Jake Gyllenhaal is an American actor. He is the brother of fellow actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, and son of actor Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner. He is better known for his roles in Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, The Good Girl and October Sky. He portrayed Dastan, a street urchin in sixth-century Persia, in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Biography[]
Career[]
Born December 19, 1980, Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is one of the more popular American screen actors of the day. As the son of a director (Stephen Gyllenhaal) and a screenwriter (Naomi Foner), Jake had regular exposure to filmmaking due to his family's deep ties to the industry. He began his acting career at age ten playing the son of Billy Crystal's character in the 1991 movie City Slickers. His first lead role was as Homer Hickam Jr. in 1999's October Sky, and he has appeared in a number of diverse roles ever since. In 2001 he starred in the indie cult hit Donnie Darko, in which he played a psychologically troubled teen and onscreen brother to his real-life sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.
After several smaller roles, he co-starred in the 2004 blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, in which he portrayed a student caught in a cataclysmic global cooling event, alongside Dennis Quaid as his father. In 2005, he was cast "against type" as a frustrated Marine in Jarhead, and later in the year he won critical acclaim as Jack Twist in the controversial film Brokeback Mountain, opposite Heath Ledger. Gyllenhaal turned out yet another outstanding performance that year in the critically acclaimed "Proof" alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. He also came very close to being the next face of the caped crusader, narrowly losing the starring roll in "Batman Begins" to fellow actor Christain Bale.
In 2006 after a slew of both award nominations and wins related to Brokeback Mountain, Gyllenhaal was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac, which was based on a true story, he played Robert Graysmith, author of two books about the Zodiac serial killer. Opposite Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, and Reese Witherspoon, Jake starred in the October 2007 release Rendition, a political thriller about the U.S. policy of "extraordinary rendition". In 2009, he co-starred with Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman in Jim Sheridan's like-named remake of Susanne Bier's 2004 Danish film Brothers.
His other 2010 projects included the upcoming Edward Zwick directed drama Love and Other Drugs, based on the novel Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, written by Jamie Randall (Gyllenhaal's character), and Nailed, a comedy filmed with Jessica Biel in South Carolina.
In 2011 he starred in Source Code, a science fiction thriller, directed by Duncan Jones, as soldier who is part of an experimental government program that is investigating a train bombing.
Selected Filmography[]
| Year | Movie | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | City Slickers | Danny Robbins |
| 1993 | Josh and S.A.M. | Leon |
| A Dangerous Woman | Edward | |
| 1998 | Homegrown | Jake/Blue Kahan |
| 1999 | October Sky | Homer Hickam Jr. |
| 2001 | Donnie Darko | Donald J. Darko |
| Bubble Boy | Jimmy Livingston | |
| Lovely & Amazing | Jordan | |
| 2002 | Highway | Pilot Kelson |
| Moonlight Mile | Joe Nast | |
| The Good Girl | Thomas 'Holden' Worther | |
| 2003 | Abby Singer | Himself (cameo) |
| 2004 | The Day After Tomorrow | Sam Hall |
| 2005 | Brokeback Mountain | Jack Twist |
| Jarhead | Anthony Swofford | |
| Proof | Harold Dobbs | |
| 2007 | Zodiac | Robert Graysmith |
| Rendition | Douglas Freeman | |
| 2009 | Brothers | Tommy Cahill |
| 2010 | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time | Dastan |
| Nailed | Howard Birdwell | |
| Love and Other Drugs | Jamie Randall | |
| 2011 | Source Code | Colter |
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