A gregarious actor with a smile that lights up the screen, Cuba Gooding Jr experienced the highs and lows of show business growing up as the son of his famous singer father. As he explained to the LOS ANGELES TIMES (January 5, 1997): “We lived in a big house and had chauffeurs, we’d go backstage at the concerts and then in the fifth grade . . . bang! Rock bottom.” When his parents divorced, he moved with his mother, brother and sister out of the limelight and began facing financial hardships, which included stretches of being evicted and living in a car, as well as time on the welfare rolls. While the family was staying in a cheap motel in suburban Orange County, Gooding befriended future personal assistant Shawn Suttles and production company partner Derek Broes, and the three perfected their breakdancing moves, christening themselves the Majestic Vision Breakdancers. Their routine was “phat” enough to get them into the breakdancing extravaganza that was part of the closing ceremonies at the 1984 Olympic Games, and the gig landed Gooding an agent, opening the door a crack to the world he had known as a child.
Gooding landed his first professional role as a thug in an episode of NBC’s “Hill Street Blues”, then stole some hubcaps when guesting on “Jake and the Fatman” (CBS). Other series appearances (i.e., “The Bronx Zoo″ and “Amen”, both NBC) and commercials followed before he made his feature acting debut as Boy Getting Haircut in “Coming to America” (1988). His breakthrough came with a starring role in John Singleton’s celebrated directorial debut, “Boyz N the Hood” (1991). Playing the troubled Tre Styles, who finds the strength to rise above the self-destructive violence of the ghetto, Gooding sensitively conveyed the pressures and contradictions attendant upon young black men growing up in South Central Los Angeles. He was on top of the world, a media darling, and then the offers started to come in. As he told Entertainment Weekly in February 1997: “The scripts I got were Boyz N the Hood 2, 3, Boyz N the Hood Goes to Heaven, Boyz N the Hood Goes to the Laundromat, Boyz at the Supermarket. ‘Can I help ya? Yes’m. I’ll take two loafs of bread, cuz.’ I wasn’t into it.” After landing in the high-powered supporting cast of the blockbuster court-martial drama “A Few Good Men” (1992), Gooding stumbled as the star of that year’s “Rocky″ wannabe “Gladiator″ (1992) and as the mute sidekick of Paul Hogan in “Lightning Jack” (1994, in a role that purportedly was intended for a dog). Having managed to stand out in “Judgment Night” (1993) as part of the youthful ensemble forced to battle for their lives after witnessing a crime in Chicago’s inner-city, he kept his career on life-support with small roles in “Losing Isaiah″ and “Outbreak” (1995) as well as one of the titular “The Tuskegee Airmen” (HBO, 1995). When Damon Wayans left the producers of “Jerry Maguire” (1996) scrambling for a last-minute replacement for the role of Rod Tidwell, Gooding stepped into the breach and delivered what Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly called a “ferocious star-making performance.” As the strutting but ultimately principled pro-football player, he provided a highly sympathetic, multi-faceted portrayal of an egomaniacal but insecure athlete. The part earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and cries of “Show me the money!” his catchphrase to the titular agent played by Tom Cruise, greeted him wherever he went.
Gooding had finally delivered on the promise of “Boyz”, and though good supporting roles as Greg Kinnear’s gay buddy in “As Good As It Gets” (1997) and as Robin Williams’ tour guide in “What Dreams May Come” (1998) followed, it was sobering to learn that Columbia, which had released “Boyz”, “Jerry Maguire” and “As Good As it Gets”, still considered Martin Lawrence more bankable when it came to casting “Blue Streak” (1999). To raise his profile farther, he appeared in a series of Pepsi One commercials showcasing his high energy and neon-bright smile. Some critics faulted him for doing them, but the pesky ads certainly increased his exposure, helping with that all-important name recognition that powers Hollywood clout. In his first leading role since his Oscar win, Gooding broke out of the rut of outgoing, flamboyant characters with a much more cerebral turn as an ambitious psychiatrist trying to draw out Anthony Hopkins’ psychotic killer (equal parts Hannibal Lecter and Lear). Thrilled by the color-blind casting, he earned positive reviews, though the thriller itself left little else to recommend it. That year he also portrayed a small-town guy trying to prevent a chemical weapon from detonating in “Chill Factor″ and took his first crack at producing with “A Murder of Crows”, an independent feature broadcast on Cinemax. A further sign of his growing clout came when he was cast opposite Robert De Niro in “Men of Honor″ (2000), the biopic of the US Navy’s first black salvage-and-retrieval expert.
