Don Cheadle

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Birthday:

29 November 1964, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Birth Name:

Donald Frank Cheadle

Height:

174 cm

Donald Frank Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri on November 29, 1964. His childhood found him moving from city to city with his family: mother Bettye (North), a teacher, father Donald Frank Cheadle, Sr., a clinical psychologist, sister Dawn, and brother Colin. After graduating high school in Denver, Colorado, Cheadle attended and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a Bachelor¹s Degree in Fine Arts. Encouraged by his college friends, he attended a variety of auditions and landed a recurring role on the hit series Fame (1982), which led to feature film roles in Dennis Hopper's Colors (1988) and John Irvin's Hamburger Hill (1987).Early in his career, Cheadle was named Best Supporting Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics for his breakout performance opposite Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). His subsequent film credits include: Traitor (2008), an international thriller which he produced, starring opposite Guy Pearce; Kasi Lemmons's Talk to Me (2007), with Chiwetel Ejiofor; the 2006 Oscar-winning Best Picture, Crash (2004), which Cheadle also produced; Hotel Rwanda (2004), for which his performance garnered Oscar, Golden Globe, Broadcast Film Critics and Screen Actors Guild award nominations for Best Actor; Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney; Mike Binder's Reign Over Me (2007) with Adam Sandler; the Academy Award-winning Traffic (2000) and Out of Sight (1998), with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, both films also directed by Soderbergh; Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed Boogie Nights (1997) with Julianne Moore and Mark Wahlberg; Bulworth (1998), directed by and starring Warren Beatty; Swordfish (2001), with John Travolta and Halle Berry; Mission to Mars (2000) with Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise; John Singleton's Rosewood (1997), for which Cheadle earned an NAACP Image Award nomination; Brett Ratner's The Family Man (2000), starring Nicolas Cage; and the independent features Manic (2001) and Things Behind the Sun (2001).Cheadle was honored by the CineVegas Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival and received ShoWest's Male Star of the Year award. He is also well-recognized for his television work, including his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in HBO's The Rat Pack (1998), for which he received a Golden Globe Award and a Best Supporting Actor Emmy nomination. That same year, he also received an Emmy nomination for his starring role in HBO's adaptation of the best-selling novel A Lesson Before Dying (1999), opposite Cicely Tyson and Mekhi Phifer.He also starred for HBO in Eriq La Salle's Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996). Cheadle's TV series credits include his two-year stint in David E. Kelley's acclaimed series Picket Fences (1992), a guest-starring role on ER (1994) (earning yet another Emmy nomination) and a regular role on The Golden Palace (1992) He also starred in the live television broadcast of Fail Safe (2000) opposite George Clooney, James Cromwell, Brian Dennehy, Richard Dreyfuss and Harvey Keitel. He also co-executive produced the TV version of Crash (2008).His most recent big screen appearances have been in Antoine Fuqua's ensemble crime thriller Brooklyn's Finest (2009) and Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 (2010), another mainstream breakthrough where he played Lt. Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, replacing Terrence Howard from the first film. The Guard (2011), an art-house hit directed by John Michael McDonagh and co-starring Brendan Gleeson, followed.Cheadle stars in House of Lies (2012) on Showtime. Late in 2012, he was seen in Flight (2012), Robert Zemeckis's return to live-action filmmaking. In 2013, he reprised his role as Rhodey in Iron Man Three (2013). Among his projects in development is a movie based on the life of jazz legend Miles Davis.A talented musician who plays saxophone, writes music and sings, he is also an accomplished stage actor and director and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Spoken Word Album for his narration/dramatization of the Walter Mosley novel "Fear Itself".Other notable off-stage achievements include the 2007 BET Humanitarian Award for the cause of the people of Darfur and Rwanda, and sharing the Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome with George Clooney for their work in Darfur. Show less «

But I don't think it helps to be thought of as a scene-stealer. That's not comforting for the other actors. They think, 'Well, I don't want ...Show more »

But I don't think it helps to be thought of as a scene-stealer. That's not comforting for the other actors. They think, 'Well, I don't want to work with him. Go steal from someone else.' So I'm never going into a movie thinking that I want to grab the attention. Quite the opposite: I give that stuff away, because I'm wanting to make the best whole piece. I want to look back at my resume and think, 'That was a great movie,' not, 'Oh, those four movies were shit, but I was good in them.' I want to be a part of great things. Show less «

I've been doing this since I was 10 years old, inhabiting different people and playing different roles. Thirty years later, there's still th...Show more »

I've been doing this since I was 10 years old, inhabiting different people and playing different roles. Thirty years later, there's still the same sort of excitement I get from it. It's still fun to inhabit different characters and play different things, so it's all in that panoply of acting. Show less «

I also believe that you are what you have to defend, and if you're a black man that's always going to be the bar against which you are judge...Show more »

I also believe that you are what you have to defend, and if you're a black man that's always going to be the bar against which you are judged, whether you want to align yourself with those themes or not. You can think of yourself as a colourless person, but nobody else is gonna. Show less «

In fifth grade I was Templeton the Rat in a production of 'Charlotte's Web'. I remember I had a friend who worked in a doughnut shop. I'd go...Show more »

In fifth grade I was Templeton the Rat in a production of 'Charlotte's Web'. I remember I had a friend who worked in a doughnut shop. I'd go in, get a doughnut and sit there with my script, going over the lines and making notes in the margin. I was serious! Show less «

(2008 quote) I'm very critical of myself. I've yet to see a great performance from this kid. No, it's not comfortable; I hate watching mysel...Show more »

(2008 quote) I'm very critical of myself. I've yet to see a great performance from this kid. No, it's not comfortable; I hate watching myself. You don't like when you hear your voice on your voicemail; imagine having to see yourself 30 feet wide and 30 feet big. Show less «

[on shooting the movie, The Guard (2011), in Connemara, Ireland] It's like Mars. It's another place. It's vast, it's stark, there's stone wa...Show more »

[on shooting the movie, The Guard (2011), in Connemara, Ireland] It's like Mars. It's another place. It's vast, it's stark, there's stone walls. People kind of said "well this is my property line". Why? "Well, cause I put a wall there". Show less «

[when asked by someone if they should be an actor], I'd say don't do it if you could anything else do that and if you can be dissuaded by me...Show more »

[when asked by someone if they should be an actor], I'd say don't do it if you could anything else do that and if you can be dissuaded by me saying that you shouldn't be doing this anyway, if you want to really go after it your chances of making it are very very poor if you're a white male between the ages of twenty to forty you got the best shot and after that it falls off the shelf that being said obviously it can be done and many people have done it and you don't have to be good unfortunately and we see that too but you have to be tenacious and have a never say die attitude and with all the technology that's out now you can make a movie for two grand you can put yourself out there and package yourself in the best light you see Show less «