Jamie Foxx picked a gender-neutral stage name to get called up sooner
At open-mic nights in 1989, Eric Bishop noticed that women comics were often summoned to the stage first. So he chose a name that gave nothing away, borrowing the surname from Redd Foxx. Fifteen years later that invented name was being read out at the Oscars, twice in one year.
Born on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas, near Dallas, he was adopted as a baby by his great-aunt and great-uncle, a domestic worker and a yard worker who had also adopted his mother. Terrell was segregated then, and he grew up in its Black quarter with little contact with his birth parents, crediting his grandmother above anyone for his success. Piano lessons began at five, and as a teenager he played and led the choir at a Baptist church.
He was a gifted athlete too. As quarterback at Terrell High School he became the first in its history to throw for over 1,000 yards, and he dreamed of the Dallas Cowboys. Instead a scholarship took him to United States International University to study classical piano and composition. A third-grade teacher had already spotted the comedian in him, using his jokes as a reward for good class behaviour.
Stand-up led to In Living Color from 1991, then his own WB sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show, which he co-created. A debut album in 1994 sold poorly. His football past helped land his first dramatic part, as a quarterback in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. Then came 2004: playing a cab driver opposite Tom Cruise in Collateral earned a supporting nomination, while his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray won best actor. Only Barry Fitzgerald and Al Pacino had previously been nominated for two different films in one year.
Music ran alongside. His hooks on Twista's Slow Jamz and Kanye West's Gold Digger both reached No. 1, the latter holding the top spot for 10 weeks. His album Unpredictable climbed to the summit in its second week, making him only the fourth Oscar-winning actor with a chart-topping US album, after Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Barbra Streisand. Blame It later brought him a Grammy.
Source: Jamie Foxx
