Actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. was born in the Bronx, New York on January 2, 1968. He is the son of a pair of musicians, both singers. He has two brothers, one of whom is a musician like his parents and the other an actor like his brother.

Though birthed in the Bronx Gooding’s family moved to Los Angeles in 1972 after the elder Gooding’s music group found a hit in “Everybody Plays the Fool”. Unfortunately Cuba Gooding, Sr. abandoned the family two years after this success. Gooding was raised as a born-again Christian soon after his father’s departure.

Gooding and his family lived in a succession of hotels in Los Angeels after his father left. Gooding attended no less than four high schools, managing to serve as class president in three of them. After his time in high school Gooding spent three years focusing on martial arts, studying hard before turning his eye to entertainment.

Gooding landed his first professional entertaining job in 1981 when he managed to guest star in the television show Hill Street Blues. In 1984 he served as a breakdancer under the banner of Lionel Richie during the closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and a year after that Gooding had another guest shot on the television show MacGuyver.

His first major role, however, came in 1991, when Gooding was cast in the hit movie Boyz n the Hood. It proved popular enough that a spotlight was placed over Gooding’s head and he subsequently found several more roles in major films such as Gladiator, A Few Good Men, Daybreak and Judgment Night.

While starring in pictures in this early period of his career Gooding married girlfriend Sara Kapfer, in 1994. The two had known each other for several years prior to their marriage. They have three children together to date, two sons and a daughter.

Gooding came into his own in 1996, however, when he was cast to co-star in the Cameron Crowe movie Jerry Maquire alongside Tom Cruise. The movie was incredibly successful, earning Gooding two things: an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and his own catchphrase that continues to endure, “Show me the money!”.

Gooding has had some unfortunate luck with comedies, however, appearing in several critical failures that are billed as a bit more lighthearted than most of his films. A few examples are Snow Dogs, Boat Trip and Norbit.

Regardless of that, however, Gooding continues to make top-flight movies to this day. Some of his more popular movies include American Gangster, End Game, Shadowboxer, Radio and Pearl Harbor. He has two films awaiting release at current – Harold and Linewatch – and two in post-production in the form of The Way of War and an as-of-yet untitled movie.