1994) and ‘The Road To Wellville’ (1994).

Cusack finally became viewed as an A-list star when he co-wrote and produced ‘Grosse Point Blank’ (1997). It was a widely acclaimed and sharply written black comedy in which he starred with Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, Dan Ackroyd, Joan Cusack and Jeremy Piven. It was also the first feature film for New Crime Productions, the sister company to The New Criminals, formed by Cusack and two old high school friends in 1992.

Other notable Cusack films in the 1990s were action movie ‘Con Air’ (1997), in which he played US Marchal Vince Larkin, with Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi. Then he starred opposite Kevin Spacey in Clint Eastwood’s eccentric murder mystery ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ (1997). He was almost unrecognisable wearing glasses, a beard and long hair as a frustrated puppeteer, Craig Schwartz, opposite a rather needy and drab looking Cameron Diaz, as Lotte Schwartz, in the much talked about and decidedly unusual ‘Being John Malkovich’ (1999). For this convincing performance, he received a nomination for Best Actor at the Independent Spirit Awards.

The New Millennium brought Cusack the definitive role of a compulsive record store owner, Rob Gordon, with relationship problems in ‘High Fidelity’ (2000), based on Nick Hornby’s book and another New Crime production. Then came two more romantic comedies, ‘America’s Sweethearts’ (2001) with Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and ‘Serendipity’ (2001) with Kate Beckinsdale. He followed these with the drama ‘Max’ (2002), about the friendship between Adolf Hitler and an art dealer named Max Rothman, played by Cusack.

Three films released in one year had Cusack working hard. He was in ‘Breakfast with Hunter’ (2003), a documentary about the infamous Hunter S. Thompson, with Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Torro; ‘Identity’ (2003) a horror/thriller with Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet; and ‘Runaway Jury’ (2003) with Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz and Jeremy Piven. Cusack then took a two-year break from film before making romantic comedy ‘Must Love Dogs’ (2005) with Diane Lane and working with Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen and Lara Phillips in ‘The Ice Harvest’ (2005), a comedy thriller about larceny and lust.

‘The Contract’ (2006) saw Cusack team up with Morgan Freeman in the cat and mouse thriller, which paved the way for his appearance in 2007 comedy drama ‘Martian Child’. The movie was not successful commercially, but this minor disappointment was quickly overtaken by the box office triumph of his next film. ‘14082’ (2007), a horror movie based on a short story by Stephen King, was praised by critics and performed phenomenally well commercially. It also earned Cusack a Saturn Award nomination for best actor.

Appearances in 2007's ‘Grace is Gone’, as well as in political satire film ‘War, Inc’ and computer animated family comedy ‘Igor’ in (2008) kept Cusack in touch with his fans. However, it was 2009 blockbuster ‘2012’ that garnered more attention for the star as the disaster movie opened with a bang, topping the international box office in its first weekend. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the film grossed more than $769 million worldwide.

In 2010, Cusack starred in ‘Shanghai’ and comedy film ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’, which he also produced. ‘The Factory’ and ‘The Raven’, both of which have 2011 release dates, are his next projects.

While rarely making public appearances between his films or granting interviews about his private life, Cusack is not married and is known to have dated a string of beauties. They include fellow actors Neve Campbell, Lili Taylor, Minnie Driver and British born actress Claire Forlani, who was signed as the new face for L’Oreal in 2001. He was also romantically linked to Clint Eastwood’s daughter, Alison Eastwood, who posed nude for Playboy in their February 2003 issue. In his free time, Cusack enjoys helicopter snowboarding and kickboxing with stunt co-ordinator Benny Urquidez.

A man who has always been slightly wary of fame and has never subscribed to the typical Hollywood movie formula, Cusack has successfully built a career playing the underdog or the unconventional hero and has largely avoided too much media attention. He maintains that he has not yet reached his ultimate goal, which is to be involved in “a great piece of art”. Whilst his career is anything but flagging, here’s hoping that he achieves his goal and that we are around to see it.