Forest Whitaker

The actor was born in Longview, Texas, in 1961, into a middle-class family. The son of a novelist and a teacher, he is the second of four brothers. His physique seemed to lead him to sports, and in fact he opted for scholarships to play football. But he leaned more towards music, which he studied at USC, the University of Southern California, preparing for tenor. These two inclinations would help him to jump onto the screen, as he played a footballer in That Exciting Course (1982) and was the great jazz genius Charlie Parker for Clint Eastwood in Bird in 1988, a role that earned him an acting award in Cannes.

But in his early days, Whitaker was making appearances on television, in shows like Sad Song of Hill Street , Amazing Tales and North and South . Until he got a good opportunity on the big screen as one of those pool hustlers, portrayed by Martin Scorsese in The Color of Money (1985). The following year Whitaker ‘enlisted’ for Platoon (1986), a very personal vision of the Vietnam War by the controversial Oliver Stone . The actor would return to Vietnam, through humor, accompanying Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987).

The actor has managed to chart a career where he combines risky projects, close to independent cinema, with purely commercial ones. Among the former, Johnny the Handsome (1989) stands out, where his character as a doctor changes the face of a criminal, and The Crying Game (1992), by Neil Jordan , where he humanizes his character as a soldier kidnapped by the IRA to unsuspected extremes. Among the studio works, there is room for the thriller ( Double couples (1992)), the action ( Fly through the air (1994)), the spectacular science fiction ( Species (1995)) and the supernatural comedy ( Phenomenon (1996) ). Whitaker flew, but not through the air but on the wings of love as he rolledFly through the air There he met his wife, Keisha Nash, with whom he has four children; two are from the couple, and each brings a child from previous relationships.

Working on one of those Robert Altman ensemble films had a lot of appeal, but Ready-to-Wear (1994) was a fiasco. The best result was his collaboration with Wayne Wang and Paul Auster in Smoke (1995) where he gave life to a one-armed father who left his son behind, and who runs a gas station in the middle of nowhere; His character conveyed an indefinable sadness, especially when the boy went to see him and did not reveal who he was. And very unique was his character as a laconic African-American samurai in Ghost Dog. The Way of the Samurai (1999), by an emblematic filmmaker of ‘indie’ cinema, Jim Jarmusch .

That Whitaker was a restless man was shown by his decision to try his hand at behind the camera. In 1993 he made a telefilm, Caught in the Violence , but when he got the most attention was when it was revealed that he was going to direct the singer Whitney Houston in the romantic comedy Waiting for a Breath , where Terry McMillan adapted her own novel. Those were the times when the singer, after doing The Bodyguard , tried to carve out a career as an actress, a profession in which the truth is told, she did not shine much. Nor was Whitaker’s direction shining too bright, who once again tried his luck with Sandra Bullock in There’s Always Love(1998), willful title but somewhat soft. Her last directorial foray, A Different Daughter (2004), about the teenage offspring of the President of the United States, suffered from the same flaw. Of course, if Whitaker takes risks in his acting career, the same can’t be said about directing.

At the start of the third millennium, Whitaker continued to add to films with a commercial pull. At least in theory, since the Scientologist Battlefield: Earth (2000) was a total disaster, John Travolta ‘s great stubbornness . She did better in David Fincher ‘s vibrant Panic Room (2002) and Last Call (2002). She later answered Abel Ferrara ‘s call to play a television presenter with marital problems in Mary (2005), a curious and interesting film about a director who has shot a film about Christ.

We are without a doubt a born worker, who chains projects without stopping, and even has time to return to television with the attractive police series The Shield . Whitaker likes challenges, and the trip he made to Uganda to present The Last King of Scotland is there to prove it , a film that you never know what reactions it could produce in that country, and for which he became an exceptional ambassador with success .