James Woods

Born in Vernal, Utah, on April 18, 1947, James Howard Woods was the son of a Navy officer, who died when he was only 13 years old. Since then, his mother has run a nursery. She, of Irish descent, educated him in Catholicism. He wanted to be an army pilot, and he passed the tests at the United States Air Force Academy, but several weeks before joining the classes he accidentally severed the tendons in one hand, which caused him to be rejected as a student. .

So, James Woods decided to enroll in political science at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There he would meet a man who would change his life, Tim Affleck, father of actor Ben Affleck , then director of the Theater Company of Boston, who instilled in him a passion for acting. While enrolled at MIT, he participated in student productions, eventually deciding to drop out and move to New York to try his hand at acting. He didn’t say anything to his mother until he was settled in the Big Apple, but after a phone call, she gave him his blessing.

In the city of skyscrapers things went well for James Woods, who made his Broadway stage debut in 1970 with “Borstal Boy”, a play by Frank McMahon. After receiving good reviews with other productions, he was brought to Hollywood by none other than Elia Kazan , who gave him one of the leading roles in The Visitors (1972) , where he played a young man who is financially dependent on his girlfriend’s father, with whom not have a good relationship. He also played supporting roles in The Way We Were , opposite Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand , and The Night Moves On , with Gene Hackman . He began to attract attention by playing a psychopath inThe Field of Onions , and after working with David Cronenberg in Videodrome , he fully established himself by starring with Robert De Niro in Sergio Leone ‘s Once Upon a Time in America ,where he was Max, a young Jew who takes command of the gangster band formed by his childhood friends. Since then he has lavished himself on titles such as Best Seller , Los ojos del gato , Colleagues a la fuerza , Cop, con la ley o sin ella or Chaplin .

Divorced in 1983 from actress Kathryn Morrison ( Unforgettable Lessons ), he got together with another actress, Sarah Owen ( Elizabeth ), although the relationship only lasted between 1989 and 1990.

For his impressive work as a war reporter in Salvador , he was nominated for an Oscar for best actor. Much later he was up for supporting roles for playing a racist leader, suspected in the murder of an activist, in Ghosts of the Past . He also rocked the roles of pimp in Casino , and that of presidential chief of staff in Nixon .

He also drew attention as a drug addict in Sensual Impulse , a kind of modern version of Days of Wine and Roses , with the difference that the main couple suffers the ravages of cocaine. During filming, Woods felt persecuted by his fictional wife, Sean Young , whom he denounced for sexual harassment.

In August 2001, James Woods was flying from Boston to Los Angeles, when he noticed the suspicious behavior of two passengers. He reported this to an employee of the airline company. A month later they turned out to be two of the suicide bombers of the tragic attacks of September 11. FBI agents have met the actor on several occasions so that he will tell them the incident in detail.

Since the end of the 90s, he has lavished himself on the most varied characters in films that are almost always successful. He was Secretary of Defense, in Contact , drug dealer in At the End of Eden , director of the newspaper where Clint Eastwood worked in Imminent Execution , colonel in The General’s Daughter , doctor in Any Given Sunday and John Q , leader of a team vampire hunter in Vampires , violent trainer in Straw Dogs (Straw Dogs) and stood out above all as authoritarian father of the protagonists in The Virgin Suicides .