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Chicago born and still a current resident, John Paul Cusack arrived on June 28, 1966 to parents Richard John Cusack, a war veteran turned advertising writer turned emmy winning actor, and Nancy, a math teacher. John was their fourth child after Ann ('61), Joan ('62), and Bill ('64). Susie would join them five years later. | While just in elementary school, John followed in his siblings' footsteps and became a member of Chicao's Piven Theatre Workshop. BY age 12, he's already participated in several stage productions, commercial voiceovers, and industry films. His feature film debut came in 1983, at just 17, playing "Roscoe Maibaum" alongside brat-packers Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in the romantic comedy Class.
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It was John's next role in 1984 as Bryce, a member of Anthony Michael Hall's panty-collecting nerd brigade in Sixteen Candles, that put him on the track to becoming an 80's teen flick staple. Recognized by his peers and co-workers as both highly talented and intelligent, Cusack easily side-stepped the meteoric roller-coaster pattern of his fellow co-stars, like Hall and Lowe, and kept busy with leads in films like The Sure Thing and Better Off Dead. However, when he took the part of Lloyd Dobler in 1989's Say Anything, critics were suddenly recognizing John as havin super-star staying power. It was easy for him to then transition himself into more adult roles.
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The next few years were relatively quiet for John, but he used the time off for more personal projects. Modelled after Tim Robbins' Actor's Gang in Los Angeles, John founded The New Criminals in Chicago, and directed and produced several shows to promote political and avant-garde stage work. In 1992, high school friend Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting a sister company for film production, New Crime Productions. He eventually returned to the screen too, in films like Bob Roberts, City Hall, and Woody Allen's hugely successful Bullets Over Broadway-- all leading up to New Crime's first feature, the 1997 dark comedy, Grosse Pointe Blank. In adittion to co-writing the script, John starred as a hitman with a gaining conscience who goes home for his ten-year high school reunion and tried to rekindle a romance with the girl he stood up on prom night, played by Minnie Driver. Ironically, it wasn't too long after that he really did go home for a reunion (to honor a bet about Blank's financing) and ended up in a real life romance with Driver, besides. John would go on to quite a few more Hollywood romances (Never Campbell, Allison Eastwood, Clair Forlani), though he is notoriously private about his personal affairs. Most recently, he has been linked to Jennifer Love Hewitt and Meg Ryan. | John's next appearance in the 1997 action flick Con Air was a self-proclaimed "smart business decision." He followed that up with Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in which he co-starred with Kevin Spacey. Of course, John has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise he turned up in the utterly original Being John Malkovich in 1999, a performance that won him a best actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack returned to New Crime and to his clean-shaven self as the music-obsessed Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. He worked once again with Pink and DeVincentis to adapt Nick Hornby's novel (relocating the story from England to their native Chicago) and garnered several awards for not only their writing, but also for JOhn and co-star Jack Black's performances.
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Throughout his career, in addition to an admirable loyalty to his hometown (he won a "Commitment to Chicago" Award in 2000 from the Chicago Film Critics), John has sustained a tremendous loyalty to his family. Sister Joan has appeared in 9 films with her little brother- all the way back to Sixteen Candles- and Ann, Bill, and Susie have participated in various projects also; all five Cusack siblings had roles in Grosse Pointe Blank. Lifelong best friend Jeremy Piven has co-starred with John ten time, often playing his best friend, of course. John has also cherished a few opportunities to work with his father, who passed away in 2003. | John's most recent project is the Harold Ramis helmed dark comedy, Ice Harvest, which reteams him with Pushing Tin costar, Billy Bob Thornton. He salso shot The Martian Child in the Fall of 2004 (release TBD), and he will join Morgan Freeman in The Contract, sletd for release in 2006. |
