Samuel L. Jackson's birthday
American actor Samuel Leroy Jackson was born on December 21st, 1948, in Washington, D.C., U.S. Jackson attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, with the intention to become a marine biologist but, after joining an acting group for extra credit in a class, he changed his major to drama. He co-founded the Just Us Theatre Company before his graduation in 1972. That same year he made his film debut in the independent movie Together for Days. At the beginning of his career, Jackson focused mainly on stage roles in New York City. In 1976, Samuel landed his first role on television in the drama series Movin’ On, followed by two television films The Displaced Person (1977) and Milo Muse the Rabbit (1978).
In 1981, Jackson returned to the big screen in a minor role on drama Ragtime. As he overcame his personal addiction issues which had prevented him from working, he slowly began to get more jobs in the industry, including features Coming to America (1988), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Juice (1992), Loaded Weapon 1 and Jurassic Park (both 1993). After starring in Quentin Tarantino’s romantic crime film True Romance(1993), the director cast Jackson in his next movie, Pulp Fiction (1994). The movie was an overwhelming success and launched Jackson to stardom. For his performance, he got nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
Jackson gained further acclaim and earned his status as box office leading star when he appeared in 1995’s Die Hard with a Vengeance and 1996’s A Time to Kill. His work on the latter got him a second nomination for the Golden Globe Awards. By the end of the 1990s, Jackson was starring in at least two movies per year, and notable film roles during this time are Eve’s Bayou (1997), Jackie Brown (1997), Sphere (1998), The Negotiator (1998), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), and Deep Blue Sea (1999). Jackson has been mainly seen in action and thriller movies, particularly Unbreakable (2000), its sequel Glass, and Shaft (both in 2019), action films The 51st State (2001), XXX (2002), and SWAT (2003). He also reprised his role in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. In 2004, Jackson voice-acted in the animated feature The Incredibles, a big commercial and critical success, and made a cameo in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 2.
In 2005, Jackson had a larger role in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), and returned for the second installment of the XXX trilogy, XXX: State of the Union. The following year, he starred in the action film Snakes on a Plane and drama mystery Freedomland. Jackson has starred in two book adaptations: psychological horror 1408 (2007) and sci-fi Jumper (2008). He lent his voice once again to his character’s animated film version in 2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In 2008, Jackson made a cameo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s kick-off movie, Iron Man. Since then, Jackson’s character has appeared in several of the MCU’s movies and television shows, mainly as a supporting character, like Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger (both in 2011), the Avengers films (2012-2019), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), before finally becoming one of the lead characters in Captain Marvel (2019), In television, he guest-starred in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and animated series What If…?
Jackson has become one of Hollywood’s most prolific actors, especially in big-budget movies, and among his film credits are Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012), RoboCop (2014), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016), The Legend of Tarzan (2016), XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), Kong: Skull Island (2017), as well as the documentary QT8: The First Eight (2019). Jackson participated in animated features Zambezia (2012), Turbo (2013), and The Incredibles 2 (2018). His next role in the MCU will be in The Marvels (2023). and he will have a main role in Secret Invasion (to be released in 2023).
