Nicolas Cage Biography

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Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze in Columbia Pictures' Ghost Rider - 2007

Birth Date: January 7, 1964

Birth Place: Long Beach, California, USA

Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage is a versatile actor known for his work in drama, action and comedy. His indelible performance as an alcoholic screenwriter drinking himself to death in director Mike Figgis' “Leaving Las Vegas” earned him his first Academy Award. He also received a Golden Globe and Best Actor awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Chicago Film Critics and the National Board of Review for his performance.

Cage further solidified his leading man status when he received Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA nominations in 2002 for his dual role as twin brothers Charlie and Donald Kaufman in Spike Jonze's quirky comedy “Adaptation,” co-starring Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper.

Most recently, Cage starred in the boxoffice action adventure hit “National Treasure” directed by Jon Turteltaub and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. National Treasure took $4.2m for more than $135m and has passed $300m in global ticket sales, making it producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s seventh picture to do so and his fifth released through BVI to pass the milestone.

In the cliffhanger thriller NATIONAL TREASURE, Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, a new breed of treasure-hunter who discovers that a map to the most priceless bounty known to mankind lies on the back of the Declaration of Independence. To protect the country's most sacred document and uncover the extraordinary treasure to which it leads, Ben must confront a series of provocative puzzles, savvy secret codes and hidden messages from America's past.

NATIONAL TREASURE also presented Voight with his first opportunity to work with Nicolas Cage. “We had a lot of fun working together and discovering a real chemistry that made us a pretty good pairing for father and son,” says Voight.

Adds Nicolas Cage: “Jon and I wanted to create one of those relationships where, over time, the son starts to becomes more like the father and the father more like the son, and this was something that felt very natural with us.”

In 2003, Cage starred in “Matchstick Men,” directed by Ridley Scott and co-starring Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and later screened at the Toronto Film Festival. He recently completed production on “Lord of War,” a drama/thriller co-produced by Saturn Films, Cage's production company. Cage is the right actor to hang a movie like this on, adept as he is at playing someone who is morally compromised and/or self-destructive (Wild At Heart, Leaving Las Vegas) without the venality of his sins washing away his innate likeability. Yuri Orlov, however much an amalgamation of various real-life figures he may be, is nevertheless a fascinating character.

At the end of 2002, Cage released his feature film directorial debut “Sonny.” Cage cast an impressive group of actors including Golden Globe winner James Franco, Mena Suvari, Brenda Blethyn and Harry Dean Stanton. The film was accepted into the 2002 Deauville Film Festival.

Cage's other starring roles have included “Windtalkers,” “Captain Correlli's Mandolin,” “The Family Man,” “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “Bringing out the Dead.” His list of credits continues with “Eight Millimeter,” “Snake Eyes,” “City of Angels” and “Face/Off,” which earned him the Blockbuster Entertainment award for Favorite Actor in an Action/Adventure movie as well as three MTV Movie Award nominations for Best Male Performance, Best On-Screen Duo (with John Travolta) and Best Villain. Other notable roles have included “Con-Air,” “The Rock,” “Guarding Tess,” “Red Rock West,” “It Could Happen to You,” “Kiss of Death,” “Valley Girl,” “The Cotton Club,” “Racing with the Moon,” “The Boy in Blue,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Raising Arizona,” “Vampire's Kiss” and “Fire Birds.”

It was Cage's portrayal of a tormented Vietnam vet in “Birdy” that first established him as a serious actor. Directed by Alan Parker, “Birdy” won the jury prize at Cannes. Cage then received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor for his role as Cher's lover in “Moonstruck.” He also starred in David Lynch's “Wild at Heart,” with Laura Dern, which won the Palm d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.

Some of Cage's other honors include a Golden Globe nomination for his role in “Honeymoon in Vegas,” opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and James Caan; the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Montreal World Film Festival; as well as receiving the first ever Distinguished Decade in Film Award at ShoWest.

Cage was raised in Long Beach, California, and lived there until he was 12 when his family moved to San Francisco. Cage began acting at fifteen, enrolling in San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre and appearing in the school's production of “Golden Boy.” He later moved to Los Angeles, and while still a high school student landed a role in the television film “The Best of Times.” He made his feature film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's “Rumble Fish.”

Nicolas Cage Filmography

Actor Credits

Stolen (2012) Will Montgomery

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011) Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider

Trespass (2011) Kyle Miller

Seeking Justice (2011) Will Gerard

Drive Angry (2011) Milton

Season of the Witch (2011) Behmen von Bleibruck

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) Balthazar

Kick-Ass (2010) Damon Macready / Big Daddy

Knowing (2009) John Koestler

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) Cris Johnson