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John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American film actor, born in Evanston, Illinois to an Irish-Catholic family. His father Dick Cusack, as well as his siblings Ann, Bill, Joan, and Susie have also been actors. His mother, Nancy, is a former teacher and political activist.
Cusack began acting in childhood. He attended the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago and he did many voice-overs for commercials and appeared in some stage productions by the age of 12. His first film was the comedy Class in 1983. Later, he was given the role of John Bender in John Hughes' film The Breakfast Club but was replaced by Judd Nelson. In 1988, he founded a theatre group ("The New Criminals"), for which he has directed several productions.
After success at an early age as the star of several teen-oriented films, Cusack has generally sought roles which cast him as an ethically conflicted everyman. He is often cast as an anti-hero who can be very neurotic, but has played a wide variety of characters. He frequently appears in films with members of his family (particularly his older sister, Joan) and with long-time best friend Jeremy Piven, whose parents, Byrne and Joyce Piven, founded and continue to run the Piven Theatre Workshop.
After playing mostly character roles for a number of years, Cusack became an A-list star in 1997 with the widely acclaimed black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (which he also co-wrote and produced) and the action movie Con Air, both of which were very commercially successful. He continues to choose roles in movies outside the mainstream, however, such as Being John Malkovich and High Fidelity, which is largely considered to be a definitive role for the actor, as a troubled record store owner with too many relationship hangups. Among some of the films he has turned down include Indecent Proposal, Crash (2004 film) and Apollo 13. He auditioned for The Breakfast Club and Willow early on in his career.
Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, reasoning that he had "too much fire in [his] belly."
Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
He is not married, but has been romantically linked to a number of women. Cusack is fiercely protective of his private life and rarely makes public appearances between his films or events. He has said that "celebrity is the worst thing that can happen to an actor."
Filmography
American Dog (2008)
The Contract (2005) **filming
The Martian Child (2005) **post-production
The Ice Harvest (2005) as Charlie Arglist
Must Love Dogs (2005) as Jake
Runaway Jury (2003) as Nicholas Easter
Identity (2003) as Ed
Max (2002) as Max Rothman
Serendipity (2001) as Jonathan Trager
America's Sweethearts (2001) as actor Eddie Thomas
High Fidelity (2000) as record store owner Rob Gordon
Cradle Will Rock (1999) as Nelson Rockefeller
Being John Malkovich (1999) as Craig Schwartz
Pushing Tin (1999) as Nick Falzone
The Jack Bull (1999) as Myrl Redding
The Thin Red Line (1998) as Captain John Gaff
Anastasia (1997)(voice) Dimitri
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) as reporter John Kelso
Con Air (1997) as U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) as hitman Martin Q. Blank
City Hall (1996) as Deputy Mayor Kevin Calhoun
The Road To Wellville (1994) as Charles Ossining
Bullets Over Broadway (1994) as David Shayne
Money For Nothing (1993) as Joey Coyle
Map of the Human Heart (1993) as The Mapmaker
Bob Roberts (1992) as Cutting Edge Host
Shadows and Fog (1992) as Student Jack
True Colors (1991) as Peter Burton
The Grifters (1990) as Roy Dillon
Say Anything... (1989) as Lloyd Dobler
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) as Michael Merriman
Tapeheads (1988) as Ivan Alexeev
Eight Men Out (1988) as baseball player Buck Weaver
Hot Pursuit (1987) as Dan Bartlett
Stand By Me (1986) as Denny Lachance
One Crazy Summer (1986) as Hoops McCann
Better Off Dead... (1985) as Lane Meyer
The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
The Sure Thing (1985) as college student Walter "Gib" Gibson
Sixteen Candles (1984) as Bryce
Grandview, U.S.A. (1984) as Johnny Maine
Class (1983) as Roscoe Maibaum
