James Woods
James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for fast-talking intense roles on stage and screen. He received numerous accolades including three Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway before making his Broadway debut in The Penny Wars (1969), followed by Borstal Boy (1970), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1971), and Moonchildren (1972).[4] Woods' early film roles include in The Visitors (1972), The Way We Were (1973) and Night Moves (1975). He starred in the NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978) opposite Meryl Streep.
For other people named James Woods, see James Woods (disambiguation).
James Woods
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (left shortly before graduation to pursue acting[1])
- Actor
1969–present
He rose to prominence portraying Gregory Powell in The Onion Field (1979). He earned two Academy Awards nominations: one for Best Actor for his role as journalist Richard Boyle in Salvador (1986) and for Best Supporting Actor for playing white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). Notable film roles include in Videodrome (1983), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Hard Way (1991), Chaplin (1992), Nixon (1995), Casino (1995), Contact (1997), Vampires (1998), Another Day in Paradise (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999), and The Virgin Suicides (1999). He served as an executive producer on the Christopher Nolan biographical drama film Oppenheimer (2023).
For his television roles, he is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for portraying as D.J. in the CBS movie Promise (1987) and Bill W. in the ABC film My Name Is Bill W. (1989). He has also played Roy Cohn in Citizen Cohn (1992) and Dick Fuld in Too Big to Fail (2011).[5] He starred in the CBS legal series Shark (2006-2008), and had a recurring role in the Showtime crime series Ray Donovan (2013). He has voiced roles for Hercules (1997), Recess: School's Out (2001), Stuart Little 2 (2002), and Surf's Up (2007), as well as voicing himself several times on both The Simpsons and Family Guy (2005–present).
Early life and education[edit]
Woods was born on April 18, 1947, in Vernal, Utah,[6] and had a brother ten years younger.[7] His father, Gail Peyton Woods, was a United States Army intelligence officer who died in 1960[8] after routine surgery. His mother, Martha A. (née Smith), ran a pre-school after her husband's death[9] and later married Thomas E. Dixon.[10] Woods grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he attended Pilgrim High School, from which he graduated in 1965. He is of part Irish descent and was raised Catholic, briefly serving as an altar boy.[11][12]
Woods was an undergraduate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] He stated on Inside the Actors Studio that he originally intended to become an eye surgeon. He pledged the Theta Delta Chi fraternity and was a member of the student theatre group Dramashop, acting in and directing a number of plays. He dropped out of MIT in 1969, one semester before graduating, to pursue an acting career.[13]
Woods has said that he owes his acting career to Tim Affleck, father of actors Ben and Casey Affleck, who was a stage manager at the Theatre Company of Boston, which Woods attended as a student.[14]
Career[edit]
1969–1976: Broadway debut and early work[edit]
Woods appeared in 36 plays before making his Broadway debut in the 1969 play The Penny Wars.[15] The following year he acted in the first American production of Frank McMahon’s adaptation of Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy (1970) at the Lyceum Theatre. He got the part by pretending he was British. He returned to Broadway the following year to portray David Darst in Daniel Berrigan's The Trial of the Catonsville Nine also at the Lyceum Theatre.[16] In 1971, he played Bob Rettie in the American premiere of Michael Weller's Moonchildren at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The following year the production moved to Broadway at the Royale Theatre where Woods starred alongside Edward Herrmann, and Christopher Guest.[17] In 1972, Woods won a Theatre World Award for his performance. He returned to Broadway in 1973 to portray Steven Cooper in the original production of Jean Kerr's Finishing Touches at the Plymouth Theatre.[18]
Woods has garnered a reputation as a prominent Hollywood character actor, having appeared in over 130 films and television series. By the early 1970s, he was getting small movie roles including his feature film debut in Elia Kazan's The Visitors which debuted at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.[19] That same year he acted in the neo-noir crime film Hickey & Boggs (1972) starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby.[20] The following year he had a supporting turn as Barbra Streisand's college boyfriend before she meets Robert Redford in the Sydney Pollack directed romance drama The Way We Were (1973).[21] He continued to act in films such as the crime drama The Gambler (1974) starring James Caan, the neo-noir Night Moves with Gene Hackman and the comedy Alex & the Gypsy (1976) with Jack Lemmon. He acted in the Robert Aldrich directed comedy-drama The Choirboys (1977) alongside Charles Durning, Louis Gossett Jr., Randy Quaid and Burt Young.[22]
1978–1989: Breakthrough and acclaim[edit]
Woods rose to prominence playing the husband of Meryl Streep in the critically acclaimed four episode miniseries Holocaust (1978) which aired on NBC. The series focuses on the story of a Jewish family's struggle to survive Nazi Germany's campaign of genocide against the Jewish people. The series also starred Michael Moriarty and Rosemary Harris. Holocaust won the Outstanding Limited Series as well as seven other Primetime Emmy Awards.[23] The following year Woods took a leading role starring in The Onion Field (1979) playing murderer Gregory Powell. Critic Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune praised Woods' performance writing, "At the center of The Onion Field is a bunch of superior performances. James Woods (the persecuted artist in. "The Holocaust") is a standout as Greg Powell, the ringleader of the crooks, a horrible creature with a scarred face and a quicksilver personality that ranges from murderous to fatherly to murderous in a matter of seconds." He also opined that "Woods deserves an Academy Award nomination for this role."[24] Woods received nominations for Best Actor from the Golden Globe Awards, the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York Film Critics Circle Association, but notably not from the Academy Awards.[25]
Personal life[edit]
Marriage and relationships[edit]
In 1980, Woods married costume designer Kathryn Morrison-Pahoa. They divorced in 1983.[71] In 1989, he married 26-year-old equestrian and boutique owner Sarah Owen, but they divorced four months later.[72] In 1992, Woods dated Heather Graham, his co-star in the film Diggstown.[73]
Woods was raised as Roman Catholic and considers himself a practicing follower of the religion.[74]
On December 14, 2015, while he was driving alone westbound through an ice storm on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, a speeding driver lost control and crashed into five other cars. Woods swerved his Jeep Grand Cherokee to avoid the accident and collided with a retaining wall, but slid backwards into a guard rail 100 feet (30 meters) above the Colorado River. He suffered a minor concussion.[75][76]
For his work in film, Woods has received two Academy Award nominations for his performances in Oliver Stone's Salvador (1987), and Rob Reiner's Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). Woods has also received many award nominations for his performances in television such as Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for his performance in the made-for-television film Promise (1986), and won his second Primetime Emmy Award for his performance in My Name is Bill W. (1989). He also received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and three Independent Spirit Award nominations winning for Salvador.