Forest Whitaker is a well-known American producer, director and actor. Winner of many awards in the field of cinema, including Golden Raspberry. He began with such films as Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, Rage in Harlem, etc. Moreover, they will continue to be actively filmed. His filmography is too huge to list all the projects included in it. Therefore, the article will focus only on the most popular of them.
Biography
Forest Whitaker (photo given in this material) was born in 1961 in the Texas city of Longview. He grew up in a large family. In addition to him, Laura Francis and Forest Whitaker Jr. raised his two younger brothers (Kenneth and Damon) and an older sister (Deborah). In Los Angeles, where the family moved back in 1965, Forest graduated from Palisades Charter High School, where he studied choral singing and played for the local football team. Then he studied at the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, but due to an injury he had to leave the sport. True, there were pluses here. After all, now he could devote more time to his equally beloved hobby - music.
He continued his studies at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Southern California, where he trained for the opera tenor. After studying, he transferred to the faculty of drama of the same educational institution. He was also a student at a branch of the London theater studio in Berkeley. Since 1996, Forest has been married to actress Keisha Nash. Now they live in Los Angeles and raise two joint children and two children from a previous relationship.
Carier start
The filmography of Forest Whitaker began in 1982, immediately after graduation from the University of Southern California. And it was a cameo in the CBS American comedy series Making the Grade. After he had to star in episodes of other popular series, including "Kagney and Lacy" (1981-1988), "Blues Hill Street" (1981-1987), "Stuntmen" (1981-1986) and "North and South" (1985). And already in 1986, he got the role in the main cast of Oliver Stone’s military drama “Platoon”.
A year later, another military drama came out - "Good Morning Vietnam" - a film with Forest Whitaker, shot by
Barry Levinson, where the actor played an ordinary first-class Eddie Garlick. Then, together with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bolo Yen, he appeared in New Arnold's action movie "Blood Sports" (1988). The main role, for which he received the Cannes Film Prize, was played in the musical drama Bird (1988). And three years later he played the gangster Jackson - the main character in Duke Bill's crime comedy "Fury in Harlem."
Ghost dog in the room of fear
Dr. Sid Handleman - an employee of a military hospital, the actor played in the comedy drama Howard Deutsch, "Article 99" (1992). In the role of Jody, a British soldier kidnapped by Irish militants, Forest Whitaker appeared in Neil Jordan's thriller "Cruel Game" (1992). Police officer Anthony Franklin was in the action movie Demos, shot by Stephen Hopkins in 1994. Dani Smithson, a telepathy specialist, played in Roger Donaldson's science fiction film "The Individual" (1995). And in the role of “Ghost Dog” - a mercenary with a samurai codec of honor, a faithful servant of the Italian mafiosi, appeared in the action movie of Jarmusch Jimi “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” (1999).
Forest Whitaker appeared in the role of a police officer Dante Jackson in Craig Bolotin's film “Light the Guys” (1999) about six schoolchildren who expressed public protest by taking a representative of the order hostage. Burnham - one of the robbers, played in the thriller David Fincher's “Room of Fear” (2002). In the same year, as a police captain, Ed Rami starred in the crime thriller Joel Schumacher's Telephone Box. He played the role of Carter - the director of high school, in the drama of Arik Avelino's "American Pistol" (2005). And a year later appeared in the historical drama of Kevin MacDonald's "The Last King of Scotland." He won the lead role of Idi Amin, a politician, military officer, and president of Uganda, for which he received many awards, including the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, and the Oscar.
Hurricane Season Returns
From 2006 to 2007, Forest Whitaker played an experienced, resourceful, but treacherous employee of the Internal Investigation Department, John Cavanaugh, the main rival of Vick Mackey, in the fifth and sixth seasons of Sean Ryan's police drama Shield (2002-2008). Acted as an American tourist Howard Lewis in the thriller Pete Travis's "Point of Fire" (2008). Captain Jack Vander was in David Eyre's crime drama Kings of the Streets (2008). Two years later, he became Al Collins, a school basketball coach, in Tim Story’s sports drama Hurricane Season. And the George Hotel Concierge played in the drama Lullaby for Pi, filmed by Benoit Philippon in 2010.
Two years later, along with rapper 50 cent and Robert De Niro Forest, Whitaker starred in the criminal action movie Jesse Terrero's Freelancers. He was a colleague of Arnold Schwarzenegger on the set of the action movie Kim Ji-un “Return of the Hero” (2013). He composed the company Orlando Bloom in the crime thriller Jerome Sall "Conspiracy Theory" (2013). In society, the successful American television presenter, Oprah Winfrey, and the popular actor Kyuba Gooding Jr. appeared in the biography drama Lee Daniel "The Butler" (2013). And during the filming of Scott Cooper's thriller “Out of Ashes” (2013), Foster worked side by side with actors such as Woody Harrelson,
Casey Affleck and Christian Bale.
Star wars for christmas
In 2013, Forest Whitaker played the Rev. Carnel Cobbs in the Casey Lemmons musical drama Black Christmas. A year later, the main role, namely the role of William Garnett, played in the dramatic film by Rashid Bushared “Two in the city”. And as an inspector, Frank Dotzler performed in the thriller Olivier Megaton "Hostage 3" with Liam Neeson in the title role.
In the Chinese-American sports drama Lefty, filmed in 2015 by
Antoine Fukua, he played the role of Tick Wills, a former boxer and now owner of the gym. Appeared in the role of Henry, a slave musician, in three parts of the historical drama “Roots” (mini-series, 2016). He played Colonel Weber in the science fiction drama Denis Villeneuve's “Arrival” (2016). And in the role of Sow Guerrera - a veteran of the clone war and a close friend of the Erso family, starred in the sci-fi thriller “Rogue One: Star Wars.” Stories, filmed by Gareth Edwards in 2016.
What else to wait?
The actor’s career continues to develop rapidly. Indeed, soon several other projects will fill up the filmography of Forest Whitaker. Filming for Black Panther, Labyrinth, Burden, and Finding Steve McQueen is now nearing completion. The production of the thriller David M. Rosenthal How It Ends is in progress. And in the summer of 2017, the mystical drama Jennifer Lynch "The Fall" was announced.